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Afghan girl roboticists granted US visas
Afghan girl roboticists granted US visas
BBC NEWS From the section Asia
July 13, 2017
A group of Afghan school girls taking part in a robotics competition in the US have been granted visas to attend it, after their initial applications were denied, US media said. US President Donald Trump had urged authorities to rethink their decision, AP news agency said.
A US travel ban is in place for six Muslim-majority countries, which does not include Afghanistan.
Students from The Gambia earlier also had their visa rejection overturned.
According to AP, Homeland Security Department spokesman David Lapan said the visas for the Afghan girls had been approved after a request by the state department.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders attributed the request to an intervention by President Trump, the news agency said.
The competition organized by non-profit group First Global will see teams from 164 countries compete in a series of robotic games.
"I am most grateful to the US Government and its state department for ensuring Afghanistan, as well as Gambia, would be able to join us for this international competition this year," First Global president Joe Sestak said in a statement.
The US president's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump tweeted in response to news that she looked forward to welcoming the Afghan team to Washington. Twitter screenshotImage copyrightTWITTER/@IVANKATRUMP
The Afghan team of six teenage high school students are participating in the competition which runs 16-18 July with a ball-sorting robot. The girls' visa applications for the one-week trip to the US had reportedly been blocked despite two rounds of interviews.
After the initial rejection, the students expected they would have to watch the competition via Skype from their hometown of Herat in western Afghanistan. "We were not a terrorist group to go to America and scare people," 14-year-old Fatema Ghaderyan told the AFP news agency in Herat. "We just wanted to show the power and skills of Afghan girls to Americans."
First Global aims to promote Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths).
"All 163 teams from 157 countries have gained approval to the United States, including Iran, Sudan, and a team of Syrian refugees," Mr Sestak said. "I could not be more proud."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40590885
