Afghan women judges, lawyers and prosecutors fear for their lives

• Aletta Andre

  India correspondent

Dozens of female Afghan judges, lawyers and prosecutors are still in hiding and fear for their lives. With the abolition of the old legal system by the Taliban, they lost their jobs and their income. And since the Taliban opened all prisons in the takeover in August last year, they have been threatened by the men they helped incarcerate and who are now free.

The Taliban have made it clear that there is no place for women in the new system. At a press conference in September, the Taliban’s Supreme Court Hezbollah Ibrhimi said it saw no need for female judges, lawyers and prosecutors. According to him, they do not have sufficient knowledge of Sharia.

Before the takeover, there were about 500 female lawyers and about 300 female judges in Afghanistan. Some of them could be evacuated. For example, British lawyers helped 100 judges come to the UK and Canada agreed to admit a group of judges based in Greece.

Al Jazeera reported last week that at least 70 female judges in Afghanistan are still in hiding. It is not known to how many lawyers and prosecutors this applies. Moreover, some of them are in countries where they cannot stay, such as Iran and the United Arab Emirates. A larger group of former prosecutors can be found in the city of Islamabad in neighboring Pakistan.

“I have been here since May and sent emails to all kinds of foreign embassies, but I did not receive any positive response,” said a 28-year-old former prosecutor from Ghor province, who maintained by telephone with NOS. “I also reported to UNHCR in May and I call them almost every day but they keep telling me to wait.” The main hope for women now rests with 14Lawyers, an organization that advocates for them a visa with the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the end of September, cameraman Raúl Cadenas spoke to a group of former female prosecutors who managed to flee to Islamabad and who are still there:

Staying in Pakistan is not an option, says Ghor’s former prosecutor. His visa for Pakistan has expired and cannot be extended, he was told. Pakistan offers Afghan refugees no prospect of permanent status.

Even before the Taliban took over, there were already around two million Afghans living in Pakistan. The majority were born in Pakistan, but they also never obtained permanent resident status. Afghans are constantly at risk of deportation.

“We can’t work here and my son can’t go to school,” said the former prosecutor from Ghor, who fled with her husband and six-year-old son. “Because the local people know that as Afghans we have no rights and cannot go to the police, everything is more expensive for us. From the rent we pay to the food.”

Moreover, she does not feel safe in Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan and has a porous border, especially in the tribal areas. “Once I was home alone and someone tried to come in. Whether it was a thief or someone from Afghanistan after me, I don’t know, but I’m still scared.”

“Even before taking power, I was regularly threatened, but then I wanted to work for justice, especially for women,” she told NOS. After the Taliban took power, she did not immediately abandon this passion. She remained in Kabul and took part in protests on the streets and on social media. “I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be with my people, in my country.”

This changed when one of her sisters-in-law was arrested during a protest and detained for ten days. “She was abused and injured. Life became more and more difficult. Then we fled to Pakistan. Now she doesn’t want to go back to Afghanistan. “We could just sit inside and do nothing. We would have no more life.”