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Afghan Girl Roboticists Denied US Visas (bbc.com)
Three anonymous readers share a similar report: An all-girl team of roboticists will watch their creations compete in a US competition via Skype after being denied visas to enter the country. President Trump recently ordered a ban on travel from six Muslim-majority countries, but Afghanistan was not included on the list. Teams from Iran, Sudan and Syria -- which are on the list -- did manage to enter the country. The six-member team watched their ball-sorting robot compete in Washington DC via a video link from their hometown of Herat, in western Afghanistan. "We still don't know the reason why we were not granted visas, because other countries participating in the competition have been given visas," Fatemah Qaderyan, 14, told Reuters.
Welcome to the DeEnlightenment.
What an embarrassment this country is becoming.
Why does the fact that she's Afghani matter? Why does the fact that she's a roboticist matter?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Visitor visas are weird creatures. Even under ideal circumstances, with good jobs and excellent ties to their native country, about half of them are denied (or more) at certain embassies. It's entirely at the mercy of the consular officer, and this probably had nothing to do with the travel ban. It was probably a CO being skittish.
It matters because in Afghanistan, women risk being attacked for daring to get an education. The fact that these young women are a robotics team is an important part of the story.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Most likely the usual reasons: either, they didn't demonstrate that they had enough money to stay in the US, or there was doubt about their ability or desire to leave the US once granted entry. Same reason EU countries frequently deny entry.
After all, the US does seem to have difficulties removing people who overstay their visas or enter illegally.
Why does their gender matter? Quit being so sexist.
Have you been living in a basement for the past 10 years?
It matters because girls in much of Afghanistan are systematically repressed and mistreated, denied education, equal rights and privileges, etc. That an all girls team from Afghanistan is excelling in robotics is very relevant to this story.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Their gender matters because as girls from Afghanistan, they would have been able to make a pretty good case that they should be allowed to remain in the US after being admitted due to conditions for girls in Afghanistan.
Exactly. The consular officer probably had concerns about them not returning to Afghanistan (or perhaps their chaperone) and that is then most likely explanation. Visitor visas are not a right, contrary to what many in the tech community seem to think. They require a finding by the consular officer that the visitor has sufficient ties to their native country that they will return to it at the end of their stay. A child with no job, parents with a less than ideal situation, in a devastated country, would have a hard time establishing this, and it gets worse if they are bringing their parents as a chaperone. Sadly, people get denied visitor visas everyday. It is part of life in a non-visa waiver country. It isn't just muslim countries.
So it has nothing to do with Trump's ban on those countries has it?
US immigration is a law unto itself and usually pretty arbitrary. I realise a lot of the world's problems are Trump's fault, but not all of them are.
Entry into a foreign country is not a right.
These girls did not have any of their rights violated. They applied for visas; they were declined. It happens all the time. It happens to foreigners applying for visas in the US; it happens to Americans applying for visas elsewhere.
In addition, their gender is irrelevant. This information has only been included to incite more outrage from those who feed off of left-wing identity politics.
There is no story here except for the one that professional victims and their allies are trying to create.
And wouldn't that be just terrible. God knows how our culture could possibly survive allowing a few young girls come here.
For the simple reason that Obama didn't make it a signature policy of his to create a Muslim ban. Mistakes were probably made, but since Obama didn't wade into it, there was no mess on him.
Instead, the right-wing went into hysterical frenzies over Obama criticizing the police, ATF guns, and Guantanamo. Even today, an NYPD officer was shot. Obama will likely get attacked for it, but Trump? Nope.
Just watch though, Trump will likely get flak over trying to bring a baby in the country, whose lifespan will be measured in agonizing months, and all his supporters will be ignoring how his Trumpcare cuts funds for medical care for US citizens.
...Then I saw little Tiffany. I'm thinking, y'know, eight-year-old white girl, middle of the ghetto, bunch of monsters, this time of night with quantum physics books? She about to start some shit, Zed. She's about eight years old, those books are WAY too advanced for her. If you ask me, I'd say she's up to something...
Oh, the horror. Educated young women with interests in STEM fields. How would "Merica" ever survive such a thing?
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
It really gets tiresome repeating facts to the ignorant and shills who refuse to work with those facts.
When 90% of a the people following a particular Religion are not impacted by the travel moratorium, it is not "xenophobic" policy. Making such a claim is lazily disingenuous. "You are a racist" is not an argument. Even if it were true, the policy being debated may not be. It is failed logic called a fallacy.
Considering that the countries impacted are all either failed states or have governments who support terrorists and terrorist organizations, the policy purpose is obviously to address potential terrorism. While we may be able to argue the actual risks involved, you make that impossible with "more" ad hominem based on failed logic. "You are a racist and homophobe" is not an argument.
Lastly, Countries _ARE_ REQUIRED to control their borders. This is a well known fact and every single nation on Earth does exactly that, because without doing so you have no country. (See Tibet for an example). More lazy arguments based on faulty logic won't make that untrue. More ad homimen (you are a racist, homophobe, misogynist) is still not an argument and is a simply lazy and disingenuous. If you have doubts that countries in fact do need to control their borders, leave all your papers at home and try to enter Mexico, or China, or Russia, or Germany, or any other place you wish. You will be begging for your papers and demanding to see the US embassy in little time. Attempting in fact to rely on the nation that you are attempting to subvert and undermine with your lazy disingenuous arguments!
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
"President Trump recently ordered a ban on travel from six Muslim-majority countries, but Afghanistan was not included on the list."
But we are going to mention it in order to stir up shit.
I can't wait for someone from Canada to be denied entry for whatever reason and then some stupid fucker mention the Ban while explaining that Canada wasn't part of it.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Being an intelligent (young) woman is most decidedly a threat.
Yes, sadly, a threat to overstay their visas. Sadly, that is one of the criteria that has been historically used by bureaucrats in the visa office to deny visas.
In case you haven't been involved in obtaining visas for foreigners before, this is unfortunately quite common. I've seen this many times, despite impeccable invitation letters, pre-paid round trip air tickets, evidence of foreign funds (bank accounts), evidence of strong ties to return (e.g., children, close family members), visas for young folks (12-30 years old) from many poor-er countries get routinely denied by bureaucrats in the various visa offices ostensibly for this reason.
Depending on your politics and your sympathies, you may not care about this risk, but to some of the faceless bureaucrats running the visa offices, visa overstay risk is as much of a "threat" as association with terrorists.
On the flip side, see it from their point of view in "enforcing" the laws on the books: a group of young girls with little to tie them to their home country (and who might be ostracized in their own country for being educated), want a visa to travel to the USA on limited funds. Sadly, you gotta admit that at least a yellow flag would be raised that they are at risk of overstaying their visa. Maybe you don't care if they overstay, but depending on who was reviewing their visa application, that person might happen to care enough to deny the visa and I suspect that is exactly what happened.