2. Previous Function:
Representative of Afghan civil society at the 2001 Bonn Conference
Founder of the Afghan Women Skills Development Centre (AWSDC) (2003)
Executive Director of the Afghan Women’s Network (AWN)
High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) member (20200800)

3. Biodata:
Mrs Mary Akrami was born 1975 in Afghanistan. She passed the 12^th grade from Malalay, a girl's high school in Kabul, and got hrt BBA degree in Administration and Economy from Peshawar Pakistan during exile. Her family left Afghanistan and sought refuge in Pakistan. At the time of exile, she noticed that there were no earning opportunities for Afghanis and in particular for women. She decided to explore opportunities for learning English and computer literacy. She went to refugee camps and started literacy classes for Afghani women on a self-help basis. In addition to these activities she focused on raising awareness through political education workshops and seminars. She would not be able to conduct these if it were not for the support of the Aurat Foundation (A Pakistani NGO) and the Afghan Women Skills Development Center (AWSDC).

During the fall of 2001, she got the opportunity to attend the Afghan Civil Society meeting held in Bonn Germany where the destiny of Afghani women and people in general were discussed.

She started a small project of micro enterprise development for women in the small village of Ghazni and as result, 65 women benefited and are still benefiting even after AWSDC withdrawal.
 

In keeping with the growing ratio of violence against women and the lack of any facility to protect victims of violence, a shelter was established in April 2003 with the support of Norwegian church Aid (NCA). It is the first shelter of its kind and includes many types of help: psychological, legal, education and skill development for the victims in the shelter. Since the establishment of the shelter, 309 women and girls have sought refuge there and currently we have 22 beneficiaries with the rest of the women and girls having gone back after finding a solution to their situations.