20/09/21
Tugging at the folds of the traditional hijab dress, two young sisters jostle and laugh to try to get their mother’s attention as she fries onions on the stove.
Along with their 6-month-old sister, the girls are oblivious to the threat they now face from the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers.
Their mother, Nabila, is one of 250 female judges ordered not to return to work by a regime that doesn’t condone women in senior positions. CNN is only using Nabila’s first name for her own protection.
Nabila said she feared reprisals, not only from fundamentalists, but also the men she once jailed. When they came to power, the Taliban opened the gates of prisons, releasing thousands of convicted criminals.
“Now we do not feel safe; the same criminals are going after my own life, the lives of my family,” Nabila said. “God forbid if they seek revenge.”
After the Taliban takeover in mid-August, a few dozen women judges fled Afghanistan, and those left behind are now in hiding, according to Judge Vanessa Ruiz from the US-based International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).
All of the judges who worked under the former Afghan government — male and female — have been now replaced by Taliban appointees, two judges told CNN.
But Ruiz said women judges feared their gender made them particular targets for a regime that assigns greater value to men.
Many of the women judges presided over the worst cases of violence against women, including rape, murder and domestic abuse.”
They would be angry at any judge who sentenced them, but that a woman had official authority, and sat in judgment of a man, is rage of a completely different order,” said Ruiz.
The IAWJ and other organizations are racing to find a safe passage out for the women — but they say they need more help from the US and other Western nations, before it’s too late.
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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/19/asia/afghanistan-women-judges-hnk-dst-intl/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/events/255446273141947
https://www.gofundme.com/f/AFGHANISTAN-CRISIS-RESPONSE-AND-EMERGENCY-RELIEF (URGENT, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!)
https://www.iustitia.pl/en/4244-a-fundraiser-for-afghan-judges
https://www.thejournal.ie/taliban-school-girls-afghanistan-5552314-Sep2021/
https://www.jss.fr/Afghanistan__les_acteurs_du_droit_mobilises-2587.awp (FRANCAIS)
Tagged: Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch, Law Society of England & Wales, United Kingdom
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 
[…] Afghanistan’s women judges are in hiding, fearing reprisal attacks from men they jailed [IAPL] […]
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