Afghan Dreamer, now a Virginia Tech student, reflects on movie about her team's triumphs

The new movie “Rule Breakers” tells the remarkable story of the first Afghan Girls Robotic Team, known as the Afghan Dreamers.

The tale of overcoming forbidding cultural and diplomatic obstacles to compete in the First Global Challenge international robotics competition in Washington, D.C., made international news in 2017.  

Founded by trailblazing Afghan entrepreneur and girls’ education advocate Roya Mahboob, team members gained further worldwide acclaim for a low-cost ventilator design to address a shortage in their country during the onset of COVID. Their achievements landed them on the Fortune’s 30 Under 30 Asia and Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 lists.

One of those teammates, Ayda Haydarpour, now studies computer science at Virginia Tech. Approaching the end of her junior year, her day-to-day activities include research projects, studying for exams, and working in the University Libraries' prototyping studio in Newman Library — but add to those more typical student routines the extraordinary turn of having a film about the experiences she lived playing in theaters and streaming on video.

Born in Haret, Afghanistan, she could not as a child have foreseen where her life journey would take her. “I was born and raised in a family of almost all doctors, and they wanted me to become a doctor, too, but I found out that I'm more interested in technology and math and problem solving,” Haydarpour said.

Haydarpour’s interest in STEM grew out of wondering how video games worked, specifically how a character could be controlled by a joystick. At age 13, she joined the Digital Citizen Fund, an all-girls program focused on robotics and game development, led by Mahboob. Haydarpour landed a spot on the Afghan Girls Robotics team in 2018 after passing a comprehensive exam.

“When I was playing video games, my biggest question was, how can I control these characters,” she said. “When I joined the robotics team, it was really exciting, because I wasn’t only controlling the characters. It was the robots, an actual physical device, that we got to control.”

When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Afghan Dreamers escaped, their team relocating to Qatar.

“When we had to leave my home country, it was a really tough moment for everyone, especially for me, because I had to come without my parents and without my family,” Haydarpour said. “But at the same time, I had the chance to go to Qatar and continue my education and learn about different opportunities that were out there for me. Virginia Tech was one of the options.

“Coming to Virginia Tech, I experienced a whole new world. I got to see that it’s OK if you’re a girl, and you want to do something in STEM. That was what I wanted to learn back home, but was not happening.”

What has it been like seeing the Afghan Dreamers story adapted into a movie?

We did not think our experiences, the things we went through, were going to be in a movie. Now we call it from Haret to Hollywood, which is a really fun and exciting opportunity for me and all the team members and our team in general because we wanted people to see Afghanistan from a different angle.

Seeing the trailer for the first time was surreal, it captured so many familiar details from our team’s early days. It brought back memories of where our team started. It’s not just about robotics, it’s about what was possible in a place where few expected it.

When you saw the full movie, did it turn out like you hoped it would?

When I saw "Rule Breakers," it felt incredibly real in how it captured that specific moment and our shared journey, along with all the challenges and victories that shaped our team.

I am glad the movie has come out when it has. Work on the movie began before the Taliban retook the country, but its release came after. People think of Afghanistan as a country of war, a country of poverty, a country that people do not see as having a touch in STEM. When I was a part of this team throughout all those years, I was seeing how people’s perspectives were changing. The movie shows that.

The movie depicts all the candidates for the Afghan Dreamers team meeting Roya Mahboob in a packed classroom. Is that how it happened?

I got introduced to the robotics team when I was in eighth grade. I heard from my school that there's a team of all girls working on robots and devices and game programming. I thought that I might find the answers to my childhood questions about the whole tech world — I did not have really a person to ask those questions. When I found out about the opportunity, it was a really exciting moment for me.

I got to meet Miss Roya after I joined the team. She opened new opportunities and new doors for girls in Afghanistan, introduced girls to robotics — back then, it was a really male dominated field. Day by day, as I was a part of this team, I was exploring new things.

How closely does "Rule Breakers" follow your team’s real-life experiences?

“Rule Breakers" is kind of like a fictionalized version of our story, but most of it is based on what we went through. For example, there are four girls in the movie, but actually there were like 12 of us. They kind of pulled things from each team member and then combined them into characters.”

Did you recognize yourself in any of the team members portrayed in the movie?

One of the characters that shows similarities with my personal life dresses like a boy to have a job. Like, the character is riding a motorcycle. Being a girl back home, it wasn’t something that girls would do, but I was fortunate enough that my dad gave me that opportunity to learn how to ride.

Back in Afghanistan, it was really hard to be in STEM as a girl. If I'm being honest, I wanted to be a boy back home because I was thinking there are more opportunities for boys compared to girls. Sometimes I wanted to dress like that or to cut my hair. Fortunately enough, I was in a family that were open minded. They let me do what I was interested in, which was STEM.

What led you to pick Virginia Tech to further you education?

When I first learned about Ut Prosim — That I May Serve — it made me feel like this was a school that cared about something bigger than just rankings or degrees. I wanted a place where I could build the skills I needed in tech and still stay connected to the idea of giving back. I was also drawn to the focus on hands-on learning and how many students talked about feeling supported here. It just felt like a place where I could build something meaningful for my future.

Has there been anyone at Virginia Tech who has opened doors for you the way Roya Mahboob did?

When I first got here, Debbie Day (associate vice president of presidential priorities) supported me all the time. She is there for me every single time. The experience that I have had at Virginia Tech is really, wonderful because of her.

My professor in computer science, Sally Hamouda, has been supporting my ideas and my thoughts. I have two research projects with her. One of them is called CodeKids. We have this website that we use to teach kids coding based on different games. And my other research is about virtual reality classes that we try to integrate into classrooms for the first time. I’m in charge of the technical aspects of those.

And also, my English instructor, Katherine Hall, helped me a lot with starting my organization at Virginia Tech, Education for Empowerment. We offer free online classes for Afghan girls, with courses taught in both Farsi and English to make education more accessible. Our goal is to remove barriers for students by providing resources, mentoring, and. We also focus on helping them build skills in subjects like math, computer literacy, and language learning.

“Rule Breakers,” released in theaters nationwide in March, can be streamed through Angel Studios at angel.com. A subscription is required.