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Dear invitees, volunteers and partners, Our Nowruz 1401 event, celebrated on March 27, 2022, was a success thanks to your enthusiastic participation. On behalf of the Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal and our Board of Directors, we want to extend our most sincere gratitude to each one of you. To our invitees, we deeply appreciate your presence. It was heartwarming to see everyone enjoying the live music, photos, trivia, and contests we prepared with great care for you. To our volunteers Adenikè, Ismail, Muhammadi, Rodaba, Sadaf, and Sebastian, you were the backbone of this event and we cannot emphasize enough how your kind contributions mean to our organization and the Afghan community in Montreal. To our partners who have collaborated with us during this event, some for the first time and some for many years, we are grateful for you supporting our mission and we look forward to collaborating with you in the future. Special thanks to Anahita, Daoud, Labmedsoins, and Dawson College. We also thank Canadian Heritage for providing part of the funding to carry out this event. Please accept our most sincere words of gratitude. You are cordially invited to our next events. Your presence will surely be of great pleasure to us.

The Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal invites you, with great pleasure, to our annual celebration of Nowruz 1401. After two years of isolation, we are finally getting together to celebrate with delicious Afghan food, live music and dancing. We are excited to bring our beloved communities together and to share with all of you during this important festivity. Reserve your spot now by clicking on the following link: https://bit.ly/362ZXQh This year we celebrate with joy and glamour the pride of our shared culture and traditions. Together, this is the chance to showcase and highlight our roots, deep history and rich cultures to the world, once again. We invite everyone to share and learn about this celebration to join on this exceptional occasion. Bring your friends and family for a fun and unforgettable evening! A beautiful Nowrozy table will be set up and we will be serving plenty of haft-mewah! Can’t wait to see everyone with their finest, fanciest, most beautiful traditional clothes and good energy. A professional photographer will be in place to capture the beauty of your tenures and share it with you as a memory of the night. To cherish this celebration, the three most beautiful dresses of the evening will take home an amazing prize Don’t miss out! No vaccine passport needed Free parking available Lots of dancing Tickets: - $22 per person - Children under 12 years old: free of charges, showing a valid ID card. Address: 3040 Sherbrooke St W, Dawson College, Room 5B.16 Date: March 27th, 2022 Time: 4-9pm PARKING ENTRANCE on Maisonneuve Blv. At the parking gate buzz and say you come for the Afghan Women's Centre event. Enter the B building and take the elevator to the 5th floor. You can also use the main entrance on 3040 Sherbrook W. Tickets available online only until March 26 at midnight with the following link: https://bit.ly/362ZXQh

On March 7, 2022, the Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal was honoured to host a virtual conference on behalf of Afghan Women’s Rights: Integrity in time of crisis and to celebrate International Women’s Day. The event featured respected guest speakers from across the world: Murwarid Ziayee, Marzia Babakarkhail, Heela Yoon, Dr. Lina AbiRafeh and Dr. Nipa Banerjee. Our Executive Director Victoria Jahesh participated as speaker and moderator. Najim Dost, from the University of Ottawa, participated as co-moderator. The conference covered three important topics: Women’s rights in Afghanistan, especially the right to education, The evacuation process and situation/conditions of Afghan Women in Canada, and The role of the international community on Afghanistan’s future. We were also honoured and so grateful by the presence of our respected witnesses from Afghanistan. These brave women are academics, professionals, former politicians and women’s rights activists that defy the constraints imposed by the current regime. They shared their important testimonies in this conference. Ethically speaking, the AWCM withheld their identities and personal information safe and secure while in the conference. The reach of this important event extended to panelists and attendees from several different continents and time zones across the world, including Afghanistan, UK, Russia, Germany, New York, California, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and from the Abu Dhabi refugee camp. The event prompted lots of solidarity amongst its participants. By highlighting the threat to women’s rights in Afghanistan, this conference helped to avoid Afghan women from being forgotten by the international community. The crisis is still undergoing, and help is still needed. Last, but not least, we must highlight and acknowledge that the success and achievements of this event were possible by the help and collaboration of the Canadian Federation of University Women, who helped us with the outreach and promotion of the event through their social media channels. If you could not attend, we highly encourage you to watch the recording provided by Bashar TV.

To make International Women's Day and our March 7 conference even more meaningful, make a donation by clicking on this link : https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/64438 Your contribution will help us improve this important event, increasing awareness to protect the rights and integrity of Afghan women.

