Indian child in Dubai emailed Tim Cook about her iOS app. He wrote back saying...

(Image credit: Screengrab from video posted on YouTube by Lehanas)

A nine-year-old Indian child in Dubai has won praise from Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook for developing an iOS application for storytelling, according to a Gulf Times report.

Hana Muhammad Rafeeq created the app when she was eight, and says she is “the youngest Apple iOS developer”. She wrote to Tim Cook to tell him about her accomplishment.

The Apple boss wrote back, congratulating her for the app.

“Hana, Congratulations on all of your impressive achievements at such a young age!," he said in an e-mail, which was viewed by Gulf Times. "Keep at it and you will do amazing things in the future. Best, Tim."

Hana's application allows users to record stories in their own voices and narrate them to children. She said she had to write 10,000 lines of code to create the app.

Both Hana and her sister Leena developed an interest in coding because of their parents. Their father has been engaged in building an edtech-focused startup, and their mother learnt coding on his insistence.

Nine-year-old Hana already understands coding is a sought-after skill.

“I think all children, especially girls should learn coding,” she told Khaleej Times. “It is important for women to be financially stable and make their own money. Being good in coding gives women flexibility and they can choose where to work from.”

Hana dreams of working for Tim Cook someday.

Her sister, who is 10, said they want to give back to the world.

"We love coding because of the thrill it gives us to solve problems and seeing how our codes come to life,” Leena said.