Its founder Meena was born in Kabul. During her school days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged in social activism and rising mass movements. She left the university to devote herself to organising and educating women. In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom of expression and conducting political activities she started a campaign against the Russian forces and their puppet regime in 1979 and organised numerous processions and meetings in schools, colleges and the Kabul University to mobilise public opinion. She also launched a bilingual magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women’s Message) in 1981. Through this magazine RAWA has been projecting the cause of Afghan women boldly and effectively. Payam-e-Zan has constantly exposed the criminal nature of fundamentalist groups. Meena also established Watan Schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft centres for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially. Her social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists provoked the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike. She was assassinated by agents of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987. Meena continues to be the inspiration behind the RAWA even after her death.

The RAWA Website that came up after her death was the first to put up secretly shot video clips of Taliban atrocities against women in particular and the Afghanis in general. Most of the footage in the famous film, Beneath the Veil, was shot by one of the RAWA members through a hole in the burqa. The technique has worked well over the years despite the fact that Taliban treat RAWA members as their greatest enemy. These films though poor in video quality because of obvious reasons have made it to several international TV networks and stunned the world. It is believed that the RAWA Website has done more to build public opinion against the Taliban than any other medium. This was partly because Afghanistan remained a closed society under the Taliban and TV was banned in the country. The RAWA Website thus remained for years the only credible window to the war-ravaged country. RAWA members have mostly been operating from refugee camps in Pakistan entering Afghanistan surreptitiously to gather evidence and distribute their publications among women. RAWA activists often staged demonstrations in Pakistan and were attacked several times by security forces. The organisation used its Website to distribute reports and pictures of such demonstrations to the outside world. The site, www.rawa.org, has a special photo gallery depicting the horrific deeds of Taliban. The pictures and the movie clips are so disturbing that the site had to put up a cautionary note on its homepage warning visitors that the material they view would be very shocking.

These organisations are heavily dependent on the Net for their funds. Most of their donations come from Net surfers all over the globe. These funds are used for running their Websites, schools, relief efforts for refugees and running handicraft centres for refugee women. The organisation has also set up a hospital but lack of funds has slowed the progress of the ambitious project.

Another Website www.wapha.org has done a commendable job in keeping the world informed of the human rights violations in Afghanistan. WAPHA is a non-partisan, non-profit and independent organisation founded by Dr Zieba Shorish-Shamley, Ph.D. Its main goal is to promote awareness of the tragic human rights situation in Afghanistan and to advocate for social, political, economic and civil rights of the Afghan women and girls in that country. Its Internet contacts include hundreds of organisations in the world. The site sends newsletters and keeps the persons of the world informed on the human rights violations in Afghanistan. The Website www.afghanwomenmission.org works very closely with RAWA. Though the site is new, it has already helped raise $ 57,000 over the past few months to fund RAWA projects. It is paying special attention to RAWA’s hospital project. The site not only accepts donations in the form of money, it encourages people to donate their time and effort to the RAWA projects. The financial details of the organisation are available for anyone to view on its Website.

Activists of these organisations are now busy building public opinion for giving women their rightful place on the UN sponsored meetings to determine the future government of Afghanistan. Many of these Websites have put up petitions on their homepages. Visitors are encouraged to sign these electronically and mail to the US President George W. Bush and the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. These organisations are also opposed to the Northern Alliance. Fatima (a pseudonym used by www.rawa.org spokesperson) recently said: "The Northern Alliance are the second Taliban. They are hypocrites. They say they are for democracy and human rights, but we can’t forget the experience we had with them. Seventy-year-old grandmothers were raped during their rule, thousands of girls were raped, thousands were killed and tortured. They are the first government that started this tragedy in Afghanistan. We are ready to support the former king Zahir Shah. It doesn’t mean that the king is an ideal person. However, in comparison to the fundamentalist parties, we prefer him. The only condition we have for the king is that he must not cooperate with the Northern Alliance."

These Websites now direly need funds to keep themselves going. Their resources have been stretched to their limits by America-led war against terrorism. The influx of refugees especially women in the neighbouring countries has put additional burden on them. This has led to the closure of RAWA hospital. Funds are coming in but not in proportion to their needs. However, the sites are not deterred.

The women behind them are eagerly looking forward to the annihilation of Taliban hoping that the Afghan women would find their due place in the country and its future government. But they are a worried lot — still uncertain about future. That explains why they are now concentrating on mobilising the international community for equal participation of women in their country’s socio-political life. Most of these Websites champion democracy and equal rights for women in Afghanistan. These Websites are hoping to shift their bases to Afghanistan after it is liberated. The Net will then be used to educate fellow women.