Breaking the Rules with Nikohl Boosheri, Roya Mahboob, & Amber Afzali

Rule Breakers tells the remarkable true story of how entrepreneur Roya Mahboob fought for girls’ education in Afghanistan and formed the country’s first competitive robotics team, the Afghan Dreamers. 

On this very special Season 3 premiere of CherryPop, Meg welcomes to the podcast, the film’s inspiration and executive producer, Roya Mahboob, and stars Nikohl Boosheri and Amber Afzali. Nikohl and Amber start things off by sharing heartfelt memories from the set and remark on their meaningful experience filming and bringing this story to life. Roya joins in, and together, they discuss filmmaking as a powerful tool for change in continuing the fight for girls’ education, and the importance of  representing Afghan women in their entirety on screen.

“We don't see courage being in the absence of fear. We see that it's having fear and moving forward anyways.” - Nikohl Boosheri

“In Hollywood we don't see Afghanistan represented with the dark and the light. We often focus on the dark and we often see women with faceless identities or not being fully dynamic characters on screen. I felt good knowing that I can make my community proud by engaging in this project; I can make my family proud. And most of all, I could look back on the project and be like, this is something that I think is bigger than me.” - Amber Afzali

Rule Breakers is out now in theaters! 

CherryPicks is the best place to see what women think about movies, tv, and more. CherryPicks highlights reviews and original stories exclusively from female and non-binary writers. www.TheCherryPicks.com

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Follow your host Meg McCarthy on Instagram  @megjomccarthy

Music composed by Honor Nezzo.

CherryPop is executive produced by Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes, produced and hosted by Meg McCarthy, and edited by In Haus Media