Both international and national agencies have invested in women's programs for almost a decade, and several offer sound field-based experience and have qualified female staff, who worked illegally under burqas and with mahrams throughout the years of women's exclusion from all public life. Such women today represent a new category of working women, many of whom have the important experience of working effectively in rural areas. Their support to women's health, education, community processes and income generation have now been augmented by a plethora of new NGOs bringing additional support by way of micro- finance, small business development, human rights education, legal advice and literacy, advocacy, and protection.
