Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
organization
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (Persian: جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان, Jamʿiyat-e Inqilābi-ye Zanān-e Afghānistān, Pashto: د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت, romanized: Da Afghānistān da khachcho Inqilābi Jamiat) is a women's organization originally based in Kabul, Afghanistan, that promotes women's rights and secular democracy. It was founded in 1977 by Meena Keshwar Kamal, an Afghan student activist who was assassinated in February 1987 for her political activities. The group, which supports non-violent strategies, had its initial office in Kabul, Afghanistan, but then moved to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
The organization aims to involve women of Afghanistan in both political and social activities aimed at acquiring human rights for women and continuing the struggle against the government of Afghanistan based on democratic and secular, not fundamentalist principles, in which women can participate fully. RAWA also strives for multilateral disarmament. Since 1977, the group has opposed every Afghan government system: the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2001–2021), and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (from 2021).
Founder
RAWA was founded in 1977 by a group of Afghan women led by Meena Keshwar Kamal. At age 21, she laid the foundations of RAWA through her work educating women. In 1979, Kamal began a campaign against the Soviet occupation and the Soviet-supported government of Afghanistan. In 1981, she launched a bilingual magazine Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan” as organization. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as organization. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1777749. VIAF identifies the subject as 156824725. The Library of Congress control number is no96060903. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1987, 1996 and 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.