The DOAW was founded in 1965 in Kabul by Anahita Ratebzad, Soraya Parlika,[2] Kobra Ali, Hamideh Sherzai, Momeneh Basir and Jamileh Keshtmand.
In 1970, several attacks occurred in Kabul, were fundamentalist mullahs condemned women walking in the streets unveiled and dressed in modern Western clothing, and unveiled women wearing shorts and mini skirts were attacked by men, some throwing acid at them.
When the PDPA took power after the Saur Revolution of 1978, DOAW came to have an important role in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA).
Anahita Ratbzad announced that the DOAW's primary goal was to fight against feudalism and Western imperialism in defense of the principles of the "Saur Revolution."
It launched a literacy campaign to make education available to women of all ages and classes, rural as well as urban, and to inform them of the objectives of the Saur Revolution.
The policy of compulsory schooling for girls as well as boys was met with a strong backlash from the conservative rural population, and contributed to the resistance against the Soviets and the Communist regime by the Mujahideen, the Islamic guerillas.