Mary Akrami ( fa, ماری اکرمی; ) is the director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center.
/ref> She represented Afghan civil society at the 2001

Bonn Conference After Operation Enduring Freedom in which the Taliban government was toppled in Afghanistan, in December 2001, the German city of Bonn hosted a conference – widely known as the Bonn Conference – of Afghan leaders at Hotel Petersberg, to choo ...

.What's an American lawyer doing in Afghanistan? - CSMonitor.com
/ref> In 2003 the Afghan Women Skills Development Center opened the first women’s shelter in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, Afghanistan. The shelter provides legal advice, literacy classes, psychological counseling, and basic skills training to women who need them. 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.AWIU » 2007 WOC – Mary Akrami
She has faced threats for her work. She received a 2007

International Women of Courage Award The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

and was named in the ''BBC 100 Women 2016'' list as one of the year's most inspirational and influential women.

References

Living people Afghan women's rights activists 1970s births BBC 100 Women Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award {{Afghanistan-activist-stub