Afghanistan’s girls robotics team evacuated from Kabul after Taliban takeover

“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,” the DCF said in a statement.

Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown, a board member on the DCF, said that she and the DCF founder had been working with Qatar to transport the girls out of the country since early August when the Taliban quickly began gaining control of Afghanistan.

“The flight out of Kabul was only at the very end of a journey in which safety was always a concern,” Brown 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,” the board member added.

Countries around the world have sent dozens of evacuation flights to Kabul to transport their citizens and Afghans who helped US-led forces in the past two decades flee the country as the Taliban took over the country.