Some things aren’t subtle. 

Like how we celebrated that Afghan girl robotics team over the years.

They traveled abroad many times, making friends and getting headlines.

@neo. I’ve been thinking about these inspiring young women. I wonder where they are, whether they’re afraid or need help, and how many others like them are struggling with an uncertain future. ❤️ ","username":"apartovi","name":"Ali Partovi","date":"Tue Aug 17 15:52:41 +0000 2021","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/E9AQ5C...Ali Partovi @apartoviIt’s been 4 yrs since the Afghan Girls Robotics team visited us at @neo. I’ve been thinking about these inspiring young women. I wonder where they are, whether they’re afraid or need help, and how many others like them are struggling with an uncertain future. ❤️

August 17th 2021

25 Retweets280 Likes

Even when the blanket ban on people from many Muslim countries was in place, Trump personally intervened to allow them to travel to the United States—though their visas remain rejected.

The U.S. won't say why the girls were rejected for visas, citing confidentiality. But Mohib said that based on discussions with U.S. officials, it appears the girls were rebuffed due to concerns they would not return to Afghanistan. It's a fate that has beset many Afghans seeking entry to the U.S. in recent years as continuing violence and economic challenges lead many to seek asylum in America, or to travel through the U.S. to Canada to try to resettle there.

As their case gained attention, Trump intervened by asking National Security Council officials to find a way for them to travel, officials said. Ultimately the State Department, which adjudicates visa applications, asked the Homeland Security Department to let them in on "parole," a temporary status used only in exceptional circumstances to let in someone who is otherwise ineligible to enter the country. The U.S. granted parole after determining that it constituted a "significant public benefit."

We painted a mural of them on the public facing outer walls of the US embassy in Kabul.

a.image2.image-link.image2-733-1100 { padding-bottom: 66.63636363636364%; padding-bottom: min(66.63636363636364%, 733px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-733-1100 img { max-width: 1100px; max-height: 733px; } Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

They met with prime ministers. 

@CANFIRST Robotics Competitions in Toronto and North Bay, Ontario. #girlsinSTEM ","username":"CanadianPM","name":"CanadianPM","date":"Wed Feb 28 20:41:25 +0000 2018","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/DXJmPH...CanadianPM @CanadianPMPrime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with The Afghan Dreamers team in Ottawa before they participate in @CANFIRST Robotics Competitions in Toronto and North Bay, Ontario. #girlsinSTEM

February 28th 2018

100 Retweets355 Likes

And now, they’re trapped in Herat.

Their advocates have been begging for help, so far to no avail.

@NatashaFatah @JustinTrudeau @Cifile_Canada #savethegirls ","username":"KimMotleysLaw","name":"Kimberley Motley - Views expressed I own :-)","date":"Sun Aug 15 23:51:24 +0000 2021","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/E83q3K...Kimberley Motley - Views expressed I own :-) @KimMotleysLawCanada asking 4 your help 4 the Afghan Girls Robotics Team! Pls let them come 2 Canada & have a future. Every. Single. Girl. In Afghanistan deserves to be free. Pls help these girls! Citizens contact Canada officials!!! @NatashaFatah @JustinTrudeau @Cifile_Canada #savethegirls

August 15th 2021

14 Retweets28 LikesMike Gibbs🏳️‍🌈 @MikeggibbsA lawyer for the Afghan Girls Robotics Team is begging Justin Trudeau to allow Afghan girls to come to Canada so they can continue studying. "If they stay in Afghanistan they will become brides."

August 15th 2021

115 Retweets393 Likes

Some can’t even be reached anymore.

@RoyaMahboob & 'The Afghan Dreamers', award winners for their work in robotics a few months ago. She expressed concerns for #Afghanistan with the US troops leaving. In view of recent events, we tried to contact Roya but were unsuccessful.We pray for everyone's safety. ","username":"PositiveSolace","name":"Positive Solace","date":"Wed Aug 18 13:16:06 +0000 2021","photos":[{"img_url":"https://cdn.substack.com/image/upload...Positive Solace @PositiveSolaceWe spoke to @RoyaMahboob & 'The Afghan Dreamers', award winners for their work in robotics a few months ago. She expressed concerns for #Afghanistan with the US troops leaving. In view of recent events, we tried to contact Roya but were unsuccessful.We pray for everyone's safety.

August 18th 2021

4 Retweets5 Likes

Before anyone says it: yes, of course, they were always treated as symbols. They were tokenized, and turned into convenient feel good stories which got recycled around our buzzwords and concerns. 

When the pandemic hit, they got publicity for working on a low-cost ventilator. 

#iwed2021\nreuters.com/article/us-hea…","username":"the_female_lead","name":"The Female Lead","date":"Wed Jun 23 23:37:03 +0000 2021","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{},"retweet_count":28,"like_count":156,"expanded_url":{"url":"https://www.reuters.com/article/us-he... all-girls robotics team designs low-cost ventilator to treat coronavirus patients","description":"In the eastern Afghan city of Herat, 18-year-old high school student Somaya Faruqi adjusts a suction cap as she puts the finishing touches before unveiling a low-cost, lightweight ventilator created by her and six other young women.","domain":"reuters.com"},"video_url":null}">The Female Lead @the_female_lead"The all-female Afghan Robotics Team, which has won international awards for its robots, started work on an open-source, low-cost ventilator as the coronavirus pandemic hit the war-torn nation." Read their story 👇 #iwed2021reuters.com/article/us-hea…Afghan all-girls robotics team designs low-cost ventilator to treat coronavirus patientsIn the eastern Afghan city of Herat, 18-year-old high school student Somaya Faruqi adjusts a suction cap as she puts the finishing touches before unveiling a low-cost, lightweight ventilator created by her and six other young women.reuters.com

June 23rd 2021

28 Retweets156 Likes

Before it was their robotics work. They were the counterpart to those viral Boston Dynamics videos, I suppose.

Feel bad, feel good, keep scrolling.

No doubt they were smart and hard-working, like many other girls around the world, and also no doubt they deserved basic rights even if they were just ordinary kids. 

And no, saving them—just about 20 girls—will not magically solve Afghanistan’s problems, which do not lend themselves to easy or wishful thinking. 

As I wrote in my last post, I did not think military intervention in Iraq or Afghanistan was a good idea.

I don’t mean why didn’t we stay longer. I was deeply opposed to our occupation of Iraq and also Afghanistan, not because I’ve any delusions about what’s going on there anyway, but because it’s clear that any prolonged US military presence would make things worse in both places because that’s what military occupations by superior foreign powers do.

What I mean [is that] we didn’t do the minimally decent thing to help get a few of these people out of the country by putting them on planes for the preceding many months during which we could have done easily this—it would have been slightly politically inconvenient because nobody wants them is the honest truth.

I know the reality of global politics. It’s August and this could all easily be forgotten in US domestic politics in about a month as well (after a short news cycle around the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy).

As an immigrant myself, I’ll go first and concede that immigration is a difficult process, and those “refugees welcome” signs one sees in many liberal neighborhoods are not worth that much in reality. 

Mass migration at scale is a very very fraught process, and even with a lot of resources and goodwill, it can be destabilizing and difficult for everyone touched by it, even if, at times, it is an option of last resort. 

Still, there are things worse than a world of superficial and performative caring: it’s dropping even the pretense of it, even for that few, even after that much publicity before.

As I said, some things aren’t subtle.