Afghanistan & Women In Technology by Mehreen Najm

Automatic Summary

Empowering Afghan Women and Girls Through Technology

Firstly, I'd like to express my gratitude for letting me share my thoughts and experiences at the Women Take Glupa 2022 conference. As an advocate for women empowerment from war-torn Afghanistan, I am truly gratified to be a part of this crucial dialogue about our shared struggles and goals. We are not victims but warriors trying to carve out a better future.

Brief Introduction and Background

I am He Gen, an experienced tech professional with a four-year career in the software industry, currently programming at Icons Software and Services, based in Albania. For further details, feel free to visit my portfolio linked above and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Challenges and Triumphs: Afghan Women In Technology

Today, I want to discuss the critical situation in Afghanistan from my perspective, focusing on the progress women had made before the Taliban takeover, the significant challenges that ensued, and most importantly, how we can keep empowering Afghan women and girls through technology-based solutions.

As an Afghan woman, my journey has been marked by many struggles, from childhood poverty to failing university entrance exams twice. However, facing these challenges with resilience, I emerged stronger and closer to fulfilling my dreams.

Women in Tech Pre-Taliban Takeover

The progress Afghan women were making in the tech sector before the recent regime change was truly inspiring. I actively participated in various local and global communities, ran my own educational initiative, and represented Afghanistan as the Google Developers Students Club leader. However, this situation took a dramatic turnaround following the Taliban takeover.

Life Post Taliban-Takeover

The Taliban's arrival brought immediate restrictions on women's access to education and job opportunities, banning girls beneath the sixth-grade from attending classes and leading to an alarming 80% of women losing their jobs. The reality is that now millions of students remain out of school, and countless Afghan citizens have become refugees, myself included. But this is not the end.

How we're Empowering Afghan Women Through Technology

Despite these adversities, we, the educated Afghan community, have mobilized to provide online platforms and channels to foster accessible education and job opportunities.

  1. Dynamic Woman: An online platform accelerating education materials for girls and women while creating a safe professional networking environment.
  2. Dandushi.org: A free, open-source educational resource in multiple languages that includes all Afghan school subject materials.
  3. Aspire Mobile Library: The first mobile application delivering high-quality audiobooks accessible to all Afghans.
  4. Code to Inspire: The first coding academy for Afghan girls, providing training in web and game development, plus graphic design.
  5. Afghanistan Coding Hub: A non-profit online coding school making practice-based programming education accessible.
  6. Yoncar.com: An online platform connecting talented Afghan developers with job opportunities.
  7. Code.net: A platform offering a four-month intensive coding program to secure better jobs in the market.

These initiatives are only the beginning. Afghan women have proven they can overcome exhilarating obstacles and we will continue to fight for our rights and dreams, not physically, but virtually via technology.

Final Remarks

In conclusion, thank you so much for letting me represent Afghanistan in this session. Remember, failure is a stepping stone to success. I am looking forward to staying in contact with all of you, so do not hesitate to reach me via LinkedIn. Let's continue using technology as a powerful tool for positive change. Have a wonderful day.


Video Transcription

Hello, everyone. Um I hope everyone is doing well. And uh thank you uh for having me today to deliver my talk at the women take uh Glupa 2022 conference. I'm really happy uh that today, I'm here with you.And uh according to me, uh just a second to have a presentation, uh I'm he gen and uh I have uh four years of professional experience in software industry, working with the local and international um organizations and multiple positions. And uh currently, I'm working as a programmer at icons, software and services are located in Albania uh for further information about me and you can check my own portfolio uh in the link above. And also you can get to connect uh with me uh via my link there. OK. So um what I'm going to talk about today, uh I know who everyone uh who is watching me now uh feels uh mm upset and heartbroken by hearing the name of Afghanistan because Afghanistan is a country with almost 45 years of war uh until now continuous war. But we uh as a new generation as a woman of Afghanistan are continuing to struggle with the obstacles and pave the way for uh Afghan women and girls to educate uh uh themselves, to accelerate their education, providing for them uh job opportunities. So, and here we're going to talk about a brief introduction about me in my life uh during in Afghanistan and also uh what improvements women had before uh the fall of Afghanistan and technology industry also uh what challenges and obstacles women face when the Taliban took over Afghanistan on, I guess.

