echnologist and human rights activist Sara Wahedi, 28, has made security and safety her life’s mission. She created the digital app, Ehtesab — a verified, monitored platform that shares real-time emergency information to Kabul residents in Afghanistan. This digital app has become a lifeline, especially for women and girls, since the Taliban took control of the country in 2021, as they can get reliable information about the danger around them. Wahedi is an Afghan national who moved to Canada at the age of six but returned to the country over the years for work. While she’s not working full-time managing her lean start-up from New York, Wahedi is attending Columbia University where she is working on a dual degree in data science and urban studies. During a break between a virtual meeting with her young staff in Kabul and classes, she shared how she decided to use digital technology to protect people, especially women and girls from violence in Afghanistan.

Wahedi moved to the U.S. in August to study human rights and data science at Columbia University, but much of her focus remains with Ehtesab in Afghanistan.