$1 billion later, it's unclear if U.S. cash is helping Afghan women

None of this was news to Samira Hamidi. Hamidi, the former director of the Afghan Women’s Network, said she was not surprised by the audit.

“Not at all. I have been saying this since 2011 that the programs the U.S. government is designing and the money they are sending through USAID and other sources [is] not helping women rights in Afghanistan,” Hamidi told BuzzFeed News by telephone from Kabul. “That’s why I say I’m glad it’s on the record….They don’t care what people from the outside talk [say]. I really hope it makes a kind of difference, gives a different overview to the different US institutions who are aiming to support women for the future.”

But Manizha Naderi, the executive director of Women for Afghan Women, felt differently. She has been working with the State Department directly since 2009. The department funds the women’s shelters, family gathering centers and children’s support centers that Women for Afghan Women runs. Naderi said her organization has always been subject to clear monitoring and evaluation.

“I can’t speak for USAID because we haven’t gotten USAID money,” she said, but working with the State Department “is a different experience than what the SIGAR audit is saying.”