Fereshteh Forough is the Founder and CEO of Code to Inspire. As a refugee, she learned, great things can start with empty hands! Fereshteh was born in a small town on the border of Iran and Afghanistan. She grew up in a family of eight kids. Fereshteh’s family left Afghanistan in the early 80's because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 

One year after the Taliban regime collapsed, Fereshteh and her family moved back to Herat, Afghanistan. After returning to Herat, she earned her Bachelors in Computer Science and then her Master’s from Technical University of Berlin in Germany. She taught as a professor at the Computer Science faculty of Herat University for almost three years. 

In January 2015, she founded the first coding school for girls in Herat, Afghanistan teaching around 150 girls how to code. Fereshteh often cites her favorite poem by Rumi to describe the resilience and change that is happening in modern-day Afghanistan, “Where there is ruin, there is hope for great treasure.”