‘WE ARE IN DANGER’

Taliban Fighters Are Going Door-to-Door to Hunt Down Female Judges, Says Report

American judges are now urgently working to rescue hundreds of their counterparts in Kabul.

Several American judges are working urgently to get 250 female judges and their families out of Afghanistan after reports that Taliban fighters are going door-to-door to hunt them down. Many of the judges were trained in the U.S. and have issued harsh judgments on Taliban fighters during the 20-year war, but most do not qualify for special visas because they’ve never been on a U.S. payroll. “The Taliban are searching for judges door to door. We are in danger,” one unnamed judge told NBC News. “Their idea is that women can’t be judges at all.” Patricia Whalen, who served as an international judge in the war crimes trials in Bosnia-Herzegovina between 2007-2012, and Lisa Walsh, North American regional director of the International Association of Women Judges, have reportedly been working with U.S. diplomats to get the women out of Kabul. “We could have all the planes in the world land at that airport, but getting to the tarmac is almost impossible,” Whalen said.