Mary Akrami (Persian: ماری اکرمی; 1975 or 1976 (age 47–48))^[1] is the director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center.^[2] She represented Afghan civil society at the 2001 Bonn Conference.^[3] In 2003 the Afghan Women Skills Development Center opened the first women's shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan.^[4][3] The shelter provides legal advice, literacy classes, psychological counseling, and basic skills training to women who need them.^[2] Akrami is on call 24 hours a day at the shelter, and under her leadership some of the women there have denounced their abusers publicly and filed court cases against them, something almost unheard of before.^[5] She has faced threats for her work.^[2]

She received a 2007 International Women of Courage Award^[2] and was named in the BBC 100 Women 2016 list as one of the year's most inspirational and influential women.^[1]