Afghan Women Skills Development Center (AWSDC) - International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)

Country - Afghanistan

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The Afghan Women Skills Development Center (AWSDC) is a non-governmental organization, founded in 1999 and dedicated to the promotion and protection of women’s rights in Afghanistan. The organization works to eliminate violence against women and their families by providing safe refuge, legal services, counseling, and advocacy. ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund has supported AWSDC since 2018. AWSDC joined ICAN’s She Builds Peace campaign in 2020.

Core Areas of Work:

CRSV and GBV
Legal awareness and rights
Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS)
Women's rights

You always want your country to move ahead, to become better, to be a better country for the people to live there. For me, the question has always been to find a way for more development, education, access to health, access to justice, freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom to work in a just system, is all very important. For all women to be able to access it, right now [in Afghanistan] there isn’t such a thing.

– Mahbouba Seraj Executive Director, Afghan Women Skills Development Center (AWSDC)

Stories & Features

PRESS RELEASE: An Interactive Event and Exhibit Honoring the Resilience of Afghan Women Peacebuilders

PRESS RELEASE: Watan e Ma – وطن ما – Our Homeland: An Interactive Event and Exhibit Honoring the Resilience of Afghan Women Peacebuilders

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Watan e Ma – وطن ما – Our Homeland

This Winter Will Also Pass   O coldness of winter,    Within you, thousands of springs lie hidden.  The fire of love, within the ice,    Will create the warmth of life.    Be patient, O soul,    For beyond this long night,    The light of dawn waits for you.  ~ Rumi  این زمستان نیز خواهد گذشت ای سردی زمستان،    در دل تو هزاران بهار نهفته است    آتشِ […]

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Breaking from the Status Quo: Afghan Women’s Creative Resistance Through Art, Culture, and Heritage

In a powerful departure from traditional advocacy, ICAN—guided by our Afghan partners and women peacebuilders—hosted the event “Watan e Ma – وطن ما – Our Homeland: Women of Afghanistan Keeping the Flame of Freedom Alive” on March 17, 2025 at Blue Gallery in New York City. Held during the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), the event celebrated Afghan cultural heritage and the resilience of Afghan women peacebuilders, who persist in their leadership for peace, justice, and equality under the Taliban’s regime of gender apartheid.

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Humanitarian Response to Afghanistan Must Not Do Harm

Given the gendered segregation of society that the Taliban has already instigated, the delivery of aid to women and girls will be even more highly dependent on female Afghan aid workers and local women-led civil society organizations (CSOs). Such organizations have traditionally been the key conduits to reaching the most needy and marginalized sectors of society. They are more essential now. We have offered 10 practical steps that the UN and other international humanitarian actors can take in designing and implementing their humanitarian response.

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August 15, 2024: ICAN marks three years since the U.S. and NATO withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban seized power

On August 15, 2021, the withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO from Afghanistan and the immediate takeover by the Taliban marked a foreboding turning point. Today, three years on, the international community has lost the trust of Afghan people, especially women.

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August 31, 2022: ICAN marks one year since the US and NATO ended their chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan

In the year since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, ICAN have advocated for and assisted in the relocation of approximately 200 families, issued rapid response grants comprising $590,000 to Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations, and issued 17 individual grants totaling $36,000.

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