Empowering Afghan Women Through Justice, Advocacy, and
Global Solidarity
Women’s Rights First is a women-led, nonprofit organization. Legally registered in Canada, with a discreet, impactful operational presence in Afghanistan, particularly in conflict-affected provinces. Founded in the aftermath of the 2021 collapse of the Afghan Republic. The organization was established by three prominent Afghan women’s defenders: Shabnam Salehi, Hanifa Girowal, and Sanga Siddiqi. Each founder brings extensive expertise in international law, transitional justice, gender policy, and human rights advocacy.
The organization was created to confront the systemic discrimination, segregation, oppression, and institutionalized exclusion of Afghan women and girls from public life and to respond to their urgent need for legal protection, education, health services, peacebuilding, and global solidarity. Women’s Rights First adopts a rights-based and survivor-centered approach and recognizes the gender persecution currently faced by Afghan women as part of a broader institutional system of repression. We center the agency of Afghan women, particularly from rural and marginalized communities, as rights-holders and drivers of structural change. Afghanistan today presents the most severe rollback of women’s rights globally.
Education and
Resilience Programming
This six-month fellowship empowers 35 Afghan women legal professionals- including judges, lawyers, and law students-who have been forcibly excluded from public life since 2021. The program offers:
By restoring access to legal tools and global networks, the program supports resistance, resilience, and leadership in one of the world’s most repressive legal systems.
