BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- All-girl Afghan robotics team will not attend an international robotics competition in the United States this month because their visa applications were denied not once, but twice.
The robotics competition, taking place on July 16-18 in Washington D.C., is an "Olympic"-style competition in which one team from every nation is invited to participate.
The Afghan team applied to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul for a second time after their applications were denied at first on July 4. However, this time they were barred again.
"When we heard that we were rejected we lost hope," said 14-year-old Sumaya Farooqi.
Afghanistan is not one of the six Muslim-majority countries from which travel is temporarily banned according to President Donald Trump's order. Syria, Iran and Sudan are on that list, but teams from these three countries were granted visas to attend the competition. In addition, members of the team from Gambia were allowed to enter the United States after initially being barred.
Team Afghanistan's robot has been granted entry into the U.S. for competition while its creators will have to watch the competition via a live Skype video link.
