Mary Akrami

Mary Akrami (Persian: ماری اکرمی‎; 1975/1976 (age 44–45))[1] is the director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center.[2] She represented Afghan civil society at the 2001 Bonn Conference.[3] In 2003 the Afghan Women Skills Development Center opened the first women’s shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan.[4][3] The shelter provides legal advice, literacy classes, psychological counseling, and basic skills training to women who need them.[2] Akrami is on call 24 hours a day at the shelter, and under her leadership some of the women there have denounced their abusers publicly and filed court cases against them, something almost unheard of before.[5] She has faced threats for her work.[2]

Mary Akrami in 2012

She received a 2007 International Women of Courage Award[2] and was named in the BBC 100 Women 2016 list as one of the year's most inspirational and influential women.[1]

References
  1. "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  2. Honorees
  3. What's an American lawyer doing in Afghanistan? - CSMonitor.com
  4. Afghan Women Slowly Gaining Protection, NYTimes, Retrieved 14 July 2016
  5. AWIU » 2007 WOC – Mary Akrami Archived 2014-12-13 at the Wayback Machine
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