Loading ...Some 9 years ago, I chanced to interview young girls of a small family who were making some astounding breakthroughs. You may remember the inspirational story of the Princess of Badar, the three girls, Afrah, Afsah and Isbah, each sister, who had achieved a phenomenal world record for being the world’s youngest VB.Net Programmer, World’s Youngest SCJP and grabbed accolades on the Microsoft platform, respectively. Afrah was probably almost 11 years old when I first met her. Today, she follows her older sister Afsah, out to MIT, to study biological engineering and take on the world, headfirst.
Since my dear young friend was here on vacations, Jehan Ara, President of P@SHA, took the opportunity to talk to Afrah about the academia, gender diversity and technology. Take it away girls! This interview will take some of us, a long, LONG way back!
Want to watch older episodes of In The Line Of Wire? Click here! Would you like to recommend a guest who should be featured on ITLOW? Click here and let us know!
Email
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
LinkedIn
WebStudio RSS Feed
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by jehan_ara and Fariha Akhtar, Shahzad Ahmad. Shahzad Ahmad said: RT @jehan_ara: RT @farihaak: #TakeBackTheTech Day 6 Grrls & Technology: Meet young technologist Afrah from #Pakistan http://bit.ly/hMn0XF [...]
[...] my interview with her on ITLoW, Afrah said she likes the absence of formality between students and teachers and is amazed that [...]
[...] my interview with her on ITLoW, Afrah said she likes the absence of formality between students and teachers and is amazed that [...]
i was waiting for u to something about white house as well after that was your begining.. apart from that it was very very motivational n inspirational.
@Sid, @Afsah Shafquat, Thanks for addressing the comment, Afsah. I agree on the fact that it is so much easier to pass a comment or judgment on someone as opposed to jumping in and actually doing the work or making the effort.
On the teachers comment, I think Afrah was simply responding to a question Jehan Ara asked. If we read in between the lines and pick on what an 17-year old is saying, we really need to take a step back and take a breath. If teachers IN Pakistan were bad, we’d never see byproducts such as you, Afrah and the hundreds of thousands of other brilliant students that come up. The education, as well as other disciplinary ecosystems here need a lot more time to mature.
We’re proud of everyone who accurately represents who we really are, Afsah.
@Sid – One correction: We aren’t “Pakis”. We’re supposed to be Pakistanis. There is a difference there.
Thank you everyone for your kind comments.
@sid: First off, you are entitled to your own opinion but so is Afrah. What we need is a little tolerance for each other.
I agree with you (and so does Afrah) that there is so much talent in Pakistan and our people are competing at the world level despite the lack of resources. She never denied this. I think what she mentioned was that the professors at MIT are more encouraging and approachable. And I agree with her. I have seen teachers back home who aren’t as cooperative and even discourage students at times . You know it’s true. You have seen it too. I’m not saying that such people don’t exist in ‘amreeka’ but at places like MIT, there is such a good pruning that they get rid of them.
As far as taking care of parents goes, I agree with you again (and so does Afrah). Who wouldn’t? But I believe it’s very contextual. For a farmer, the best his child could do might be to take up ‘khaetibaari’ – doesn’t mean we should all be farming! I think of it as ‘helping’ our parents by making them proud and giving them hope.
I respect your point of view but it was not presented ideally. It just saddens me when I see we can’t make a point without targetting others on a personal level.
Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings. And though we are worlds apart, like us, there is more to them than meets the eye.
Impressive… motivating!!
Afrah is indeed a true picture of Khaola Bint-e-Azwar (RAA)
@Rabia, I mean Afrah, Afsah, Isbah and Sir Zia all in one single episode, you can dubbed that as “In The Line of Wire Special Edition”
Yes I agree with sir Zia, Afrah and afsah is the future of Pakistan.
Well Xs, considering almost ALL of our shows are hosted or produced by women, we’d rather not shove the fact that women are BETTER than men, in your face too much.. We believe in subliminal messaging… or was that massaging? *gawks at her own sense of humor being influence so much by the E-Crimes SMS Massaging!
zLORG!!!
RG, Salaina, JA, add topping to that with the Princesses of Badar, and then people like “Host” …
I think its time the WebStudio did a short documentary on exactly how much smarter women are then men.
and no we’re not created equal, men by-design are too easily distracted by women, random shiny objects and women.
p.s. did I mention men are easily distracted by women?
@Faisal Khan – Well, Afrah HAS commented above and says she’s working on something – let’s see what we can do!
@Sir Zia, Truly exceptional, and my request you should also join them as you are a truly father figure for all of Badrians,
@Rabia, i wish we could see all of them in 1 episode.
Yes, Rabia..Working on it
@Hina – Yes – these girls have quite a lot of well wishers – Perhaps the next time they are all in Karachi, we can zip them into the WebStudio and see what we can do with the three of then re-united!
Afrah! Afsah! Isbah! You MUST do something to comply with Hina’s request!
Afrah is the future of Pakistan, and we should project this face internationally.
Amazing sisters…
Isbah was my senior at university. I should very much love to see the three of them being interviewed together.
WOW!I KNOW her!!
Total Interview time – SO, WELL, YA, I MEAN, LIKE = CRAP and disagree with her opinion about Professors here who according to her are more NEEDY. I think faculty members here are more hardworking and with limited budget and other constraints they are still competing with rest of the world. It is a shame for me that a Pakistani girl who made world records, her mom does not let her do any of the house hold work or vice versa . I think most of the Pakis feel proud of helping their parents in everything either its house hold or social work.
Ahh at what we are promoting !!!