Not only do many Afghan girls grow up in remote villages without schools, all girls over the age of twelve are now barred from formal education.

Women and girls are increasingly bearing the brunt of the violence in Afghanistan. The IRC remains committed to providing them with critical support.

In 2022 IRC Seattle started a sewing program called New Americans Artisan Collective to promote women’s empowerment through handicrafts. The inaugural class was launched in the fall, comprised entirely of refugee women from Afghanistan. On December 16th, the program proudly celebrated as the first cohort of six women graduated.

An instructor at a non-profit that teaches skateboarding to children, Belqisa’s dreams of pro competition were put on hold when she had to escape Afghanistan. Now she’s seizing a chance for a new start.

Women’s rights and women-led organizations (WROs/WLOs) are a critical driving force in providing effective gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response services to women and girls impacted by conflict and displacement. Although rhetorical recognition of WROs/WLOs has grown at policy levels, funding to WROs/WLOs remains incredibly low. Following on from “Why Not Local?”, this report provides analysis from across three contexts: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Ukraine. It reveals the pervasive systemic barriers preventing WROs/WLOs to access humanitarian funding.

After arriving from Afghanistan as a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holder in July 2020, Shallah Shaiq began the process of building a new life in the U.S. with her husband and teenage son. Shallah initially earned a bachelor’s degree in law from Afghanistan and carries a passion for working with her Afghan peers through communications. Shallah felt determined to acquire the skills she needed to develop her resume and continue her education in the U.S.  so she could continue to support women’s rights within an Afghan immigrant organization.  

The IRC in Atlanta’s Career Development and Adult Education programs, in collaboration with Gwinnett Dental Career Academy (GDCA), recently graduated a second cohort of three former refugees—all young women from Afghanistan—through their Integrated Education and Training (IET) Dental Assistant course, a ten-week program focused on certifying new Americans in dental care and placing them in jobs.

Modesto Junior College instructor Emma Berdino didn’t have much hope when she learned her ESL class would be forced to go online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   Many of her students, all women from Afghanistan recruited by the IRC in Turlock, were too tech-challenged to use a phone app to complete their homework prior to the viral outbreak.   “Most weren’t able to figure it out,” she said. “I thought, oh my goodness, we’re totally going to lose this class, because they’re not going to be able to do it.”  Berdino is grateful to be wrong, as nearly two-thirds of her students continue to take the course remotely after going exclusively online. 

The country is facing an economic and hunger crisis that could kill more people than the past twenty years of war.