She believes technology can help girls learn, even under Taliban rule

When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they halted much of girls’ education across Afghanistan almost overnight. The regime prohibits girls from attending school beyond sixth grade and sharply restricts their movement in its imposition of Shariah law.

For Roya Mahboob, an Afghanistan-born tech entrepreneur long focused on improving girls’ access to education, the reversal was devastating. Death threats tied to her work intensified after 2021, leading her to flee the country and resettle full time with her family in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. And the Taliban’s return erased years of progress: her nonprofit, Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), established in 2013, had operated 13 technology centers in schools across the country, and all were forced to close.