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DC nonprofit that helps Afghan women faces new difficulties

The efforts of many women in Afghanistan to promote peace is a difficult mission that a D.C. organization is fighting to protect, but they are now hoping to see more help from the U.S. as the future of those efforts becomes uncertain.

Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, who is the founder of the International Civil Society Action Network, says providing protection and resettlement for Afghan women is an effort that’s been years in the making.

“Parliamentarians, police officers, journalists, women in shelters, the list goes on. They are now most at risk because of the way the United States has implemented the evacuation,” said Anderlini.

Their list of 120 women in need of help has grown to 600, and their efforts to help Afghan citizens escape are becoming difficult with Tuesday’s troop withdrawal, leading many to lose hope.

“They are petrified,” she added, stressing that their message to the Taliban remains unwavering in its demand that they stop harassing women.

“We need help to get people to Pakistan or Uzbekistan or wherever they may be safe, and we need the United States to be talking to those governments to let people through,” she said.

National Museum of the American Latino to be housed in historic Smithsonian building

The Smithsonian Institution has decided to put the National Museum of the American Latino into an existing, historic building, rather than constructing a new one. The Smithsonian Board of Regents on Monday designated the Arts and Industries Building, a 145-year-old redbrick Victorian structure located between the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Museum, as the permanent site of the National Museum of the American Latino, which Congress authorized in 2020. In 2022, the Smithsonian narrowed its survey for permanent locations for the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women's History Museum to four locations near the National Mall on land owned by the National Park Service. The Arts and Industries Building, located at 900 Jefferson St. SW, was one of the four sites. New construction on National Park Service land would require congressional approval. However, since the Smithsonian already owns the Arts and Industries Building, the institution can place the National Museum of the American Latino in the existing building without additional legislation.
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