This week, Scouts of Syria will become an official member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, while Arabic could become the organization’s fourth official language – following English, French and Spanish.

“I hope we have made Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan proud,” Azizi said. Of that there was no question. The Afghan ambassador, Hamdullah Mohib, said greeting the robotics team at Dulles International Airport was the “proudest moment of my career”. He described the girls as symbols of a new Afghanistan emerging from the shadow of America’s longest war.