As Canada prepares to send more flights to evacuate vulnerable Afghans from Kabul in the coming weeks, Maryam is busy making sure she will survive until then.
She is hiding and destroying any evidence of her successful decade-long career as a judge in Afghanistan, a job that could seal her fate under Taliban rule.
CBC News agreed not to use Maryam’s real name for her own protection.
As a judge, she said that if the Taliban identified her, they would most likely execute her without a trial. If she was lucky, she could only be imprisoned.
“[The Taliban] I think … women who work as judges are unfaithful, “Maryam told CBC News in a WhatsApp conversation on Monday.” I think the arrival of the Taliban makes Afghanistan go backwards about 100 years. “
During the day, they cut off his electricity; but at night he has been able to send messages and communicate with friends and colleagues.
There are around 270 female judges in Afghanistan, all in danger and all desperate to flee after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on Sunday, ending a two-decade Western-backed campaign to transform the country.
Maryam said she regularly talks to many of them online. “They are very worried. They often ask me, ‘Is there any hope of escape?’”
The Taliban had ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 under a severe form of Islamic law.
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According to the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), there have been recent reports of deadly car bomb attacks against Afghans working for the courts, as well as their families. In january, an unidentified gunman ambushed and killed two judges of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan.
“The Taliban’s first target is the military and their second target is the judiciary and judicial officials, including judges,” Maryam said.
Last week, he said he heard about two men who were arrested and killed when the Taliban found out they were judges.
Wear a scarf to hide from Taliban fighters
Like much of the international community, Maryam was caught off guard when the Taliban arrived in Kabul, where she lives. Despite how quickly the militant group was gaining territory, US intelligence reports last week had suggested that the capital could hold out for about a month or more.
On Sunday, Maryam was in the car with her husband when they saw Taliban fighters on the road.
“I was afraid they might stop me,” he said. She covered herself with a scarf and they were able to get home without being stopped.
But even at home, Maryam is not safe.
“I heard that the search for houses will start soon,” he told CBC News. She has nowhere to go, her relatives are too afraid to hide her.
The Canadian government recently expanded its special immigration program for Afghan refugees beyond interpreters and individuals who worked with the Canadian Armed Forces, to include women leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, persecuted religious minorities, and LGBT people.
Maryam said she applied from the car as her husband passed Taliban fighters and extremists stormed the presidential palace.
“We love our country. We love our jobs. We didn’t want to leave, but now we have to leave to stay alive,” he said.
Even if Maryam’s application for Canada is accepted, there is the question of getting a flight. Kabul airport is closed at the moment. Ottawa plans to send more planes to help with evacuations, but that depends on whether troops can secure the airport.
“The window of opportunity to help them is getting smaller and smaller,” said New Zealand Supreme Court Justice Susan Glazebrook, president of the IAWJ.
The association has been urging the governments of the world to help Afghan judges get to safety.
Glazebrook said leaving them “at the mercy of the Taliban and insurgent groups” would be “tragic” given what they sacrificed to build a more egalitarian and democratic Afghanistan.