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.
Despite the heightened risk under Taliban rule, “women’s Rights First “, maintain a resilient, secure presence through a trusted network of educators, legal advocates, and community coordinators. These teams work primarily in eastern and southern Afghanistan, guided by strict principles of confidentiality and protection to ensure both safety and sustainability.
Our work is rooted in collaborative, intersectional, and community-led approaches. Our partnerships span civil society networks, global accountability coalitions, academic institutions, and frontline service providers.
Promote the active participation and representation of marginalized women in national and international decision-making platforms.
Design and implement educational programs to build women’s leadership, enhance legal literacy, and increase socio-political engagement.
Address and raise awareness about systematic challenges, including gender-based violence, discrimination, and socio-economic exclusion.
Establish systems to track, document, and report human rights violations against women, ensuring accountability and international attention.
Collaborative with civil society, government, and international organization to strengthen and scale women’s rights initiatives.
Uphold strong ethical standards and maintain transparency in all financial and operational activities.
Advocate for the full inclusion of women in Afghanistan’s social and political peace processes to ensure sustainable and inclusive peace.
We believe every woman has the right to live with dignity, free rom fear, discrimination, and oppression. Respect for the intrinsic worth of all individuals guides our work and our vision for an equitable world.
We are committed to achieving full gender equality in law,
practice, and opportunity. We advocate for systems that are fair, inclusive, and accountable to women and girls.
We hold ourselves and others accountable to the highest ethical standards in our programs, partnership, and governance. Transparency, honesty, and responsibility shape every decision we make.
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. The de facto authorities have imposed a system of gender-based domination and control that may constitute crimes under international law. Despite these conditions, Afghan women continue to resist through education, advocacy, and community action. Women’s Rights First supports this resistance through legal, educational, and psychosocial interventions to restore dignity, rights, and justice.
We possess deep expertise in human rights advocacy, with a focus on women’s legal, political, and social rights. We engage in national and international platforms to influence gender-sensitive policymaking and legal reforms.
With a strong presence in conflict-affected provinces, we effectively engage local communities, especially women and girls, to raise awareness, foster collective action, and build local ownership of rights-base initiatives.
We specialize in designing and delivering context-specific training programs that enhance the capacity of women, civil society actors, and local institutions. We empower women to become community leaders and defenders of their own rights.
We have extensive experience implementation humanitarian and development programs in fragile and high-risk environments. Our team is skilled in needs assessment, program design, an adaptive project management under crises conditions.
We conduct gender-focused research and needs assessments to inform our advocacy, programing, and policy engagement. Our interventions are grounded in data and the lived realities of Afghan women.
We collaborate with national and international NGOs, UN agencies, donor organizations, and local authorities. Our ability to build trusted partnerships enhances our reach, credibility, and effectiveness.
Our organization maintains a strong MEL system to ensure accountability, measure impact, and foster continuous
learning and program improvement.
