The character arc of Roya Mahboob
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in Herat in 1987, and taken to Iran as an infant when the family left. Between then and now sit a return to Afghanistan in 2003, a computer science degree in 2009, a software company founded in 2010, a platform for Afghan women filmmakers, a nonprofit founded in 2012, the Time 100 in 2013, and a robotics team evacuated in August 2021. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Roya Mahboob?
She came back at sixteen and built the company.
She was born in Herat in 1987, and her family left Afghanistan for Iran during the years of Taliban rule. She grew up there. The family returned to Herat in 2003, when she was about sixteen, to a country where a girl going into computing was not the expected thing at all.
She took a bachelor's degree in computer science at Herat University in 2009, studied under educators from the Technical University of Berlin and spent a semester there training as a lecturer, then worked as IT director at Herat University and as a project coordinator at the Ministry of Higher Education. In 2010, with two classmates and twenty thousand dollars, she founded the Afghan Citadel Software Company, which grew to more than twenty programmers, over half of them women, writing custom software for government ministries and international organisations.
Then more: the Examer platform in 2012, Women's Annex, a multilingual content platform that financed Afghan women filmmakers, and the Digital Citizen Fund the same year, a nonprofit for technological and financial literacy. Time named her one of the hundred most influential people in the world in 2013, with an introduction written by Sheryl Sandberg, and the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2015. With her brother Alireza Mehraban she co-founded the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, whose members were evacuated to Qatar in August 2021. Her line is worth reading for the ratio: she was twenty three when she was running the company.
The moments
Roya Mahboob's timeline.
The 1980s
Born in Herat, then exile
Setback, and it changed everything. An infant in one country and a child in another, with the choice made for her.
The 2000s
The family went home
Milestone, and it changed everything. About sixteen years old, arriving in the city she had been born in and did not remember.
Computer science at Herat
Milestone, and it changed everything. Six years from arriving to graduating, in a subject few women there were studying.
A semester in Berlin
Milestone. Training to teach the subject, not only to work in it.
Take the salary, or start the company
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: found Afghan Citadel, taken, or stay in the public posts. The company grew past twenty programmers, over half of them women, and Time named her to its hundred most influential people in 2013.
The 2010s
Afghan Citadel Software
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty three years old, two classmates, twenty thousand dollars, and a payroll that was more than half women.
Women's Annex and the Fund
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The company paid for itself. These were built so other people could start.
The Time 100
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three years after founding the company, on a list of a hundred people worldwide.
A disruptive innovation award
Milestone. One of several. The awards were catching up with the work.
Young Global Leader
Milestone. At about twenty eight, in the room where those decisions are made.
The 2020s
The team was evacuated
Setback, and it changed everything. The girls she had built the team for left the country. The team did not stop.
Her line goes on, still building, in a place that did not want her to. What it has set moving is a list of names: the programmers she hired, the filmmakers she financed and the girls on the robotics team, each of whom now has a line of their own.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers went from a childhood in exile to a software company by twenty three. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Roya Mahboob: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
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What is the Digital Citizen Fund Roya Mahboob started?
Did Roya Mahboob start the Afghan Girls Robotics Team?
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Where did Roya Mahboob study?
Where does this timeline of Roya Mahboob's life come from?
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Sources
- Roya Mahboob, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Time magazine, the Time 100 of 2013.