The courageous story of Afghanistan's first all-girls robotics team is coming to a theater near you. Rule Breakers is based on the true story of The Afghan Girls Robotics Team, who grabbed the world's attention when they were denied member visas by the United States in 2017 while attempting to compete at the First Global Challenge international robotics competition. Fifty three members of Congress signed a petition and President Donald Trump intervened to give the girls travel documents on special humanitarian grounds allowing them to enter the US and compete in the robotics games, according to a New York Times profile. The story of the team's struggle to compete in the robotics competition goes much deeper than their attempts to enter the US. First Global founder Dean Kamen, who is best known for designing the Segway, put together his competitive robotics league as a way to spark interest in science and technology among high schoolers.

Photojournalist documents the reality women face in Afghanistan on'America Reports' An Oklahoma mother of 11 flew to Qatar earlier this month to help rescue 10 members of Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team, and is hoping to save more as the Taliban takes power in Kabul. Allyson Reneau, a 60-year old-Harvard graduate with a Masters degree in international relations and U.S. space policy, took it upon herself to try and save members of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team, according to NBC. She flew into Qatar on Aug. 9 after making a "Hail Mary" call to a former roommate at the U.S. Embassy there to help get the girls from the advancing Taliban, known for their oppressive treatment of women. Reneau had been in contact with the team -- made of girls ages 16 to 18 -- since 2019, when she worked on the board of directors for Explore Mars and met the girls when they attended the organization's annual Humans to Mars conference. The team was hailed in Western media as the future of the war-ravaged country, as well as a shining example of how women's rights had improved after the U.S. invaded following 9/11.

Elham Mansoori, member of Afghan Dreamers, an all-girls robotics team in Afghanistan, works on their prototype of a ventilator. In Afghanistan, a group of teenage girls are trying to build a mechanized, hand-operated ventilator for coronavirus patients, using a design from M.I.T. and parts from old Toyota Corollas. It sounds like an impossible dream, but then again, the all-girls robotics team in question is called the "Afghan Dreamers." Living a country where two-thirds of adolescent girls cannot read or write, they're used to overcoming challenges. The team of some dozen girls aged 15 to 17 was formed three years ago by Roya Mahboob, an Afghan tech entrepreneur who heads the Digital Citizen Fund, a group that runs classes for girls in STEM and robotics and oversees and funds the Afghan Dreamers.