New York Media: In urban centers, young men — and it is virtually all young men — work as content dealers (in Dari, Afghanistan’s main language, it’s called the somewhat more ambiguous Computer kar, or “computer worker”). At the most basic level, a Sneakernet micro-business might consist simply of a plastic stool, an old laptop, and
Tolo News: The all-girl Afghan robotics team returned home on Sunday after wrapping up a successful tour of Mexico. “We won the safety award from among 25 awards, the competition was among 175 countries,” said one member of the robotics team Lida Azizi. Click here to read more (external link).
The Atlantic: When makiz nasirahmad, a 24-year-old Afghan American who recently lived in Afghanistan, received a Facebook friend request from a woman with an unfamiliar name, she didn’t think twice about accepting it. The woman’s profile picture had clearly been copied off the internet, but Nasirahmad figured that the woman could be a relative of
CoinDesk: Young women coders in Afghanistan are getting a chance to use ethereum’s cryptocurrency. Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, Code to Inspire (CTI), a non-profit for teaching women in Afghanistan to write code, has partnered with the Bounties Network to allow students to accept ether (ETH) for fixing vulnerabilities for businesses or projects posting bounties. And according to Fereshteh
Reuters: More than 20 young women in the western city of Herat have established themselves as computer experts, building apps and websites as well as tracking down bugs in computer code. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah on Monday overturned a recent decision to ban two social media chat groups, WhatsApp and Telegram. The two leaders met to discuss the issue which caused widespread anger in the country – particularly among civil society activists. The two leaders have described the ban on the social
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan November 4, 2017 Afghanistan has ordered a temporary ban on the popular encrypted-messaging services WhatApp and Telegram, citing “technical problems” and the need for greater oversight. The two mobile apps are popular among smart-phone users in Afghanistan — including Taliban militants. Sayed Najib Nangyal, a spokesman for the Afghan Communications and
VOA News / July 22, 2017 Afghanistan’s all-girl robotics team returned Saturday to Kabul after its successful trip to Washington for the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge, and several officials representing the presidential palace welcomed the girls home, calling them role models. In the ceremony, Abdullah Abdullah, chief executive of the national unity government, said, “Despite
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 19, 2017 Six Afghan girls who were initially denied U.S. visas to attend a robotics competition in Washington, D.C., have won a medal at the international event. The Afghanistan team was awarded a silver medal for “courageous achievement” at the event, which ended on July 18. The award recognized teams that exhibited