The Taliban commander, armed with a machine gun, hopped out of a tan Ford ranger the US troops had left behind. Flanked by fighters, he knocked on the door of the female judge who had put him behind bars.
It was 17 August 2021 – two days after the Taliban captured Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul following the withdrawal of US and allied troops. The Taliban’s subsequent mass release of prisoners unleashed criminals who were seeking revenge. Female judges – staunch advocates for women’s rights and justice – faced deadly reprisals.
A phone call from a neighbour alerted Pakiza Nawim’s husband that the commander she had sentenced for the rape of a 13-year-old boy three years earlier was at their front door. Luckily, the family had already fled, knowing the inevitable collapse of Afghanistan left Nawim exposed because of her work.
But four years later, Nawim and her colleagues fear the Taliban could seek retribution against their family members in Afghanistan and those at risk of deportation in neighbouring countries.
Their family members are among more than 160,000 Afghans in the queue for Australia’s offshore humanitarian visas. Nawim’s 13 relatives are in Iran illegally after fleeing the Taliban’s control of their home country 2023. They fear being deported to Afghanistan.
“I was the reason for this situation for my family. I feel guilty,” Nawim says, through her husband, who is translating.
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Appointed a primary court judge in 2018, Nawim presided over criminal cases in Afghanistan’s Maidan Wardak province, about 35km from Kabul. She was the youngest judge in the province.
That year, she sentenced the commander who later came searching for her to 14 years behind bars for raping a child. He issued her a warning in the courtroom: “I will take revenge on you and your family.”
When a suicide bomber attacked the court district where Nawim worked in 2019, her government-appointed security guards fled. Her family members were the only people she could trust after this, she says, so she appointed her brothers as her security guards.
Nawim says her two brothers, who are in Iran, would be killed by the Taliban for helping a female judge if they returned to Afghanistan. Her 70-year-old mother, who has severe back pain, fears she would be deported by Iranian authorities if she sought medical treatment at a hospital.
“Sometimes during the night, I’m not able to go to sleep. I have anxiety and stress because my mother cannot have medical essentials,” Nawim says. “I’m thinking about my family a lot.”
“I was not alone in this journey … to bring justice on that province. My family was also fighting with me.”
In her final year working in the court, Nawim opted to wear the full burqa to conceal her identity when she travelled to court. Despite the threats, she remained steadfast in her convictions.
“I wanted to change the perspective of the people that the ladies are not able to do anything. I tried to make changes in the community,” she says. “I tried to put a legacy for the next generation that ladies are powerful and they are able to change the society.”
The 19 judges who resettled in Australia were granted temporary protection visas, which converted into permanent residency. But the pathway to Australia for thousands of other Afghans is complicated and lengthy.
In 2022, Australia allocated 26,500 dedicated visa places for Afghans to migrate to Australia under the offshore humanitarian visa program through to mid-2026. But demand soars beyond this.
Since the Taliban captured Kabul in August 2021, more than 251,000 Afghans have applied for visas in this program; about 20,000 have been granted. The latest statistics show that Afghan nationals accounted for 59% of all offshore humanitarian visa applicants in the 2023-24 financial year.
Australia’s suspension of operations in its embassy in Iran in June, due to a deteriorating security situation amid the 12-day Iran-Israel war, has also complicated the process of issuing exit permits for those granted a visa.
Iran and Pakistan have forced Afghans without valid visas to return to their home country or face deportation in recent years amid a hardening stance on refugees. The UN estimates that this year more than 2.1 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan, including 352,000 from Pakistan and 1.5 million from Iran.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said despite the ongoing closure of Australia’s embassy in Iran, it has continued to process humanitarian visas for applicants in the country.
“The department is aware the current situation in Iran may impact humanitarian visa holders waiting to depart,” the spokesperson said. “Resettlement of Afghans continues to be a key priority of Australia’s offshore humanitarian program.”
Nawim now lives in Melbourne with her husband, three sons and in-laws. Sitting in the family’s suburban house, her eyes well with tears as she remembers the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
“It was like waking from a dream that that was full of colour. When the Taliban came, we wake in a black and white world,” she says.
Nawim says she hopes to one day study law in Australia. But her mind remains focused on ensuring her family’s safe passage from the Middle East.
“I’m thinking a lot about my family members. If I feel that my family is safe, then definitely I can continue my education,” she says.
“I am still that Pakiza that can fight for education, fight for the justice.”
