Fatima Zohra Benhamida

This week, 2017 fellow Fatima Zohra Benhamida was interviewed for Tech Sisters, an online community and platform that challenges the perception of Muslim women and amplifies women in technology fields. Fatima is an assistant professor at the National School of Computer Science in Algiers, as well as a TechWomen/TechGirls Club board member, Technovation judge and Microsoft Humans of IT community ambassador. In the feature, Fatima speaks about her passion for STEM fields, the power of mentorship and how tech can become more welcoming to women and girls.
When Fatima was a computer science student, 10% of students at the university were women. “Now, I’m delighted to say that half of the students in my class are women. In the same university, we went from 10% to 50%,” she says. Fatima also shares advice for Muslim women — and all women — who are struggling to find the self-confidence to take risks: “When you believe in something hard enough, you can stick with it. You’ll fight, and fail, and rise again until you get there. You have to fight for your dreams, and I know you can do it!”​