With the traditional Mexican greeting, “Están en su casa” (This is your home), Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard Tuesday welcomed five members of a girls’ robotics team from Afghanistan, just days after they fled their Taliban-controlled country by way of Doha, Qatar.
The girls are part of the Afghan Dreamers Team team, a 20-strong group of high-school girls, who became known internationally for creating ventilators for patients with Covid-19 from used car parts. They have become a symbol of the pursuit of human rights for women in Afghanistan.
The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, who prohibited girls from obtaining an eduction when they were last in power, is likely to have seriously compromised the futures of these bright young women.
One of the five who arrived at the Mexico City Airport this week said they chose Mexico because it is “a country with freedom and solidarity.”
Mexico granted the Afghan women humanitarian visas valid for up to 180 days with the right to renew or apply for a change of status in the future.
Martha Delgado, the undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, said an unnamed Mexican institution has offered them “accommodation, food and basic services, free of charge.”
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