Ten members of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team have been rescued and are now in Qatar. Some of the team members remain in Afghanistan and efforts are being made to get them out of the country, which has been taken over by the misogynistic Taliban regime.
"Several members of the girls' Afghan robotics team have safely arrived in Doha, Qatar, from Kabul, Afghanistan," said the Digital Citizen Fund and Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a joint statement.
In a separate statement, the Digital Citizen Fund said, "The Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), the team's parent organization, is deeply grateful to the government of Qatar for their outstanding support, which included not only expediting the visa process but sending a plane after outbound flights from Afghanistan were repeatedly canceled."
From NBC News:
Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown, a board member on the DCF, said that she and the DCF founder had been working with Qatar since early August when it became clear that the Taliban would be overthrowing the government.
"The flight out of Kabul was only at the very end of a journey in which safety was always a concern," she said.
"Ultimately the girls 'rescued' themselves. If it were not for their hard work and courage to pursue an education, which brought them in contact with the world, they would still be trapped. We need to continue to support them and others like them," she said. Unfortunately, several members of the team remain in Afghanistan. DCF is working with Qatar to arrange transportation for the remaining members and their aides.
