Somaya Faruqi

Somaya Faruqi (also spelled Farooqi) (born 2002) is an Afghan student and engineer, and the captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team,[1] also known as the "Afghan Dreamers."[2][3] She was named to the BBC's 100 Women in 2020 and was featured by UNICEF in 2020 as well as the UN Women Generation Equality campaign in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, her team designed a prototype ventilator to help fight the coronavirus in Afghanistan.[4]

Somaya Faruqi
OccupationEngineer

Early life and education

Faruqi was born in 2002[5] and is from Herat city, in western Afghanistan.[1] As a child, she became interested in engineering by watching and working with her father in his car repair shop.[1] Her mother had been unable to have a formal education past the age of ten, due to Taliban restrictions on the education of females.[1] Faruqi has said, "I want to become an electronic engineer in the future, and I am blessed to have the full support of my mom and dad."[6]

Career

In 2017, at age 14,[7] Faruqi was one of six members of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, founded by Roya Mahboob,[8] that traveled to the United States to participate in the international FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition.[9][10] In 2018, the team trained in Canada, continued to travel in the United States for months and participate in competitions.[9] After their United States visas expired, Faruqi participated in team competitions in Estonia and Istanbul.[9]

By early 2020, at age 17,[2] Faruqi became the captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team.[11] The team met on a daily basis after school.[1] In March 2020, the governor of Herat at the time, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a scarcity of ventilators, sought help with the design of low-cost ventilators,[12] and the Afghan Girls Robotics Team was one of six teams contacted by the government.[1] Using a design from MIT[12] and with guidance from MIT engineers and Douglas Chin, a surgeon in California, the team developed a prototype with Toyota Corolla parts[2][7] and a chain drive from a Honda motorcycle.[3] Faruqi's father served as a driver for the team, picking them up from their homes and driving on side streets to avoid checkpoints to help them get to their workshop.[7] UNICEF also supported the team with the acquisition of necessary parts during the three months they spent building the prototype[6] that was completed in July 2020.[13][14]

In December 2020, Minister of Industry and Commerce Nizar Ahmad Ghoryani donated funding and obtained land for a factory to produce the ventilators.[1] Under the direction of their mentor Roya Mahboob, the CEO of Afghan Citadel Software Company, the Afghan Dreamers have also designed a UVC Robot for sanitization, and a Spray Robot for disinfection, both of which were approved by the Ministry of Health for production.[1]

In early August 2021, Faruqi was quoted by Public Radio International about the future of Afghanistan, stating, "We don’t support any group over another but for us what’s important is that we be able to continue our work. Women in Afghanistan have made a lot of progress over the past two decades and this progress must be respected."[15] On August 17, 2021, the Afghan Girls Robotics Team and their coaches were reported to be attempting to evacuate, but unable to obtain a flight out of Afghanistan,[16][17] and it was reported that they asked Canada for assistance.[18] As of August 19, 2021, it was reported that some members of the team and their coaches had evacuated to Qatar.[19][20] By August 25, 2021, some members arrived in Mexico.[21] On August 26, 2021, Faruqi was quoted by Reuters as stating, "We left Afghanistan for our education and one day we will come back and we will serve our people and our country."[22]

Honors and awards

References
  1. Billing, Lynzy (15 March 2021). "The female Afghan tech entrepreneurs inspiring each other". Al Jazeera.
  2. Hadid, Diaa (19 May 2020). "Unique Robotic Team In Afghanistan Creates Affordable Ventilator Prototype". NPR.
  3. Haidare, Sodaba (20 May 2020). "Coronavirus: Afghan girls make ventilators out of car parts". BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  4. "I am Generation Equality: Somaya Faruqi, young Afghan innovator who led the development of a low-cost ventilator prototype". UN Women. 9 February 2021.
  5. "BBC 100 Women 2020: Who is on the list this year?". BBC. 23 November 2020.
  6. Ghafary, Narges (6 August 2020). "From Dream to Reality". UNICEF. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  7. Akhgar, Tameem (19 April 2020). "Ventilator from old car parts? Afghan girls pursue prototype". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  8. Hauptman, Max (18 August 2021). "Afghanistan's robotics team broke barriers. Now it's desperate to escape the Taliban". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  9. Harman, Danna (30 March 2019). "'In Afghanistan, We Laugh Differently'". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  10. Cochrane, Emily (18 July 2017). "Afghan Girls' Robotics Team Wins Limelight at Competition". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  11. Glinski, Stefanie (4 June 2020). "With bike chains and car parts, Afghan girls build ventilators". Thomson Reuters Foundation News. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  12. Hadid, Diaa (21 May 2020). "All-Girl Robotics Team In Afghanistan Works On Low-Cost Ventilator … With Car Parts". KPBS. NPR. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  13. "The school girls saving Afghanistan from COVID". Reuters. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  14. Lamb, Christina (19 July 2020). "Teenage girls breathe hope into Afghanistan with Covid ventilator made of old car parts". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  15. Jaafari, Shirin (9 August 2021). "Afghans in a city under siege by the Taliban: 'The insecurity has upended our lives'". Public Radio International. Retrieved 17 August 2021. Updated: August 13, 2021
  16. Motley, Kimberley; Stone, Meighan (17 August 2021). "Opinion: The all-girls Afghan robotics team inspired the world. Now they're trapped, waiting to be rescued". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  17. Katz, Leslie (16 August 2021). "Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team frantically trying to flee Taliban". CNET. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  18. Sharma, Shweta (17 August 2021). "Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team 'begging' Canada to help escape Taliban". The Independent. Yahoo! News. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  19. Bengali, Shashank; Fassihi, Farnaz (19 August 2021). "Some members of Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team flee the country". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  20. Myre, Greg (19 August 2021). "The Future Of The Afghan Girls Robotics Team Is Precarious". Nevada Public Radio. NPR. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  21. Johnson, Katanga; Esposito, Anthony (25 August 2021). "Afghan all-girl robotics team members, journalists land in Mexico". Reuters. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  22. Cornwell, Alexander (26 August 2021). "Don't abandon Afghanistan, pleads member of Afghan all-female robotics team". Reuters. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  23. Jones, Alexandra Mae (11 October 2020). "COVID-19 has exacerbated the issues girls around the world face: UNICEF". CTV News. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  24. Kang, John (19 April 2021). "Get To Know The Youngest Members Of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2021". Forbes.
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