Forging a Learning Path for Afghan Women

A computer science major at Methodist who was born a refugee in Pakistan and raised in Afghanistan, Zakia Maryam Najafizada ’24 (UWC Red Cross Nordic) responded to the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of her country, and its resulting barriers to higher education for women, by developing an online English-learning application for Afghan females.

Amoozesh is primarily for women who speak Dari, Afghanistan’s most common language. “At Amoozesh we believe that education is a fundamental right, and everyone should have access to quality learning resources,” says the application’s website, amoozeshapp.com.

“I developed it using programming languages like Swift for iOS and Java for Android, with a focus on user-friendly design,” Zakia writes. “I aim to develop it into a comprehensive educational initiative that provides free electronic devices, seamless Wi-Fi access, and an extensive catalog of learning materials.”

Zakia has been chosen as a teaching assistant in the Computer Science department, where her own research delves into the complex interplay of AI and cybersecurity.

“The focus is to understand how these attacks work, specifically evasion attacks and their impact on AI systems like Chat GPT and Bing,” Zakia explains. “I found that while AIs have their own unique mechanisms, they can be exploited with certain inputs. To counter this, I proposed a multi-pronged approach, whose strategies aim to enhance the AI’s resilience against the deceptions of adversarial inputs.

“This research could help improve the security and reliability of AI systems, which is crucial both for my future projects and the broader tech community.”

This profile is part of the “Undergraduates in Action” series from the 2024 Annual Report.