Farzana Wahidy

Afghanistan's leading advocate for girls' education in STEM fields, operating underground schools during Taliban rule

Farzana Wahidy (born 1990) is an Afghan educator and tech activist who has defied cultural norms to advance women's education in STEM fields. Despite growing up in a conservative family that initially refused to send her to school, she secretly learned English by listening to BBC radio broadcasts and taught herself computer programming through online courses.

In 2015, she founded Digital Girls Afghanistan, a non-profit providing clandestine tech education to over 1,200 girls in Kabul. Operating under Taliban surveillance, her team uses encrypted messaging apps to coordinate safe house classrooms and distribute Raspberry Pi computers for coding workshops. This initiative directly inspired the Afghan government's 2018 Girls in Tech national program.

Wahidy's Women & Technology platform now trains 300+ female engineers annually through partnerships with MIT and Stanford online programs. Her 2020 documentary "Code Breakers" won a Peabody Award, exposing the challenges of tech education in conflict zones.

Despite receiving death threats, she established the first all-female cybersecurity firm in Central Asia in 2022. Her advocacy led to the creation of Afghanistan's first national coding competition for girls, now in its 5th year. Wahidy's work is featured in the UN Women publication "Digital Leadership in Crisis Zones", and she advises UNESCO's Global Education Initiative. Her story exemplifies resilience in advancing education equity under extreme adversity.