in afghanistan in the 6th century AD
Buddhist in Afghanistan created Jesus
statues favorite’ stood more than one
can imagine but then the Taliban arrived
and they ruined this beautiful statue in
the March of 2001 so that’s definitely a
terrifying incident that happened to
Afghanistan and that wasn’t just
everything people all over the world has
known Afghanistan as a country that is
dealing with war it’s a war-torn country
but today I’m here to show the rest of
the world that Afghanistan is not about
war there’s also the other story of
Afghanistan let me tell you about the
girls in Afghanistan that are coding for
future to change their lives I was born
so my family left Afghanistan during the
early 80s to Iran because of the Soviet
invasion I was born in a family of eight
kids and I was born in a very small town
near Iran and Afghanistan border I was
the fifth one so you can imagine there
were a lot of fun to be in a family with
eight kids but living life as a refugee
in a place that people treat you as an
unwanted guest is not a pleasant
experience even if you want to access
the very basic right of a human being
what through out of my life I learned
usually what people
by refugees when you say I’m a refugee I
think a lot of people first think
refugees they come to our country to
take our drug from us to take the
opportunity from me so that’s not a good
thing
they are burdens on the communities but
let me tell you what it means to be a
refugee from an actual refugee who lived
her 16 years of her life living in Iran
refugee means for me to make everything
happen and use every possibility with
empty hands my mom is my inspiration
when they move to off to Iran she’ll
learn how to make dresses which by
selling that dresses she could buy us
seclude supplies for the school and we
could go to school so she taught me how
to be an entrepreneur and use the best
out of the list that’s what I learn I
also learned the value of adaptation and
how I can survive in a community which I
don’t have a lot of opportunities so
women in Afghanistan I know when you say
about Afghanistan and women it’s very
dark image in everyone’s mind and I’m
sure a lot of you when I say women
Afghanistan are just freaking out but
wait
so still women it’s a very challenging
to be a woman from Afghanistan women in
Afghanistan are still fighting for their
rights the very basic rights that many
women in Western cultures wooden and
shouldn’t even think about it laughing
out loud speaking openly about your
thoughts grabbing coffee with friends so
think about all of this but still though
there are a lot of things that made me
to be happy to be a woman from
Afghanistan
and what I have learned through this
situations and opportunities so I’ve
learned to appreciate opportunities in a
very small one I learned to never give
up even though in the very most
difficult of the situations the patience
so during my life journey as a student
in Afghanistan getting a Bachelor in
computer science and then a master in
computer science I faced many options
and then with this up as ups and downs I
really wanted to improve the status
co-op education for women in Afghanistan
I’m especially technology so most of the
time when a student especially a female
students graduate from computer science
she couldn’t find a job and that’s sad
and unfortunately for many factors for
that family and social expectations of
women start career opportunities for
them majority of the families prefer
that they daughter become a teacher why
it’s a well-respected job in the
community you get paid you only deal
with women but then as a female who
graduated from computer science and you
want to pursue what you love if you want
to leave your hometown to other cities
forget about it your family won’t let
you to do that because first of all
safety and security is one concern there
might be a threat of the Taliban on the
way and then you don’t want to risk your
life if you want to get a clean ticket
it might be expensive for a lot of
family so you can afford that and then
if you want to also go maybe some of the
families prefer you have a male
companion with yourself as as well so
that’s mix you’re stuck in your home
town and not being able to travel and
explore opportunities and it’s not part
of our culture to go and live with other
cities by ourselves as a girl or as a
woman forget about that as well as a
female entrepreneur in technology I’ve
also experienced many difficult
situations when we are reaching out to
male customers so you go through them
you tell them hey I can design a website
for you or I can develop a software or
application that can help your business
the men they look at you and they’ll
like hmm we don’t think women can do
that well that’s a huge issue
so definitely facing all that issues of
a lack of a safe secure learning
environment which we re called society
travel limitations and all these issues
make it very difficult for women to