And after that till now, uh and also the most important thing is how can we help Afghan women and girls to, I have access to education and job opportunities. These are the things that I want to cover uh in today's session. So, um about me, uh regarding my journey, I uh just faced with a lot of problems when I was a kid when I was a teenager and adult. Uh I remember the days uh that I have, I had only ₹5 in my pocket. And I, I had to uh just uh reach my destination that was about five kilometers by walking. But because my family was not um uh so much rich, that's why I uh I, I need, I, I ought to, to uh just continue my life. And uh also uh after the graduation of school, I um failed to enroll at university two times and it was so uh um it means it was so absent for me uh that I couldn't make it. But uh with support of my family, I um I was able to continue and struggle with their depressions and also with um uh with the obstacles I face. And uh and now today I'm the person that I wanted to be uh also um uh regarding myself uh while I was in Afghanistan during my studies. After, in professional uh in my professional experiences, I, I had uh participation in many um global and also uh local communities.

Uh I worked uh for my own initiative. But after the fall of uh Afghanistan, I couldn't continue to uh because um I was forced to close it. And also I was the Google Developers uh students club leader uh as the only representative of Afghanistan in the Google Developers chapter. Also, I had uh a membership in many other uh communities uh which are listed in here. There are so many uh of them. Uh Just I need to uh I just point to some of them. That's incredible, Ietd club, uh girls and IC T internet governance from Afghanistan uh woman, the foundation uh and also um internet society. Uh These are some pictures of me that I uh had the membership and I had the participation in that kind of uh events. And also it, it's just a message uh for, for everyone, for every girl, every woman in Afghanistan that the difference between uh who you are and who you want is what you, what you do, you need to, you have to struggle with obstacles, you have to uh come up with the challenges and prepare yourself for every challenge.

And as an Afghan you can do it. I, I do believe in it. Uh These are some uh some pictures photos about the, the multiple uh events which were held in Afghanistan before the fall of Afghanistan into hands of Taliban. Uh I had many uh delivering speeches, many take events like uh woman take maker Google, uh developer students club and also quote conference. And the thing was this is my, this was my initiative. Uh I was to build uh I had to build uh an initiative by the name of Dynamic Woman dot A F. It was a platform for all girls and women of Afghanistan to accelerate their education uh to provide for them opportunities to educate themselves, to uh to make a economy growth for their families. But uh it remained incomplete and also in the past 20 years, uh more than 70% of girls had access to education. Also, 60% of women had access to technology platforms, technology materials and also technology was uh in a massive growth. Uh But uh after the fall of Afghanistan from the day, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The first thing that they did that they banned the girls school.

Also, 80% of women lost their jobs and became jobless and also uh they restrict the Taliban, restricted women from their rights. Also about 1 million of uh students uh above uh sixth grade um are not attending classes till now. So it was so um disappointed for me and the thing is most of Afghan became a refugee for the rest of their life. Uh As an example of them, um I became a refugee for the rest of my life, but this is not the end And this is the start point for um for my other uh uh sisters and for Afghan women, um I do promise that I will support them. And uh we uh as a community of educated girls will come together and provi provide for them opportunities and support them. But um how, how can, how can we help? This is the main point. Uh We as a group of communities, educated communities of Afghan doing our best to uh build uh online platforms, online channels to provide opportunities to provide um and uh pave the way for them. The job uh offers also the uh education materials to uh discontinue their education, to their um uh growing path to help them. Uh As an instance, one of them is Dynamic Woman.

