After the Afghan government fell to the Taliban, 22-year-old Asad Asadullah settled into a new routine.
In his hometown in Afghanistan, the former computer science student started and ended each day with his laptop screen.
Code Weekend, a volunteer-run community of Afghan tech enthusiasts, has been organizing a virtual coding bootcamp for Asadullah since late October.
On some days, Asadullah took a screen break for a game of soccer, but he didn't see his friends as much anymore. There was only so much he could handle under the Taliban regime, and old friends were getting depressed. He tells me that his life is on his computer.
When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last August, Asadullah was one of millions of young Afghans whose lives were turned upside down. When the capital fell, Asadullah was thinking about his post-graduation plans. He was not picky about his first job, anything that would allow him to save money was a bonus. He wanted to start his own software company and teach computer science at high school and university. He says he can forget when he starts coding.
No one knows how long the plans are on hold. Afghanistan's new rulers have offered little by way of solutions to its citizens as the country's economy is in free fall and the UN warns of famine.
A coding boot camp may seem out of place in such dire circumstances. For its participants, it offers hope of a better future, though it's not certain if that's still possible in Afghanistan.
Virtual learning.
When the Taliban took power in August, it was not clear what their rule would mean for the internet. Would they cut off internet access? Is it possible to use social media posts to target their former enemies? Continue to work on their own public affairs campaigns?
The Taliban did not cut off access to the internet. Online learning has become one of the primary sources of education for Afghan students who can afford it at home.
Some of this is well organized, with virtual classrooms set up by international supporters, while others are self-directed and can be found on the internet. Sometimes it falls somewhere in between, using free or discounted online learning platforms.
Afghan women attend an event. The photo was courtesy of Code Weekend.
Code Weekend's virtual boot camp falls into this category. The Frontend Developer Career Path is a series of 13 interactive video learning modules that cover everything from HTML andCSS basics to tips on handling job interview questions.
Code Weekend volunteer mentors check in weekly to answer questions, ensure that participants stay on track, and assist with logistics, as participants can complete the modules on their own time and in their own homes. Roughly 50 members of the original cohort are active.
Ensuring internet access is just one of the logistical and financial challenges of running a bootcamp in Afghanistan. Every winter, power outages become more frequent. Code Weekend has been trying to crowdfund the costs of 3G credit and backup electricity through generators and battery storage units.
The software engineer who started Code Weekend seven years ago worries about what the Taliban think. The group doesn't want to know. He says that so far they have avoided interacting with them.
Code Weekend stays under the radar because of the virtual, asynchronous format of the bootcamp. It makes it easier for women who have been restricted in their freedom of movement by the Taliban to participate without leaving their homes.
One of the boot camp's female participants is Zarifa. A recent high school graduate, she wanted to go to college this semester, but instead she and her seven siblings spend most of their days at home. Between household chores, power outages, and her limited access to the internet, she spends just an hour or two on the coding bootcamp. This has provided a new structure and meaning to her days. She remembers being very tired at home after the Taliban arrived. She says her days are good since the coding bootcamp started.
The virtual format allows coders outside of the Afghan capital to participate.
Code weekend.
The event was held in 2015. The photo was courtesy of Code Weekend.
The techno-optimism that was prevalent in Kabul inspired the creation of Code Weekend, a program that brought together Afghan programmers.
Afghanistan's would-be tech moguls believe that computing will not only help them make money, but also secure peace in their land, according to a Fast Company profile.
Tech companies were not the only ones that were hopeful. Code Weekend was part of a series of initiatives that aimed to spur youth innovation, entrepreneurship, and, ultimately, engagement and leadership in building a more progressive Afghanistan, some funded by international donors with this express purpose.
The founder institute- kabul was one of the entrepreneurship-focused global franchises that ran from 2014 to 2017. At different times,Hashimi and I played roles in these programs. By the year 2016 the community for aspiring startup founders had been launched by Google.
Even after some of its own leadership team left Afghanistan, Code Weekend continued. In the seven years since its founding, the group has held around 100 in-person meetups at universities, incubators, and the offices of prominent Afghan technology companies.
The attendees learned everything from the basics of jаvascript to data collection tools. Afghanistan had a big appetite for surveys and employed a number of IT workers. They heard from local teams that came to introduce their new apps. The books they discussed were popular in the global tech community. In an all-night event, open-source enthusiasts came together to stream the global conference for the open-source Laravel web development framework.
After years of mostly weekend events, Code Weekend decided to launch an in-person coding boot camp. Twelve of the 15 developers who ran the pilot program graduated from the four-month program. Some people found jobs as a result of their participation.
Elyas Afghan hopes to be one of them after completing the bootcamp. He says that working with computers is what he has always wanted to do and that his older brothers influenced him to do so. He wants to work for a global tech company.
Code Weekend organizers planned for a second cohort, but the coronaviruses slowed their efforts. The Afghan government collapsed in August of last year, but rather than ending their plans, this accelerated them.
When the government fell, many dreams were shattered, recalls Hashimi. He had a deep desire to do something. He decided to continue to help in the way that he knew best: supporting Afghan coders. He hoped that a coding boot camp would give people hope, since earlier events focused on tech or innovation.
In our initial email correspondence, he wrote that his goal was to provide a more sustainable way for Afghan youth to learn new and market-driven skills, and to start earning an income for themselves and their families.
The potential for online work is one of the goals shared by many of the bootcamp participants. In 19-year-old Sherzoy's family, only her father is currently employed, and he makes barely enough to support her and her six siblings. She wants to help her family and do something for her future after the bootcamp. She says she doesn't want to be uneducated.
A Code Weekend participant works on an app. The photo was courtesy of Code Weekend.
Most of the income opportunities are coming from his other efforts, which include Code Weekend, a software development company that employs or contracts with over 20 Afghan programmers, and an online freelancing platform.
It is an adjustment to his original plans. After leaving Afghanistan for a master's degree in innovation management in the UK, he used to spend a lot of time in his home country supporting the tech community. He says his dream was to have the largest software house in Afghanistan.
That is still his goal. He wants to bring 1,000 jobs from outside the country by the year 2023, which would help a lot of people.
The reality is that the vast majority of Afghans are not eligible for relocation. They will need new sources of income while in Afghanistan. The international tech community is seen as a potential provider of that income.
The country faces more urgent challenges and will take time.
