Afghanistan had more than 300 female judges presiding over judicial departments that ranged from women’s issues to criminal and terrorism-related cases. Several hundred judges have since escaped to other countries, and some 70 female judges – if not more – are in hiding and unable to return to work.
“They tell us it is because they believe we [female lawyers and judges] are incompetent and do not have enough knowledge of Islamic law to work in this field,” Marzia said.
The Taliban acknowledged this position during a September news conference in which Hizbullah Ibrahimi, the head of the Taliban Supreme Court’s research and inspection directorate, dismissed the need for female judges.
“In the previous system, female judges decided cases based on specific laws and bills and did not have enough knowledge about jurisprudence and Shariah principles,” he said. “… We have not felt their need until now, and we have not understood the need for women judges to return.”
Marzia accused the Taliban of being prejudiced against women and failing to provide women their Islamic rights, including divorce.
“Without women in the judiciary, female victims cannot seek formal help and relief from the courts,” she said. “They don’t have access to their basic rights such as divorce. It is a big loss for women’s rights but also human rights as a whole. A significant population of the country has been cut off from accessing legal support.”
Justice ministry spokesman Abdul Hameed Jahadyar told Al Jazeera that divorce and family violence cases have been heard in the past year.
In Kabul alone, he said, 341 divorce cases “were settled”. He did not clarify how many divorces were actually granted.
“Any woman who wants to get a divorce can hire a male lawyer, and their case will be dealt with,” Jahadyar said. “In divorce cases, we first try to make peace between the parties and reconcile them.”
Schumacher said that simply wasn’t true. “We were providing safe spaces along with counselling, mediation, family guidance and legal support,” he said.
Large gender gap
The lack of women in the Afghan judiciary has left a severe gap in who has access to the justice system in Afghanistan, said Kevin Schumacher, deputy executive director of Women For Afghan Women (WAW), a United States-based non-profit organisation that works on violence against women and provides psycho-social and family counselling.
Before the Taliban takeover, WAW also provided legal support for families and operated shelters for women and children escaping abuse. Since then, however, the organisation has been forced to close down 16 shelters and 12 family guidance centres. The Taliban seized the properties, alleging that they were being used as brothels and promoting immorality.
After years of abuse at the hands of her husband, 32-year-old Bano gathered the courage last year to file for divorce in northeastern Afghanistan.
“For four years, he beat me every day and raped me every night,” she told Al Jazeera, requesting that her name be changed because she is in hiding from her abuser. “If I resisted, he would beat me more.”
“He would humiliate and insult me because I could not get pregnant,” she said. “When the doctor told us that he was the one who needed fertility treatments, he came home and kicked me between the legs, blaming me for being barren.”
Just as Bano’s case was scheduled for a court hearing in Takhar province, the government collapsed in August 2021 and the Taliban returned to power.
“The judges were gone, the lawyers were gone, and with the help of the Taliban, my husband forced me to return to his house, threatening to kill my family if I didn’t,” she said.
After their takeover, the Taliban dismantled the existing judicial system, appointed their own judges and implemented their own version of Islamic law.
“There are no female lawyers operating any more, and none of the female judges has been allowed back to work,” said Marzia, a female judge before the Taliban takeover. She is also in hiding.
