Fereshteh Forough
Fereshteh Forough is a technologist, educator and social entrepreneur from Afghanistan. She is the founder and Executive Director of Code to Inspire, a nonprofit organization that launched the first coding school for girls in Afghanistan in 2015. Through Code to Inspire, she has worked to expand access to technology education for Afghan girls and to help students obtain remote employment opportunities in the global tech sector.
Early life and education
Forough was born in Iran to Afghan refugee parents and spent her early life in the country before her family returned to Herat, Afghanistan, following the fall of the Taliban in 2001. She completed her early education in Iran and later earned a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Herat University, followed by a Master's degree in information technology from the Technische Universität Berlin.Her academic background and personal experience as a refugee influenced her later work promoting access to technology education for girls in Afghanistan.
Career
After obtaining her master's degree, Forough became a professor of computer science at her alma mater, Herat University.Code to Inspire
Forough founded in 2015 as the first all-female coding school in Afghanistan. Based in Herat, the nonprofit provided courses in programming, web development, graphic design, and digital literacy for girls and young women. CTI’s early operations were supported by crowdfunding and international donors, including an Indiegogo campaign, a Google RISE Award grant, and early donations from GitHub, as well as support from organizations such as The Asia Foundation, DataCamp, and Consensys.Students at CTI work on practical projects, including mobile applications, websites, and educational or social-impact games. Alongside technical training, CTI has incorporated instruction in digital payments and cryptocurrencies. During Afghanistan’s post-2021 economic crisis, CTI partnered with international supporters to send emergency assistance in cryptocurrency to selected students’ families and trained participants to create and manage digital wallets, convert funds into stablecoins, and cash out through local money exchangers.
In 2021, Forough was forced to close the school's physical location in Herat due to the Taliban's takeover of the country. To ensure classes were able to continue virtually, CTI provided laptops and internet packages to students in need. Eighty percent of students have continued to attend the school online.