Twice rejected for US visas, an all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan early yesterday arrived in Washington after an extraordinary, last-minute intervention by US President Donald Trump.
Six girls from the team and their chaperone completed their journey from their hometown of Herat, Afghanistan, to enter their ball-sorting robot in the three-day competition starting today in the US capital.
Awaiting them at the gate at Washington Dulles International Airport were a US special envoy and Afghan Ambassador to the US Hamdullah Mohib, who described it as a rare moment of celebration for his beleaguered nation.
Photo: AFP
“Seventeen years ago, this would not have been possible at all,” Mohib said in an interview. “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 dilemma drew global attention, the girls’ case has become a flash point in the debate about Trump’s efforts to tighten entrance to the US, including from many majority-Muslim countries.
Afghanistan is not included in Trump’s temporary travel ban, but critics have said it is emblematic of a broader effort to put a chill on Muslims entering the US.
The girls’ story has also renewed the focus on the longer-term US plans for aiding Afghanistan’s future, as Trump’s administration prepares a new military strategy that will include sending more troops to the country where the US has been fighting since 2001.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Friday said the strategy was moving forward, but “not finalized yet.”
Trump’s personal intervention earlier in the week using a rare “parole” mechanism to sidestep the visa system ended a dramatic saga in which the team twice traveled from their home in western Afghanistan through largely Taliban-controlled territory to Kabul, where their visa applications were denied twice.
The US will not say why the girls were rejected for visas, citing confidentiality.
However, Mohib said that based on discussions with US officials, it appears the girls were rebuffed due to concerns they would not return to Afghanistan.
It is a fate that has beset many Afghans seeking entry to the US in recent years, as continuing violence and economic challenges lead many to seek asylum in the US, or to travel on to Canada to try to resettle there.
As their case gained attention, Trump intervened by asking US National Security Council officials to find a way for them to travel, officials said.
Ultimately the US Department of State, which adjudicates visa applications, asked US Department of Homeland Security to let them in on “parole,” a temporary status used only in exceptional circumstances to let in someone who is otherwise ineligible to enter the country.
The US granted parole after determining that it constituted a “significant public benefit.”
Alice Wells, the acting US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, downplayed concerns that the girls might use the parole to stay in the US or go to Canada.
As she drove to the airport to greet the girls, she said by telephone that 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 girls are to present a robot they devised that can recognize blue and orange and sort balls into correct locations.
They are also to be feted at a hastily arranged reception at the Afghan embassy with supporters who had petitioned the US to let them in.
The Taliban, ousted by a US-led coalition in 2001, denied schooling to girls when they ruled the war-torn country.
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, including 40 percent girls.
“We’re looking to ensure that Afghanistan continues its trajectory to stabilizing politically and economically,” Wells said. “It’s young women like these that are going to be the future of Afghanistan.”
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