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She jailed scores of Taliban fighters. Now freed, they’re targeting all Afghan women judges
- Most of Afghanistan’s 270 female judges escaped to western nations when the Taliban took over
- About 50 female judges remain in Afghanistan, in hiding, and another 20 are stranded in Pakistan, where they live in fear of being handed to the Taliban
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In her long career as an Afghan judge, Sara helped lock up scores of Taliban militants for deadly attacks, ranging from bomb blasts to assassinations – now freed from jail, they have vowed to hunt her down.
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“When the Taliban seized power, they opened the prison gates. I’ve lived every day since then in panic and fear,” Sara told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from a secret location where she lives with her children and husband.
Sara is among dozens of women judges in hiding since the hardline Islamist group seized control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021.
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They have received countless death threats in phone calls and WhatsApp messages, and said their old homes had been repeatedly raided by Taliban members.
“During my career, prisoners warned me, ‘When we’re released, we will kill you and your family.’ Even now just talking about this, I’m shaking with fear,” said Sara who, like other judges in hiding, used a pseudonym for security reasons.
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