[Music]
what could be so similar between two
drastically different worlds let me tell
you a story I am a daughter of two
successful doctors my dad being a
pediatrician meaning he's a children's
doctor and my mom being an
ophthalmologist meaning she's an eye
doctor and their work has always been a
source of fascination to me ever since I
was young and it's expected and normal
even for me to turn out to be a doctor
as well however as part of our school
curriculum back when I was in high
school we were required to pick a
subject of her own choice and I went for
robotics since it was something that I
have never ever tried before now
during our robotics course we were
required to create certain projects and
prototypes and I vividly remember one
project my group and I created which we
called the Aruna project now we call it
a project code or a meaning button in
Arabic consisted of four individuals and
it aimed to ease the process for water
delivery companies since they are
heavily relied on here in Jordan where
the sensor in the smarts multi button
would send a signal to a microcontroller
in which done the microcontroller would
send a message to the water delivery
company that this certain household is
in need for more water little did we
know the Accord a project was actually a
huge success since we got the chance to
pitch it at various events and workshops
one of these events being the world
Science Forum of 2017 and in another
event a representative from a well-known
institution here in Jordan came up to us
and asked
a little more about her project and then
she introduced us to this program called
tech girls now tech girls is an
international summer exchange program
we're all accepted female applicants
from all across the MENA region get the
chance to participate in a technology
camp in the US now I didn't really think
much of it until two days before the
deadline because clearly I am the best
at time management
apparently so my at sarcasm and it
wasn't the atactic since I had to answer
five essay questions in one night
however I did at the end managed to
submit my application exactly 43 minutes
before the deadline but the hassle was
indeed all worth it since I got the
chance to meet 27 innovative and
creative females from all across the
MENA region since I was one of the four
chosen delegates to represent Jordan in
the program now do you ever stay in the
US we visited prominent tech companies
such as Google as you can tell I was
quite excited about our visit to Google
and we also participated in various
discussion panels leadership clinics and
even community and service activities
and we learned more about programming
and the importance of STEM fields in our
daily life and by stem I mean science
technology engineering and mathematics
not stem cells although it probably
would have made me look a lot cooler and
this is what I realized that medicine
wasn't what I wanted to pursue anymore
but instead I became infatuated with
fields such as computer science for
example and Here I am quite an anxious
software engineering student figuring
out their way through their
freshman year in university now post up
girls
my fellow tech girls and I decided to
conduct various outreach sessions for
females ages 15 to 17 and females from
all across the nation would join us to
know more about our experience in the
program and the importance of females in
STEM fields
and this is how we built a constantly
expanding community of career-driven
females from all across the nation now
but I'm not in a coffee shop coding for
many many hours you will indeed find me
on the rugby pitch with my team to give
you a little backstory I was introduced
to one of the most important things in
my life right now which is rugby or as
I'd like to call it the cherry on top of
my ear now to give you a little synopsis
about what rugby actually is about
although I don't like to use this
comparison very often however rugby is
quite close to a sport like American
football just without the extra
protection
I guess now the Citadel rugby Queens was
the first female rugby team founded in
Jordan and it was founded in November of
2017 we first started out with touch
rugby which is very similar to actual
rugby however it eliminates full
physical contact and in the midst of
2018 we started with our contact rugby
journey and it was a feeling that I've
never felt before because I was always
into individual sports and rugby was the
first team sport that I ever got
attached to and the bond between my
female teammates on I was such a unique
connection because Trust is such an
important asset
a rugby and then what was quite
fortunate about women's rugby here in
Jordan was the fact that it's folded
quite a domino effect since in less than
a year we had three female rugby teams
in Jordan where all the females involved
were very keen to play and know more
about the sports and then we had our
first contact game and this is when a
rugby career actually started because we
were then asked to represent Jordan in
our first international tournament which
was the West Asia rugby sevens Women's
Championship quite a tongue twister if
you ask me and it was held in it was
Adam cotton in April of 2019 we
unfortunately didn't get placed a stop
three however we did indeed give a
spectacular performance as we even
managed to score four trials in the
tournament tries meaning scores in rugby
and after that I was featured on the
world rugby website and after that I was
chosen by the Jordan rugby union to
attend the opening ceremony of the Rugby
World Cup in September 2019 which was
actually held in Japan by the way and
this was the first Rugby World Cup ever
held in an Asian country now not in a
million years did I ever think I would
even get close to Japan and not only did
I got the chance to see my favourite
rugby players play metres away from me
but I also met young rugby players from
all around Asia and this is when I
realized that we the youth have the same
Drive and passion towards this amazing
sport and with another cherry on top
the
big Queens participated in one of the
greatest animal rugby events in December
of 2019 which is do by sevens and this
was actually a huge deal because this
was the first participation for a
Jordanian woman in Dubai sevens now you
might be wondering why would I bring up
two drastically different worlds in one
talk I mean what could be so similar
between rugby and stump there is
absolutely no way both these fears can
actually in turmoil however this is
actually wrong in the situation at least
and not because what makes rugby and
stem quite similar is females when it
comes to stem science technology
engineering and mathematics fields are
generally known for being male-dominated
however with fields or with programs
such as Technos for example we get the
chance to increase the number of females
in stem and expand this beautiful
community not only in Jordan but across
the region as well and on the other hand
when it comes to rugby a slightly
physical sport that isn't quite favorite
for females where we started with around
12 to 15 female rugby players in the
beginning of 2018 and now we're around
50 female rugby players and our number
keeps on increasing on a daily so when
you think about it it's actually quite
fascinating how females here in Jordan
were actually able to do this I mean it
would take international organisations
years to be able to accomplish what
Jordanian females were able to achieve I
guess you can say that the best of both
worlds is resilient passionate goal
driven and fierce females that are so
to contribute towards this great
transformation so remember to code like
a girl run like a girl talking like a
girl and achieve like a girl thank you
[Applause]