Since the Taliban came back to power last year, thousands of Afghans especially women and children were internally displaced, lost their jobs, are living in a terrible economic situation. In short, they are experiencing a humanitarian disaster. Many of the men and women who lost their jobs were the only breadwinner in their families. 

Click here to donate via Facebook.

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The famed Afghan activist, former parliamentarian and author of A Woman Among Warlords, Malalai Joya, recorded this brief message on August 28th.

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Afghan Women’s Mission has been in touch with RAWA to address their needs at this urgent time. In this brief Q&A with AWM Co-Director Sonali Kolhatkar, RAWA explains the unfolding situation on the ground as they see it.

Sonali Kolhatkar: For years RAWA spoke out against the U.S. occupation and now that it has ended, the Taliban are back. Could President Biden have withdrawn U.S. forces in a manner that would have left Afghanistan in a safer situation than currently? Could he have done more to ensure the Taliban were not so quickly able to take over?

RAWA: In the past 20 years, one of our demands was an end to the US/NATO occupation and even better if they take their Islamic fundamentalists and technocrats with them and let our people decide their own fate. This occupation only resulted in bloodshed, destruction and chaos. They turned our country into the most corrupt, insecure, drug-mafia and dangerous place especially for women.

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On December 12, 2015, an American humanitarian aid worker named Lisa Akbari was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan outside the gym she frequented. Heartbroken by their loss, Akbari’s family in the United States set up a crowd funding initiative to raise funds in her memory. Afghan Women’s Mission is touched and honored to be the recipient of the funds raised. We thank Akbari’s family and express our deepest condolences to them. The funds will appropriately be used to further Afghan women’s rights, a cause dear to Lisa Akbari’s heart.

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This holiday season, a 19 year old from Arizona, named Aaron Peterson, contacted us saying he wanted to do his part to raise much needed funds for RAWA’s work. Afghan Women’s Mission is proud to feature Aaron’s Indiegogo campaign to raise $25,000 for RAWA by the end of this year.

All donations to this campaign will go directly to AWM in order to fund RAWA’s important work to empower women and girls in Afghanistan: prejects like Danish school in Farah Province.

Aaron’s message to you is: “I want you to help me change this sense of hopelessness by ensuring women in Afghanistan receive the modern healthcare, education and other resources that they require.”

Please click here to visit the online campaign Aaron Peterson has launched and please give what you can this holiday season!

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The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan has just released a statement on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the US war in their nation:

Independence, the first condition for the prosperity of our homeland and people

With the aggression of the US and NATO occupiers on October 7, 2001 in our homeland, it has been twelve years now that our country is facing war, destruction, and the killing of thousands of its innocent civilians. The US used the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as a pretext to change the regime in Afghanistan and pave the way for its long-term military presence in the region. For the first time in their history, Afghanistan’s people, who were tired and fed up from the crimes of the Jehadi pigs and the brutalities of the Taliban, did not react to an occupier force.

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Acclaimed Afghan human rights activist and author, Malalai Joya, returns to the US this fall for a national tour coinciding with the 12th anniversary of the start of the US war in Afghanistan. Joya’s tour is sponsored by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and Afghan Women’s Mission (AWM).

During her tour Joya will address the following questions:
• Why are Afghan women more vulnerable than ever?
• What is the impact of US drones, bombs, and raids?
• What does the end of the US’s longest war mean?
• Why is violence increasing after 11 years of war?

Click here for a list of cities that Malalai Joya will be speaking at during her Fall 2013 tour.

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Dear supporters of RAWA and Afghan Women’s Mission,

This year was our most financially challenging year since our organization began nearly 13 years ago. As you may recall, about a year ago our fiscal sponsor IHC collapsed losing all our funds, and the funds of about 200 other organizations. Click here to read about it.

While we have found a wonderful new sponsor, SEE, we have raised only a tiny fraction of the funding we normally receive from donors like you this year. Tragically, the main sponsor of RAWA’s flagship project, Danish School, has also been unable to provide the funding we need. In fact, the money we have raised this year are barely enough to fund two months of Danish School operations.

The loss of our funds, and the global economic recession have created a perfect storm that now threatens closure of all of RAWA’s life-saving work.

Click here to make a donation.

In RAWA’s own words, here is an assessment of how dire the situation is:

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has always relied on its supporters all over the world for financial assistance, and especially its supporters in the US, and never turned to any other source. We understand the many difficulties you face, which makes us even more proud when you work hard to help us as well. Please don’t forget RAWA, the only anti-fundamentalist and independence-seeking female organization of Afghanistan, in these hard days, and enable us to implement all our projects in the coming year so that your donation is spent in ways that truly help Afghanistan and its suffering people.

Crisis of IHC has caused a lot of problems for us, we had to limit our programs in Afghanistan due to acute shortage of fund. If we could not raise enough fund, RAWA may have to close down a school that we run inside Afghanistan for Afghan girls.

Click here to make a donation.

As you know, the situation in Afghanistan remains grim, particularly for women. This week Najia Sediqi, the head of the women’s affairs department for eastern Laghman province was shot and killed. And, a new United Nations Report released on December 11, 2012, finds that three years after a law protecting women was enacted, “Afghan women are frequent victims of abuse,” and “the overall use of the law remained low, indicating there is still a long way to go before women and girls in Afghanistan are fully protected from violence through the law.” Click here to read a news article about the UN report.

RAWA continues their hard work of creating a better Afghanistan through education, literacy projects, and more. But they cannot do it without your financial solidarity. We know that there are many worthy causes vying for your hard earned dollars this holiday season. Please consider making a donation to preserve RAWA’s projects before the end of this year. Your donation is tax-deductible in the United States to the extent of the law, and may be tax-deductible in other countries as well.

Click here to make a donation.

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WHEN: Saturday December 1st, from 10 am to 3 pm
WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd, LA CA 90005 (Geneva Room – wheelchair accessible)

Browse through a large selection of affordable, sweat-shop free arts and crafts made by artisans internationally and locally, including embroidered pillow-covers, wallets and purses from Afghanistan, locally made jewelry, blankets, scarves and tote-bags, candles, soaps, oils, fair trade coffee & honey, conscious books, CDs, and including the famous soup beans by the Women’s Bean Project…plus much more!

Afghan Women’s Mission will be a proud vendor at the 7th Annual Holiday Bazaar! We will have purses, jewelry, trinket boxes, and more, handmade from Afghanistan. All sales will benefit AWM’s important projects!

Click here to download a flyer for the event.

FREE ENTRANCE & complementary refreshments while you shop

All proceeds will directly benefit the artists and workers who made the items.

More information at www.9to5california.org. This event is organized by 9to5 Los Angeles and co-sponsored by Afghan Women’s Mission. KPFK is the media sponsor.

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On October 15, 2012, Afghan Women’s Mission Co-Director Sonali Kolhatkar was a featured guest on Huffpost Live hosted by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. The program focused on the on-going attacks against women in Afghanistan. Other panelists included Manizha Naderi, Executive Director of Women for Afghan Women, Jean MacKenzie, correspondent with the Global Post, and Jennifer Hunt, an Army Reservist who served in Afghanistan.

The panelists were asked the following question:

Violence against women spiked to its highest level since the Taliban’s fall. Will a U.S. troop withdrawal contribute to an increase in the region’s assault on women?

Watch the video below:

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