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Video: Apple CEO Tim Cook congratulates Dubai-based Indian girl who developed iOS app when she was just 8 years old

Homeschooled Indian child learns coding from sister, 10, who had made a website at age 6


Dubai: An Indian girl in Dubai who developed an iOS app for iPhones at the age of eight and has been congratulated by Apple CEO Tim Cook for her achievement at such a young age.

Meet Hana Muhammad Rafeeq, now aged 9, who introduces herself as “the youngest Apple iOS developer”. Though Gulf News could not independently verify this, Hana has pointed out online reports that indicate that her claim seems to be valid.

Moreover, the CEO of Apple himself has congratulated her in his reply to her mail in which she had explained her app and other achievements.

“I created and published an Apple mobile application at the age of eight,” Hana wrote in the email to Cook, a copy of which has now been shared with Gulf News.


10,000 lines of codes

“I got introduced to coding by the age of five and it seems I am the youngest in the world to achieve this. In addition, I almost avoided using any third-party ready-made codes, libraries, or classes in my app. I hand-wrote more than 10,000 lines of codes for this app. Please have a quick preview,” she wrote, sharing the YouTube links of her works.

Giving further details about her, Hana wrote that she is an Indian girl, born and brought up in the UAE.

“The reason for this writing is for my parents to say I did something extraordinary and let the Apple leader know how passionate [I am] in technology, especially Apple. Just to make the world aware that coding is not that impossible, instead it is an essential subject to include in early stages of child education, [with] the same priority as human communication language.

“The future is all about communication, not only between humans but also with the machines, animals, cells, microbes and planets. So the digital opportunities are never-ending, it’s just begun.

“If you feel my stories and thoughts are worth your time, please revert back or else just ignore. I really understand the value of time,” her email read.


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