It's an online platform uh which aims to accelerate the education materials for girls and women and also to create a safe environment for learning sharing and professional networking. You can find all these links by the name of it uh with dynamic woman. That if you can, if that you can access it. Also. Um another platform for education is that of the dons.org. It's a free and open source uh educational uh resource for Afghanistan. This uh that this website includes uh almost subjects materials uh available in more than five languages.

Uh And uh and you can have access to all the subject materials of the school of Afghanistan and into this platform also um mobile audio application. It's also uh it's the first only mobile application uh to deliver uh good quality um audio books in both offshore languages of Afghanistan. First one, they available for all Afghans who who wish to uh listen to these uh audio books. And um uh as Afghan girls are devoted from going to school, so this platform for sure can help them to uh have access to these audio chapters. Also uh one another community uh build established by uh Fria role goes to inspire. It's also the first coding academy for the girl uh girls established in 2015 to um to prepare for them to make an environment training sessions, classes for the web development, game development and mobile application development uh and also graphic design training. And so by this academy, um Afghanistan girls and women can also uh get enrolled to this chapter and uh learn um we development also to give uh game development, all the materials in here. Also um Afghanistan coding hub. Uh It's established by uh a young um lady. And uh and um you can see a couple of developers, Afghanistan coding have, it's a nonprofit online coding channel, a school that aims to make uh practice based programming education accessible for coding and uh enthusiastic. So it this by f subscribing to this channel.

Uh If you, if you want, it's a youtube channel, you can subscribe it and uh you can uh have access to programming uh concepts in your own native language. Also. Um Yon car.com, it's also um a platform and online platforms that uh uh provides uh job opportunities for the talented Afghan developers um in Afghanistan and all around the world. And you can search amazing talented and companies to for you to work to be done and all these chapters and all these um channels that I introduced to you. It's all that has been built by our own Afghan developers also. Uh code.net is also um um conducts a four month long in um intensive training program uh that aims to help uh individuals to learn how to code and uh find uh better jobs in the market. And this is the platform where you can uh you can get enrolled into it and follow the conductive format of programming also. Uh at the end. Thank you so much. And I want to thank all of you for providing uh me this chance to deliver my speech as an only Afghan uh representative uh from Afghanistan. And uh I want to say that filler is also a success.

If you don't feel in your life you can, uh you can get succeed. You need to um test fillers in your life to uh get the succeed. And thank you so much uh for the today's uh speech. I hope everyone enjoyed and, um, if you have any questions, uh so I can uh answer. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh Do any of us uh do any of you have any questions regarding the lights or anything which is messed up? Sorry. Um Thank you so much for your uh kind words. Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining this session. Uh I hope we'll be in contact um for further um issues and topics. Uh do not hesitate to contact me via my linkedin. You can find my name by typing my age and you can find the, as you can see my face. Uh It's also my profile is right there. Thank you so much. So, mm uh according to uh P Ivana's answer, thank you for the questions. Uh No, for uh for the current uh currently Taliban uh didn't um forbidden it because they don't know about these platforms. Uh And that's why we established these, these platforms um to uh have to give to enable the uh Afghan women and all students to go and also educate, learn something. Taliban doesn't have so much access to um to ban the technology.

It's impossible for the uh how do you advertise it to other girls and women if I assume it should not be public? Well, um we have some communities between us uh in Linkedin also and Facebook, we have communities that uh um mostly they are working together and it's not somewhere that should be uh visible for the Taliban. So we will share the links out there to the communities and then they will spread to other um communities which they are involved. So by this, they can't access uh to the um to communities and also to the platforms. Yeah, for sure, they cannot stop innovation and change, they cannot stop the technology. We are not the people uh from the past 20 years, we by the technology, we can struggle with them, we can come up with these obstacles and we will fight for our dreams, not physically but virtually by technology. Thank you so much. Uh I think uh we are out of the time. So uh thank you everyone for joining me. Uh I hope you enjoyed my speech. So um I will um in this session and we will be in touch. Thank you so much. Have a nice day.