Trudeau used Afghan girls robotics team for photo op, now they are begging for his help

According to The Independent, the 20-member team, known as the "Afghan Dreamers," includes girls aged 12 and 18. They are "extremely terrified" and are trying to connect with the prime minister, who held a photo op with them in 2018.

The team has thrived since the US held a presence in their country. They competed in multiple competitions worldwide and made headlines for their life-saving mission to build a ventilator from used car parts.

All of their accomplishments and freedoms are now at risk as the Taliban is reportedly going door-to-door and taking young girls as sex slaves.

Several experts noted that under the Taliban, the well-being of women and minorities is a big concern.

Before the US mandate in Afghanistan two decades ago, the Taliban curtailed freedoms for women. For example, they could not enter public places without a male from their household.

"Unfortunately, what’s been happening to little girls over this last week is that the Taliban has been literally going from door to door and literally taking girls out and forcing them to become child brides," said Human Rights Lawyer Kimberley Motley.

"We are literally begging the Canadian government, we are begging prime minister [Justin] Trudeau, who has been an amazing supporter of the Afghan girls' robotics team to please allow them to come to Canada," she said on CBC.

"To talk to these girls and listen to them crying over the phone to be saved… Begging that the Canadians save them... These girls have a future. They deserve to have a future."

"They all want to go to college. They will not be able to do that if they remain in Afghanistan," she added. "These girls want to be engineers, they want to be in the AI community and they dare to dream to succeed."

The chief of field operations for UNICEF in Afghanistan is Mustapha Ben Messaoud. He told a UN briefing on Tuesday that 11 out of the 13 field offices in the country were up and running.

"We have ongoing discussions, and we are quite optimistic based on those discussions," he said. "We have not a single issue with the Taliban in those field offices."

A Taliban spokesperson said the terrorist group is "committed to the rights of women within the framework of Sharia." The Taliban said they supported a girls’ right to education.