Fereshteh Forough

Fereshteh Forough (born 1985 ) is an Afghan social activist and the CEO and founder of Code to Inspire (CTI), the first coding school for girls in Afghanistan. She is an advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of women in developing countries through digital literacy, education, and financial independence.

Early life and education


Forough was born in Iran to Afghan parents and grew up a refugee. She is one of eight siblings. A year after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, her family moved back to Herat, Afghanistan. In 2012, she moved to New York City. She currently resides in New Hampshire, United States.

Forough graduated from high school in Iran, majoring in literature. She initially had no interest in computer science but was assigned the field after taking a college entrance exam. Her father encouraged her to pursue the field, and she took his advice. She went on to obtain a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Herat University and later a Master's degree from Technical University of Berlin in Germany.

Career
After obtaining her master's degree, Forough became a professor of computer science at her alma mater, Herat University, where she worked for almost three years. Before founding Code to Inspire in January 2015, Forough was also a co-founder and board member of Women's Annex Foundation. Now known as Digital Citizen Fund, this organization is a non-profit that teaches girls and women digital literacy and works to provide access to technology and the internet to girls in developing countries.

Code to Inspire
Code to Inspire (CTI) opened the first all-female coding school in Afghanistan in November 2015. CTI, based in Herat, is a non-profit, one-year program. Women and girls in the program are typically between 15 and 25 years of age. Forough saw a need for an exclusively female coding school when she herself was studying and faced discrimination from male peers. She set up a crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo and raised over $22,000 USD to help fund the coding school. CTI also received funding from other organizations, such as the Malala Fund and GitHub, as well as 20 laptop computers from Overstock.com. Forough's goal in establishing CTI was to allow girls to learn valuable technological skills in a safe and comfortable environment. Students are also able to build their resumes which can lead to greater job opportunities after graduation. More advanced students learn how to create mobile apps and educational games, while those less experienced learn the basics of coding and other technological skills, such as how to use social media. Forough has voiced her desire to open new branches of CTI in other cities in Afghanistan and countries throughout the Middle East and Africa.

In 2021, Forough was forced to close the school's physical location in Herat due to the Taliban's takeover of the country. To ensure classes were able to continue virtually, CTI provided laptops and internet packages to students in need. Eighty percent of students have continued to attend the school online.

Awards
In 2016, CTI was the recipient of University of California, Berkeley CITRIS Athena Awards for Women in Technology Next Generation Engagement Award. The same year, CTI was awarded Google's RISE Award which granted the organization $25,000 USD. In 2017, CTI was recognized with Sustania's Community Award.

Advocacy
Forough is a Peace is Loud speaker whose speaking topics include "Women and Technology: Investing in the Future," "Educating, Inspiring, and Empowering Afghan Women," "Coding for Social Change," and "Filling the Gender Gap in STEM." She gave a TED Talk in 2013 and was a 2015 Clinton Global Initiative panel speaker. She was also a mentor for Google's 2016 project Change is Made with Code.

Recognition
At Marie Clair's first ever Young Women's Honors in 2016, Forough won The Revolutionary award. She was also recognized at The Game Awards 2019 as a Global Gaming Citizen, someone who uses games to create positive change. She has been featured in the books 200 Women: Who Will Change the Way You See the World (2017), Unlocked: How Empowered Women Empower Women (2021), and We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom, and the Fight to be Heard (2022).