KABUL -- Days after bringing honour to Afghanistan on the international stage, 15-year-old Fatema Qaderyan is mourning her father, who was killed Tuesday (August 1) in a suicide bombing at a Herat mosque.
"We are all devastated; Fatema hasn't eaten or spoken since the incident, and is in a state of shock," Fatema's brother Mohammad Reza told AFP at the family home. "Today after she fainted several times, doctors started IV fluid therapy."
Thirty-three Shia worshippers, including children, were killed when two "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) suicide bombers threw grenades and stormed the Jawadya mosque.
Fatema was part of the six-member all-girl Afghan robotics team that won hearts across the globe when it competed at the FIRST Global Challenge robotics tournament in Washington in July.
"We want to take the message of peace to America and convey that Afghanistan is not only the country of war and that there are girls who chase their dreams in robots and education," Fatema told AFP before travelling to the United States for the competition.
