Nine Afghan girl robotics team members safe in Qatar

After scrambling for days to bring them to safety, nine members of an Afghan all-girls robotics team have arrived in Qatar, the team's parent organisation has confirmed.Their flight out of Afghanistan was organised by the Qatar government, which expedited visas and sent an aircraft.The team first made headlines in 2017 after winning a special award at an international robotics competition in the US.

They have been widely praised as a shining example of the potential of women's education in Afghanistan.

The departure of the team members, aged 15 to 19, as well as a 25-year-old teacher, comes amid a worsening security situation in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

In a statement, the team's parent organisation, the US-based Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), said that they requested help from Qatar on August 12, just three days ahead of Kabul's capture by the Taliban.