Students fail to obtain US visa

Six female students from war-torn Afghanistan who had hoped to take part in an international robotics competition in the US will have to watch via video link after their visa applications were denied twice.

The girls wanted to show the world that Afghans could also construct a hand-made robot.

But of 162 teams who planned to take part, the Afghan girls are the only nation’s team to be denied visas by the US and must simply watch from their home town of Herat.

“When we heard that we were rejected we lost hope,” said 14-year-old Sumaya Farooqi.

“We applied again and we were rejected again.”