Mary Akrami
Mary Akrami (Persian: ماری اکرمی; 1975 or 1976 (age 47–48))[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]
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
- ^ a b "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 18 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
- ^ a b c d Honorees
- ^ a b What's an American lawyer doing in Afghanistan? - CSMonitor.com
- ^ Afghan Women Slowly Gaining Protection, NYTimes, Retrieved 14 July 2016
- ^ AWIU » 2007 WOC – Mary Akrami Archived 2014-12-13 at the Wayback Machine