pursue the carrier and also definitely
variable in sexual harassment that women
are facing in a learning environment or
in in the community so definitely decade
a war and internal conflicts in
Afghanistan didn’t make a good thing for
Afghanistan so in 2002 when the Fatah
Lebon fall Afghanistan inherited a very
defunct and disabled education system
during the Taliban regime there were
only less than 1 million students being
at school which out of that zero percent
of them we’re women
and zero percent of them were women in
the workforce so thinking about all that
bad numbers and what happened to
Afghanistan so the reason that made me
to establish code to inspire as the very
first coding school for girls in
Afghanistan to be socially independent
is that
there are different good numbers to
Afghanistan is not that bad we do have a
lot of good progress and good numbers
which dad actually made me that on
November made the coding skull in her
odd and have eighty female students at
the moment in our coding skills that
they are learning different programming
languages web development mobile
application development so what are that
good numbers that I want to tell you
nearly seven million children are going
to school in Afghanistan with 37 percent
which is 2.5 million of them girls there
are 30 percent of female teachers in
Afghanistan as of 2014
ninety percent of residential areas in
Afghanistan have access to the
communication to date there are 23 point
21 million mobile users in Afghanistan
about 3 million of Afghanistan
population which is 10% the access to
Internet women’s participation in labor
and workforce increased steadily in a
lot and right now we have about 19
percents of participation as of 2016 and
the very interesting point twenty seven
point seven percent of the Parliament
seats belong to women and for reference
women only make twenty percent of the US
Senate so now I would like to show you a
little bit of a video oh that’s hear
this is the building
why Shou and now
thank you so what is our mission what’s
the mission to establish the first
coding school for girls in Afghanistan
equality using education and technology
to support women that they can fight for
your social political and also economic
equality empowerment to build skills
that they can compete in the global tech
market in to achieve to be financially
and socially independent change as a
role model for other young women in
Afghanistan that there are that they can
prove women are capable of achieving and
bringing values to the communities
beyond simple work house so I want to
ask is wishing for a world that treat
all human beings equally is a big of an
ask I’m not sure but as a refugee I
learned that I can be a global citizen
of the world so I left Afghanistan I
came to the United States as a refugee
and I faced a lot of threats in my
community but in that process I learned
how to be a global citizen the global
citizen to me means that human beings
working alongside each other without any
constraints of labels or tags to work
for an empowering inclusive community
and that’s why I also picked coding
because coding is a language like any
other language that people communicate
with each other and I love creativity
and solving a lot of puzzles so that
actually made me to be a critical
thinker
knowledge is a power technology is a
tool for this empowerment and that’s
what made me to be a citizen of the
world without considering any
geographical boundaries
I found code to inspire as a first
coding school for girls in Afghanistan
literally sitting at a laptop in
Brooklyn everything that has developed
in Afghanistan was doing by being online
fundraising shaping equipments
recruiting mentors registering of
students curriculum development this is
the power of connectivity I’m talking
about that enabled me as a refugee to
access what I’ve been deprived in my
whole life so you remember that I was
talking about Bamiyan and how they
destroyed it so there is a disco word
from Rumi which said there is a ruin
there is a hope where there is a ruin
there is a hope for treasure so that’s
what I found in the ruins of Bamiyan in
Afghanistan in a ruin shattered of a
nation in a shattered and a ruin of a
life of a refugee there are a lot of
things that you can search and you will
find treasures for that and now people
could find a lot of treasures when the
Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed and then now
if you are a visitor to Afghanistan your
mole are welcome to go and visit Bamiyan
you can see a 3d projected and the
Bamiyan buddha that people even think
that oh that’s real so that’s the power
of technology that I want to show the
world how it made a refugee to build the
first coding school and empower other
women in Afghanistan if you think of
Afghanistan think of me if you think of
the future Afghanistan think of code
eunice fire and the girls that are
coding for change thank you you