One year ago, we watched in horror as Afghanistan fell the to the Taliban. With the Taliban now in control, the situation facing Afghan women is extremely dangerous. Upon taking control, the Taliban swiftly enacted measures excluding women and girls from almost all forms of public life, including banning women and girls from secondary and higher education, altering primary education curricula to focus on religious studies, restricting women’s right to work outside the home, and prohibiting them from traveling alone. This has created an unprecedented crisis for women and girls in Afghanistan, and for Afghan refugees abroad. IANGEL is actively involved on both fronts to address the crisis.
IANGEL Supports Underground Education for Girls and Women in Afghanistan
As recently reported by the Associated Press, some Afghan women have refused to accept the exclusion of girls from education and decided to teach them anyway. With immense courage, a teacher named Parsi* started a makeshift school for street children and women in an old building on a dirt alleyway in Afghanistan. There, she teaches to street children and women, giving them knowledge, helping them realize their potential, and allowing them to imagine a better future. Inspired by her determination, IANGEL connected with Parsi directly and is actively assisting her efforts – to assure her that the voices of Afghan women and girls are being heard, to let them know that the international community cares, and to provide vital resources to help continue this important work.
“Thank you for not leaving the women and girls of Afghanistan alone.”
—Parsi, teacher, Educational place for street Children and Women
*pseudonym
IANGEL Deploys Pro Bono Resources and Advocacy to Address the Crisis
In addition to the heartbreaking gender apartheid in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s takeover of the government led to an overwhelming crisis of Afghan refugees. IANGEL has responded, by engaging pro bono volunteers to help women and children who have fled Afghanistan so they can permanently escape the oppression of gender inequality imposed by the Taliban, and with advocacy to reform the laws that are exacerbating the crisis in the United States.
Afghan Pro Bono Asylum Project
To aid those who were able to make it out of Afghanistan, the U.S. admitted over 76,000 Afghans through a process called “humanitarian parole.” But this designation only allows them to stay in the country for two years, after which they risk losing access to employment, healthcare and the legal right to remain in the U.S. Afghans must pursue other means to obtain permanent immigration status, such as asylum. Because the asylum process is exceedingly difficult to navigate, legal assistance is vitally important to address the crisis. In recognition of this situation, IANGEL has partnered with Jewish Family & Community Services – East Bay to recruit pro bono attorneys to represent Afghan women and children in asylum applications. Here are some summaries of the situations of evacuees (with names changed) that need representation:
Nazia, a single, 35-year-old college-educated woman, was working as a teacher immediately prior to the evacuation. Previously she worked for a women’s rights organization and published op-eds on women’s rights in local Afghan papers. With no close male relatives in Afghanistan, Nazia would have been unable to leave her home safely had she stayed in Afghanistan.
Salima is young woman who worked for various women’s rights groups and as an interpreter for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan. When she was growing up, her family received calls from the Taliban calling them “infidels” because they allowed Salima to attend school. She entered the U.S. with her 10-year-old sister.
By volunteering to provide asylum representation through IANGEL, pro bono lawyers can help these women and children so they can safely stay in the U.S. It is estimated that the process of filing an asylum application and appearing with the client at a hearing in San Francisco will take no more than six months. No prior immigration experience is required, and training and mentorship will be provided. To get involved, sign up to volunteer here, or email info@iangel.org of your interest.
Support for the Afghan Adjustment Act
To help alleviate the crisis, IANGEL actively supports the Afghan Adjustment Act (H.R. 8685/S.4787), recently introduced in Congress with bipartisan support. The Act would provide long-term support to our new Afghan neighbors, providing a pathway to lawful permanent status, to put them on the same legal footing they would have enjoyed if they had been resettled to the U.S. as refugees. Please contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to support the Afghan Adjustment Act.
You can find your congressional representative here.
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