Girls breaking cyber walls in Afghanistan

Roya Mahboob – Photo credit – Espen Røst

TMP – 02/05/2017

Two sisters in Herat province want to start a digital revolution in Afghanistan by teaching computer skills to girls.

The girls at Goharshad Begum High School in Herat in Afghanistan now regularly post to Facebook and Twitter, check and update their blogs, and are able to code. Just a few months ago, they didn’t even know how to switch on a computer.

Their newly-founded computer skills are the result of computer training programmes set up by the Digital Citizen Fund, a non-profit organization set up by Afghan entrepreneurs and sisters Roya and Elaha Mahboob.

“We learned film programs, Gmail, Twitter and Viber,” said teenager Hilai, while working on her computer in the school’s computer lab. “It developed our knowledge and awareness of technology.”

The Mahboob sisters aim to provide opportunities for Afghan women in the technology sector by equipping girls’ schools with computers and other IT equipment and teaching them how to use it.

“IT is the most important field right now,” said Elaha Mahboob. “We want to empower women through IT, because it will be very useful for them and their futures.”

So far, the Digital Citizen Fund has set up 13 computer and coding centers in Kabul and Herat, attracting more than 55,000 female online students . The nonprofit organization aims to train an additional 5,000 women in financial and digital literacy and coding.

“They really love it because they can connect, talk with their friends, share their blogs and ideas,” Mahboob said. “After the training we provided, we saw a change in their minds and their interest in their computers … Some of them also decided to study this field… They became more connected to other worlds.”

The two sisters studied computer science at Herat University and later founded an IT consulting firm, which mainly employs women. Although the sisters have faced threats because of the work they do, they refuse to quit and try to convince parents and local leaders of the benefits of introducing women to computers.

“We are just talking to them to convince them that it is not something bad, but it is just to help their daughters, to enhance their knowledge and also it could be a financial help,” Mahboob said. “(Now) they mostly trust us and their daughters.”