Code to Inspire: Afghan women coders create their own female superhero

A group of women coders in Afghanistan recently created a video game with a young woman as the central character and the titular hero of the game who smashes all the obstacles and levels up to the next challenge. The young woman coders are reportedly part of an after-school training programme known as Code to Inspire, situated in the western parts of Herat. During these training classes, the girls learn codes to build games and applications to educate and inspire young girls all over Afghanistan.  

Code to Inspire

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The highest-profile success has been the latest app game 'Afghan hero girl' built by 12 women coders over a time period of six months. In the game, a princess in green veil reportedly runs around a castle battling her way with antagonists and rummaging through other obstacles, in a quest to defeat a powerful wizard and rescue her family from imprisonment. 

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Breaking the monotony 

Fereshteh Forough, a computer science teacher and a former refugee who founded the Code to Inspire in 2015, explained that her students were "sick of the lack of female superheroes in the gaming industry and complained that they are done with games having male superheroes".  

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According to reports, the coders explained that the game represents obstacles that most Afghan girls face in real life. They were quoted saying, young women have to overcome hatred and criticism from a male-dominated society and move forward". For a developing country like Afghan that is bogged down by limitations, empowering young minds with tech skills can prove to hold a transformative potential, opined Forough, while talking about her students' accomplishment. 

However, like many Afghans, she worries about an eventual return to power of the Taliban, who during their repressive rule in the 1990s banned women from working or going outside the house. Notably, due to the recent fall of the Taliban in the last 20 years, women's rights and education for girls have made significant gains.

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