阿富汗第一位女码农制作打击鸦片题材的电子游戏

First Afghan Female Coders Create Opium¹-Fighting Video Game

Young Afghan women in the western province of Herat are breaking traditional barriers as their country’s first female coders.

The women not only learned to code, but also created a video game.

They learned to code at Code to Inspire, or CTI, a girls-only computer programing school in Herat, the provincial² capital. The game they created supports Afghanistan’s effort to remove large opium poppy fields ruled by the Taliban. Opium is used to make heroin³ and other illegal drugs.

Coder Khatera Mohammadi said the product, “Fight Against Opium,” is more than just a game. She said it is based on her brother’s experience as a translator for American troops in the Helmand province.

“Each time he came back home, he would tell us about the poppy fields, the terrible mine blasts⁵, battling opium traffickers and drugs,” Mohammadi told The Associated Press.

She and her classmates at the center thought a computer game could bring attention to the issue, especially among the young. It could be their way to help in the fight against opium.

In the game, an Afghan soldier goes to Helmand to clear it of drugs. The soldier faces problems in the process: enemies hiding in tall corn fields, land mines, drug traffickers and hidden heroin laboratories.

Drug-supported war

Afghanistan is the world’s top grower of poppy, from which opium and heroin are produced. United Nations estimates show the country produces more opium than all other countries combined. Most poppy fields and drug production are in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

The city of Herat is along an important path traffickers use in transporting drugs to neighboring Iran and beyond.

The Taliban and the Afghan government have been fighting each other since 2001. The Taliban is heavily involved in poppy production, which has increased in recent years.

Mohammadi and her teammates completed the game in one month. She said she showed it to her brother before anyone else. She has not identified her brother to media for the safety of her family.

Mohammadi said her dream is that one day the opium poppy would be replaced by the saffron crocus, a flower used to make spice. She included that in the game, by having the soldiers try to persuade local poppy farmers to grow saffron instead.

Saffron costs more, she said, “and it would be better for the country.”

Fereshteh Forough created the Code to Inspire school. She was born an Afghan refugee⁶ in Iran. She returned to Herat after the Taliban lost control of the country in 2001. The former Herat University professor now lives in the United States. She wants to help girls learn to code as a way to change their lives.

The school houses over 80 girls, both high school and university students. They learn to create their own websites, apps, games and other web development projects.

Hasib Rassa is the CTI project manager. He said, “It’s not easy for a girl to find a job and go to work outside of her home in Afghanistan. Now, with just one laptop at home, she can work online and earn money and help her family.”

“The plan is to go big, to have more schools across Afghanistan,” he added.

New female ideas in IT

Other CTI students have started creating programs for social media that promote Afghan women. 20-year-old Frahnaz Osmani, a CTI student of graphic⁷ design, decided⁸ to develop Afghan female character stickers. Her stickers show a little girl in colorful traditional Afghan clothing, a red dress and a green headscarf. The stickers also carry messages in the Dari language.

“I wanted the world to see that Afghan girls can do something, and that we can have our own creations,” she said.

For 18-year-old Samira Ansari, another CTI student, coding was at first very difficult. But now, it is a path to her dream of becoming a web designer. She hopes to study that subject after her two-year program at the center.

“When I first heard about coding, I laughed and wondered what it means,” she said.

“But when I found out that all these creative and skilled people designing websites had started from coding, I became very interested,” she said with a big smile.

I’m Phil Dierking.

Words in This Story

app - n. a computer program that performs a special function?

blast⁴ - n. a powerful explosion?

code - v. to change (information) into a set of letters, numbers, or symbols that can be read by a computer?

laptop - n. a small computer that is designed to be easily carried?

manager - n. someone who is in charge of a business, department, etc.?

opium poppy - n. a Eurasian poppy with ornamental⁹ white, red, pink, or purple flowers. Its immature¹⁰ capsules yield a latex from which opium is obtained.?

sticker - n. a piece of paper with a picture or writing on it and a sticky substance on its back that is used to attach it to a surface?

translator - n. a person who changes words written in one language into a different language

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1 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

2 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

3 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

4 blast   

v.炸毁，摧毁；n.爆炸，爆破，一阵，汽笛声

参考例句：

• A huge bomb blast rocked central London last night.昨晚一次剧烈的炸弹爆炸震动了伦敦市中心。
• Not until last week was the project in full blast.工程直到上星期才全部开工。

5 blasts   

n.爆炸( blast的名词复数 )；一阵（疾风等）；（吹奏乐器、哨子、汽车喇叭等突然发出的）响声；突如其来的强劲气流v.（用炸药）炸毁( blast的第三人称单数 )；狠打；发出刺耳的高音；向…猛吹，（用水）向…喷射

参考例句：

• The blasts were caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited. 爆炸是由甲烷气囊被引燃造成的。
• The massive blasts shook windows throughout the city, jolting sleeping residents awake. 大量的冲击波震动了整个城市的窗户，惊醒了睡梦中的居民。

6 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

7 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 ornamental   

adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物

参考例句：

• The stream was dammed up to form ornamental lakes.溪流用水坝拦挡起来,形成了装饰性的湖泊。
• The ornamental ironwork lends a touch of elegance to the house.铁艺饰件为房子略添雅致。

10 immature   

adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的

参考例句：

• Tony seemed very shallow and immature.托尼看起来好像很肤浅，不夠成熟。
• The birds were in immature plumage.这些鸟儿羽翅未全。