Fatima Sidiqi
Afghanistan's first female robotics engineer who continued teaching STEM education under Taliban regime
Fatima Sidiqi is a trailblazing Afghan robotics engineer and educator whose work has made significant contributions to STEM education in Afghanistan, particularly for women. Despite the oppressive policies of the Taliban regime since 2021, she continues her groundbreaking work through underground educational initiatives. Born in Kabul in 1990, Sidiqi developed an early passion for engineering while studying at Herat University. In 2017, she became Afghanistan's first female robotics engineer after completing a master's program in Mechatronics Engineering at the Islamic Azad University in Iran.
In 2020, she founded the Kabul Robotics Institute, which provides free STEM education to over 300 girls annually. Her most notable achievement came in 2022 when her all-female team developed a low-cost water purification system using recycled materials, which now serves 10,000 people in rural areas. Despite the Taliban's ban on girls' education beyond sixth grade in 2021, Sidiqi secretly continued teaching through a network of 15 underground schools across Kabul and Herat.
Her work has been featured in National Geographic's 2023 documentary series 'Women of Resistance' and the BBC's '100 Women' campaign. In 2024, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, often called the 'Alternative Nobel Prize,' for her efforts to preserve women's educational rights in Afghanistan. Sidiqi's innovative use of technology to circumvent censorship includes developing an encrypted app that provides STEM lessons through anonymous social media channels.
Her 2023 TED Talk "Why We Must Keep Women in Technology" has garnered over 2 million views, inspiring global advocacy for Afghan women's education. Sidiqi currently coordinates with international organizations like UNESCO to create covert teacher training programs, ensuring future generations can access STEM education despite restrictions. Her story is chronicled in the 2025 book The Robot Whisperer: Fatima Sidiqi and the Secret Schools of Kabul, which documents her daring educational initiatives and technological innovations.