Understanding the situation of Afghan women amid the economic and humanitarian crisis so we can take action To all women's rights, advocates and activists! The Afghan Women's Centre of Montreal invites you to attend our March 7, 2022 conference. Collectively, we can better analyze the current crisis in Afghanistan as well as identify and implement action that will alleviate the increasingly precarious plight of Afghani women. Together, there is much that we can do! This event is co-sponsored by the CFUW. Not only will we host very influential guest-speakers from across the world, we will also be honoured by the testimonies of witnesses currently living in Afghanistan. Date: March 7, 2022 Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm Via Zoom Online Event Registration required. Click below Afghan Women's Centre of Montreal ( AWC / CFA ) 1857 Boul. Maisonneuve Ouest. Bur: 305 Montréal, Québec, H3H 1J9 Email: info@awcm.ca Téléphone: 514-321-2194 www.awcm.ca www.afghan-women-catering.com Paix, Sécurité, Égalité

Happy New Year 2022! The Afghan Women's Centre of Montreal wishes you a prosperous new year and we hope we can continuously collaborate together. Welcome to our first newsletter of the year. For more detailed information please click the image below!

Welcome to our December newsletter! These past months the centre has been busy with its activities and projects, as well as welcoming Afghan refugees to Montreal and providing them with essential services. Here’s a summary of what we’ve been up to in December.

Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, Afghanistan has been plunged into an economic crisis that has hit the population hard. We fear that this crisis will lead to famine and deteriorate the living conditions of the Afghans. Also, the approaching winter is causing fears of famine, especially since humanitarian aid has been cut off. The Afghan Women's Center organized a humanitarian operation to provide food to vulnerable people in Kabul and funds to families in need. We helped 40 low-income and vulnerable families in Kabul. Through the field assistance, 200 people received healthy and sustainable food. Each participant signed and dated a chart so that our team could keep track of the delivery. This operation was a success. We look forward to continuing it in the future, so that we can best help the Afghan people. We continue our advocacy work to promote the need to act for their protection. You can check out our video below, with more detailed information on the process.

The Afghan Women's Centre of Montreal is pleased to share its partnership with Labmed Soins. Montreal-based, this lab offers its services to your home or your workplace. Send them your request for lab tests and your doctor will receive your results within 24-48 hours. Labmed Soins also take COVID tests. PCR tests are available for travelers, with results within 12 to 24 hours. You can get more information by visiting their website. Click on their logo below to access it.

On Friday, November 19th, the Afghan Women's Centre of Montreal's representatives were invited to speak about the education system and the current issues in Afghanistan at Marie-Clarac School for girls in Montreal. Makai Harif, president of the AWCM, gave a speech about her own experience as a former teacher and school principal for girls in the democratic regime time of Afghanistan to the students. The participants have had the opportunity to learn about Afghanistan's history and the education system for girls, the current state of education now that the Taliban have taken power, and the life of Afghan women refugees in Canada. At the end, the students have tasted Afghan pastries offered by our centre. We would like to thank Marie-Clarac School for hosting this event and we look forward to doing so again in the near future. The Afghan Women's Centre's activities are still ongoing. Newly arrived Afghan refugees are taking part in our language classes and are starting to learn the two official languages of Canada. You can find a piture of a recent class below.

The AWCM participated in the panel discussion: "Solidarity with Afghan Women: Policy Perspectives" moderated and organized by the Canadian Women's Foundation. We were able to share our experiences from the field regarding the resettlement and settlement of Afghan refugee women in Canada and Quebec, as well as our concerns for the women still living in Afghanistan to this day. Paulette Senior, president of the Canadian Women's Foundation ( CWF ) hosted the panel, and guided the panelists through the discussion. Senator Omidvar spoke about the urgency of the situation for Afghan women in the country. She gave concrete examples, and called for women to come together and fight for this struggle. Mariam Safi gave information on the international take on the Afghan crisis, notably from the UN and Canada's allies. Debbie Douglas raised concerns for Afghan refugees, regarding the housing crisis and the issue of employment. Victoria Jahesh, from AWCM, raised awareness about the islamophobia and xenophobia as well as the systemic racism and the challenges faced by newly arrived in the province of Quebec, The major push and pulls factors for afghans to leave their country, and the most urgent services and supports needed for the afghan refugees arrived in Canada. Zainab Jamal shared her concerns in regards to those newly arrived in Canada and being identified as a Muslim. If you were unable to attend this discussion, a recording will be available on the Canadian Women's Foundation YouTube account in the near future.

Our fall newsletter is now available! We provided a summary of what we’ve been up to in October and November: our activities, services, and events. Please click on the photo below to access it.