Members of female Afghan robotics team have escaped to Qatar

Several members of the team have arrived in Qatar whilst others remain in Afghanistan

The all-girl robotics team have won international competitions (AFP via Getty Images)

Several members of an Afghan girls’ robotics team have escaped to Qatar, the group announced, joining the ever-increasing stream of people fleeing Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s takeover.

Some members of the team left Kabul on Tuesday on a commercial flight to Qatar, while others planned to remain in the country.

Those in Qatar will continue their education there, according to the team’s founder, Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, while others who remain in Afghanistan face an uncertain future under Taliban rule.

The all-female robotics team is the first of its kind in the country and has won a number of competitions, both in Afghanistan and internationally.

Known as the “Afghan Dreamers” the team comprises 20 members aged between 12 and 18 and hail from the provincial capital of Herat.

According to human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley on CBC News Network, the girls are “extremely terrified”, having seen the capital Kabul fall to the Taliban.

When the hard-line Islamist movement last ruled the country from 1996-2001, girls were not allowed to attend school and womens’ freedoms were severely restricted.

Under the previous regime, women were not allowed in public places unless they were accompanied by a male member of the household, underage marriage known to occur as was women being taken as sex slaves by the Taliban.

Although the movement say that women will be allowed greater freedoms this time, many of those living in Afghanistan are skeptical.

“The Taliban have promised to allow girls to be educated to whatever extent allowed by Shariah law,” said Ms Mahboob, The New York Times reported.

“We will have to wait and see to what that means,” she added.

“Obviously, we hope that women and girls will be allowed to pursue dreams and opportunities under the Taliban,” she said, “because that is what is best for Afghanistan and in fact the world.”

Members of the team left Herat last week and after trouble with obtaining visas, airport chaos and following a plea to Canada for asylum, several of the girls have now touched down in Qatar.

The team gained worldwide recognition in 2017 when six of its members were prevented from travelling to the US for a competition. They were eventually allowed in after outcry from the public and intervention from then-president Donald Trump.