Female coders turn to computers in opium fight
HERAT, Afghanistan — A group of young Afghan women in Herat province is breaking traditional barriers as their war-torn country’s first female coders in an overwhelmingly maledominated tech field.
The game they created at the Code to Inspire computer training center in the city of Herat, the provincial capital, underscores Afghanistan’s struggle to eradicate vast opium poppy fields ruled by the Taliban.
For 20-year-old Khatera Mohammadi, one of the students at the center, it was more than just a game:
was based on her brother’s reallife experience years ago as a translator for United States troops in Helmand province and the stories he told her.
“Each time he came back home, he would tell us about the poppy fields, the terrible mine blasts, battling opium traffickers and drugs,” Mohammadi said.
She and her colleagues at the center thought that if they create a game, it would raise awareness, especially among the young. It’s not dropping bombs form planes or battling insurgent in the battlefields, but it’s a way to combat drugs through a computer game.
In the game, an Afghan soldier mimics a real-life mission in Helmand to clear out drugs. The soldier encounters various obstacles in the process: The enemy hiding in tall corn fields, land mines, drug traffickers and hidden heroin labs.
Afghanistan is the world’s top cultivator of the poppy, from which opium and heroin are produced. The country produces more opium than all other countries combined, according to United Nations estimates.
Mohammadi said she and her teammates completed the game in one month and her brother was the first person she showed it to. She declined to give her brother’s name, fearing for his safety and the family’s because he worked with US soldiers.
Saffron crocus
Her dream, she said, is that one day the opium poppy would be replaced by the saffron crocus so she put that in the game, having the soldiers encourage local poppy farmers to cultivate saffron instead.
“Saffron is more expensive and it would be better for the country,” she said.
CTI houses more than 80 girls, both high school and university students. They learn to create their own websites, mobile applications, games and other web development projects.
“It’s not easy for a girl to find a job and go to work outside of her home,” said Hasib Rassa, the CTI project manager. “Now, with just one laptop at home, she can work online and earn money and help her family.”