Afghan girls’ robotics team in US after Trump steps in over visas
An all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan, twice denied visas, arrived in Washington early yesterday after a last-minute intervention by president Donald Trump.
The six-girl team and their chaperone completed the journey from their hometown of Herat just after midnight and will enter their ball-sorting robot in the three-day high school competition that begins today.
Awaiting them at Washington Dulles International Airport were a US special envoy and Afghan ambassador Hamdullah Mohib, who described it as a rare moment of celebration for his beleaguered country.
“Seventeen years ago this would not have been possible at all,” Mr Mohib said.
“They represent our aspirations and resilience despite having been brought up in a perpetual conflict.
“These girls will be proving to the world and the nation that nothing will prevent us from being an equal and active member of the international community.”
In the short time since their visa applications were denied, the girls’ case has attracted global attention, and has become a flashpoint in the debate on Mr Trump’s efforts to tighten entrance to the US, including from six Muslim-majority countries.
Afghanistan is not on Mr Trump’s temporary travel ban that critics say represents bid to clamp down on Muslims.
The girls’ story has renewed the focus on the long-term plans for aiding Afghanistan, as the Trump government prepares a military strategy including more troops sent to the country in which the US has been fighting since 2001.
Defence secretary Gen Jim Mattis said the strategy was progressing but was “not finalised yet”.
Mr Trump’s personal intervention using a rare “parole” measure to sidestep the visa process ended a saga in which the team twice travelled from their home through largely Taliban-controlled territory to Kabul, where their visa applications were denied twice.
The US authorities have given no reason for rejecting the girls’ visa applications, but Mr Mohib said that based on discussions with US officials, it appeared the girls were rebuffed due to concerns about whether they would return to Afghanistan.
The same fate has befallen many Afghans seeking entry to the US in recent year as continuing violence and economic challenges lead many to seek asylum in America, or travel through the US to Canada to try to resettle there s.
As their case gained attention, Mr Trump asked national security council officials to find a way for them to travel.
The US state department, which adjudicates visa applications, asked homeland security to let them in on “parole”, a temporary status used only in exceptional circumstances.
The parole measure was granted after determining that it constituted a “significant public benefit”.
Ambassador Alice Wells, acting US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was at the airport to meet the girls, and downplayed concerns that they might use the parole to stay in the US or go to Canada.
She said they were proud to represent Afghanistan and “proud to return to be role models to others around them”.
Competing against entrants from more than 150 countries, the Afghan team will present a robot they devised that can recognise blue and orange, and sort balls into correct locations.
They will also be feted at a hastily arranged reception at the Afghan embassy by supporters who had petitioned the US to let them in.
Under Taliban rule – which ostensibly ended in 2001 – girls were denied schooling.
Ms Wells said that since 2002, the number of Afghan children attending school has increased from about 900,000 – virtually all boys – to 9 million today, of which 40 per cent are girls.
“We’re looking to ensure that Afghanistan continues its trajectory to stabilising politically and economically,” she said. “It’s young women like these that are going to be the future of Afghanistan.”