When the Taliban first came to power in 1996, Roya Mahboob remembers being a little girl dreaming of going to school. But she also remembers having her books and television confiscated and set ablaze outside her home. Back then, physical books were the only tools for knowledge.
But now, girls in Afghanistan living under the same oppressive rule have more access to learning through technology. "Technology opened a window to the world when I was growing up in Afghanistan [and] didn't have many opportunities," she told Newsweek recently. "When I was introduced to this magic box that people called a computer at the time, it's changed everything for me." Mahboob is an Afghan entrepreneur, technologist and education advocate who co-founded the Digital Citizen Fund, a nonprofit organization that aims to increase access to technology, STEAM education and digital and financial literacy for girls and women in developing countries.
She believes that education and technology can expand what is possible for young people, especially young girls who are excluded from the opportunity to learn in conflict areas like Afghanistan. From libraries to internet cafes to personal computers in our pockets, the ways we access information have grown exponentially since Mahboob was young. Giving other Afghan women the tools to learn how to market and communicate through social media can be essential for helping launch and grow their careers.
"I was fascinated with technology, but I knew that there are millions of girls who are like me," she said. "I wanted to open the same door that opened many opportunities for me [to] become an entrepreneur, working at the university and building my business." Mahboob was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2013 and helped launch the Afghan Dreamers, a female robotics team, in 2017. The team later became the subject of the documentary Afghan Dreamers and the 2025 feature film Rule Breakers.
Today, Mahboob is focused on increasing education access through an AI-enabled platform for girls living in areas where they cannot access traditional schools. The Afghan Dreamers Academy is a free education platform that combines live and recorded lessons, AI tutoring in several languages, mentoring, digital libraries and other offline learning options. Students in wealthy school districts in developed countries take for granted that their education is guaranteed and comes with a Chromebook loaded up with the best programs and the fastest Wi-Fi.
The idea of digital literacy is embedded in growing up. But in Afghanistan, Mahboob said learning how to use tools like a computer or smartphone must be taught and can have a profound impact on people's lives. It’s been five years since the U.S. withdrew from its nearly twenty-year war in Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban to reclaim control.
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