Afghanistan's Imperiled Women Judges and Their Connection to Vermont

• Publication year: 2023
• Citation: Vol. 48 No. 4 Pg. 29
• Pages: 29

Afghanistan's Imperiled Women Judges and Their Connection to Vermont Vol. 48 No. 4 Pg. 29 Vermont Bar Journal January 2023

Afghanistan's Imperiled Women Judges and Their Connection to Vermont

by Kim S. Velk, Esq.

The official announcement came at the end of November. The 2023 Carl and Susan Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law was to be awarded to the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) in recognition of the organization’s efforts to evacuate, support, and resettle Afghan women judges who, because of their gender and work as judges, have faced persecution and violence since the Taliban took control of the country in late 2021. (The Bolch Institute’s Announcement of the Prize and Related Background is reprinted in the following pages). The IAWJ will be honored at a ceremony at Duke University on March 1. The Bolch Prize is not the first recognition that the IAWJ has received for its efforts to help their sister judges in Afghanistan, but it is a major one. The prize includes custom artwork and a “significant monetary award.”

Afghanistan is a long way from Vermont, and even the IAWJ, which is based in Washington, DC, seems a long way from the Green Mountains. The link is there, however, and has been for years in the person of the Hon. Patricia Whalen, (ret.). Judge Whalen is a longtime member of the IAWJ and she is currently working “24/7” from her home in Westminster, Vermont, to get women judges out of Afghanistan, and to help those who have been relocated around the world.

Whalen’s career has been defined by her efforts to help women and children. Before she went to law school, Whalen came to the aid of a neighbor who had been beaten so badly by her husband that the woman lost a pregnancy. The husband then shot himself in the foot, and his wife got off her hospital bed to attend to him. “That taught me what I needed to know about domestic violence,” Judge Whalen said.

That incident also inspired in her a desire to improve the legal system for such women. Whalen started law school in 1976. She went to school and worked part time at the Brattleboro Women’s Crisis Center, which she had helped found. When she got her law license, having made a special study of battered women’s issues during law school, she went to work at Vermont Legal Aid representing women, children, seniors and low-income clients. In 1990, Gov. Madeleine Kunin appointed Whalen to the Vermont Bench as a family court magistrate. Her career would eventually take her far away, to the International War Crimes

Court in Sarajevo, but not before she made her mark on Vermont.

It was during her time as Vermont judge that Whalen forged the ties with women judges in Afghanistan that are now being pulled on, hard. “Women judges, who were the backbone of Afghanistan’s judicial system and upheld the rule of law, remain in danger. They are forced to hide in their homes with their families, unable to go out for fear of being recognized,” she said. “We have seen great acts of kindness and assistance to date, but there is more that needs to be done.”

We sat down with Judge Whalen to hear the story of Afghanistan’s women judges and their connection to Vermont: where it began, where it is now, and the prospects for a happy, or at least a safe, ending.

KSV: Congratulations to you and all your colleagues at IAWJ on the Bolch Prize. It’s a great achievement. I’m guessing you would rather that the work you’ve all been doing was not urgently necessary. Is that a fair statement?

PW: Yes, I have been working to end violence against women since the seventies but at 75, to be doing this now, makes me question what I and others have accomplished. For much of my life I focused on the quality of women’s lives. Now, I feel like I am just trying to help them survive.

KSV: We’re going to get into the current difficulties, but let’s start with how you first got involved with the women judges of Afghanistan. How did that all begin?

PW: In 2003, I attended an IAWJ/NAWJ conference in Washington, DC. Judge Shireen Fisher introduced me to Marzia Bazel, a judge from Afghanistan. Marzia was commenting on how advanced the technology was in the courtrooms she was visiting in DC. She wanted educational programs for her sister judges but worried they could not relate to the high-tech courtrooms she had seen in Washington. Many of their courtrooms in Afghanistan did not even have electricity. I suggested they come to Vermont. It would be a good learning laboratory without the flash. On the Amtrak ride home, I sketched out a three-week legal education program. The first program was held in 2004. It continued for 10 years after that.

KSV: Can you describe the program that you put together for them?

PW: First, I wanted it to be more than a traditional legal education exchange. It was important to me that they saw our lives and our problems. Three other women joined me, from different fields of expertise, Julie Peterson (government), Connie Woodberry (education) and Ann Fielder (health care). Together we pooled our resources to design a homestay experience which would expose the women to Vermont women and how we lived. To understand our justice system is to also understand who we are as a people. To understand our Afghan sisters, we learned as much as we could about Afghan culture and history. In the end we designed a program that made sense to us. If we went to Afghanistan, what would we want to do and see? That was our starting point.

KSV: Tell me a little about that first class in 2004.

PW: It was a wonderful group of four women. It included Judge Anisa Rasooli, who later became the first women to be nominated to the Afghan Supreme Court.

KSV: Where did they stay?

PW: Judge Anisa and another judge, Judge Hamida, stayed with me and the other two stayed with one of our homestay volunteers. The homestay was the most important part of the program where we could share our lives.

KSV: How was the program supported?

PW: We partnered with the IAWJ to do this program. The IAWJ applied for federal funding through the State Department. The first two weeks were in Vermont and the third was in DC. This last week was run by the IAWJ staff and Judge Vanessa Ruiz of the DC Court of Appeals. Primary funding was through the Department of State [DOS]. Locally, in Vermont, we had help from Ben and Jerry’s, the Sisters of Mercy, and many volunteers throughout the state.

KSV: What kinds of things did they do in Vermont?

PW: Each day was primarily set aside for legal training, visiting courts, and attending the Vermont Judicial College. We held workshops on public speaking and women’s...