Mary is the Director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center, which is the first women's shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan. She saw a need for such a shelter when a woman was arrested after being accused of disrespecting her father-in-law. The woman was found innocent, but was afraid to leave the jail for fear of how her family and society would react to the incident. Akrami realized that others like this woman needed a safe place to go.

Today the shelter takes in runaways and women released from prison who do not feel safe returning home. The shelter's staff provides legal advice, literacy classes, psychological counseling and basic skills training.

Women in rural Afghanistan do not have access to the educational and other facilities found in Kabul, because generally organizations have been working only in the cities. To really understand the basic problems facing Afghan women, it is important to speak to the women in rural communities and see what issues they regularly address.

Under Taliban rule and as refugees, women were not educated.  However, today there are resources and there is a lot of funding from the international community.  There still remains much to do with regard to their education system.  This improvement is important, because better education will help rebuild the country.

Mary Akrami said she felt that the award she received was honoring all women of Afghanistan. She said it gave her the courage to keep doing the best she can for the women of her country.