Samia Farooqi is a Mechanical Engineer from Afghanistan. She is the role model for the girls in Afghanistan.
As a child, Samia Farooqi watched her father repair cars in the western Afghan city of Herat.
Samia says her father’s work made her interested in mechanics and engineering.
I am the eldest of four children. So even though I’m the only girl, I helped her in her shop after school and I learned how things work. But I always wanted to learn more.
The dilapidated old shop is full of old tools and wrecked car parts. Samia says that when I was young I used to fix only the car radio but gradually I started helping my father with big things.
At age 18, Samia is now the leader of the Afghan girls’ robotics team. The five girls in the team are between the ages of 14 and 18 and have attended various high schools in Herat.
Every day after school she spends an hour and a half learning and practicing programming and robotics.
Samia said.
“I feel very proud of myself when I work in engineering,”
Because very few girls are involved in this field in Afghanistan and it is a complex field. But I’m very good at it so I have confidence.
“There are a lot of people in our society and all over Afghanistan,”
She added.
Those who think that only girls should be mechanics but I don’t know why girls can’t be mechanics.
Society needs them, they believe in themselves and they have the support of their family and then they will prove it. Proving it has always been my goal.
