“Rule Breakers,” a new drama film by Academy Award-winning producer Bill Guttentag, explores the remarkable journey of a teacher named Roya Mahboob, (played by Nikohl Boosheri), and the four determined Afghan girls, or “dreamers,” with whom she forms a successful robotics team in the war-torn nation. Mahboob, who became Afghanistan’s first female tech CEO, was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2013.
Since the decades-long war in Afghanistan ended a couple years ago, Afghan girls and women have been set back to the late 1990s when the Taliban banned them from school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to enact such a ban. Before this happened, Afghan girls and women were attending schools and colleges, working in parliament, hospitals, the beauty industry, music, and other fields.
Strict rules with harsh punishments have stunted the progress they made over the past decades when they held high-level positions in Afghan society, leading to “widespread reports” of depression, increased hospital visits for mental health, and recent suicides, according to the U.N.
From Vision to Victory: Building a Robotics Team Amid Conflict
As the film opens with volatile road scenes, the viewers are informed of the dangers looming around a landscape marred by war.
Mahboob says, “We are looking for four girls who would like to learn about robotics and compete with teams from other countries. It’ll show Afghan girls in a new light.” With this invitation, an urgent search for just the right girls begins.
When the team is finally assembled after many visits to different homes, Mahboob gets to work teaching them robotics, a skill she herself painstakingly learned despite the challenges she faced growing up in Afghanistan. They learn quickly and respect their teacher. The girls overcome every obstacle that comes up in their journey — whether it is visa denials, cultural…
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