Escape from Kabul: The Afghan Women Judges Who Fled the Taliban and Those They Left Behind

by Karen Bartlett

The extraordinary true story of the Afghan women judges who fought for justice in the courtroom, then fought to escape with their lives, from the bestselling British author



Across twenty years of U.S.-backed government, Afghan women obtained legal degrees, became judges, and set out to transform their country—tackling corruption, challenging traditional gender norms, and reducing horrifying levels of violence against women and children. These educated and powerful women led the mission to build Afghanistan as a modern democracy that respected the rule of law and human rights.


Their work, however, posed an existential threat to everything the Taliban believed in—and when the United States withdrew in August 2021, the women judges of Afghanistan faced mortal danger.


Escape from Kabul is the extraordinary, never-before-told story of their escape—with the assistance of the International Association of Women Judges—and the shocking fates of those who were unable to flee. Veteran journalist Karen Bartlett had unique access to many of the women involved, including those in exile and the judges still trapped in Afghanistan, as well as women judges from around the world who were vital to the escape effort.


Combining real-life drama with searing critique, Escape from Kabul is also an indictment of the West—which abandoned its allies and the cause of women’s rights. The book closes with the judges’ recommendations for their beloved country, in their own words.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Feminism

288 pages, Hardcover

Published August 5, 2025

About the author

Karen Bartlett is a writer and journalist based in London. She has written extensively for the Sunday Times, The Times, The Guardian and WIRED from Africa, India and the US, and has presented and produced for BBC Radio. She was the youngest director of democratic reform and human rights campaign group Charter88, and began her career in the UK and South Africa. Most recently, she worked with Eva Schloss, writing her Sunday Times bestselling autobiography After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival by the Stepsister of Anne Frank.

Reviews

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When we came to the U.S., we saw that women were independent, and that a woman judge in the U.S. could have a good income. Back in Afghanistan, the men were very prejudiced against women, and especially against women judges. Women judges made very little money; in those early days we had a very hard life and could hardly make ends meet. Not only were the women judges in the U.S. financially independent, they were powerful, too. That surprised us.”

This is a fascinating look at the terrifying escape of Afghan women judges who fled the Taliban. The author chronicles their bumpy journey in a country full of injustice, telling how their influence fluctuated each time the Taliban took power. For a few years, these women (and their families) would live in the shadows, banned from practicing law and in fear of retribution from both the Taliban and former clients. When the Taliban rule was replaced, they became professional pioneers and encouraged women to advocate for their rights. It was a see-saw career for many.

The author tells of the disappointment in learning that there was no plan for these women judges to be evacuated; they felt betrayed and abandoned watching many who’d supported the U.S. being airlifted to safety. Thankfully, female judges from around the world worked to ensure their safety and escape. All but 40 of the almost 300 judges have been evacuated.

I can’t imagine the weight of injustice, nor how I could continue to fight for my dreams in such conditions. When my life is endangered simply for standing up for what’s right, I hope I am as courageous as these women. While this was an interesting read, the flow was interrupted by chapters on influential Afghan women judges. While this is still important content, I wonder if reorganizing the format would ease the flow?

I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.

[Emmy Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this--really well-structured and incisively written. Lots of cultural context for things that simply never occurred to me about attempting to extract people from a coup.

[Matthew Bishop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amazing book in terms of its content and individual stories. The women involved are amazing, and their plights as detailed on these pages are harrowing. The way that other countries have come to the rescue and the amazing women who campaigned for their freedom deserve awards.

But the book isn’t really written well, it’s repetitive in places and could have been a bit shorter.

But wow! What an eye opener.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, nightmarish rule returned. Music was banned, children weren't permitted to have toys, and women weren't allowed to wear noisy shoes. They have to cover every inch of their bodies and are not allowed to leave their homes without male chaperones. The Taliban punish everything possible, often dearly, such as cutting off a woman's thumb for wearing nail polish. Wives are killed for having secret phones and girls as young as seven are married off to middle-aged men. Journalist and author Karen Bartlett writes about the horrors women face, with a focus on female judges, who are a threat to the Taliban as they are educated. Many have been murdered. Several tell about their experiences living in constant danger. It wasn't until they escaped to the United States that they realized how primitive their courtrooms were. There were no computers, electricity or even filing systems. Files were created out of waxy cloth. Pay was very low. But these women were...and are...desperate to be the voice for the oppressed. When outside Afghanistan, they see their culture differently and desire to learn what they can to implement in their home country if possible. The role of the International Association of Women Judges is discussed here as are crimes such as drug trafficking.

Many harrowing stories stand out in my mind but one of the most moving to me was the night the electricity went out and the women finally, finally experienced temporary freedom in the darkness with no judgement or fear. Achingly beautiful. Every aspect of these judges' lives (and women in general) are fraught with difficulty. They could be attacked or killed at any time. As of September of 2024, forty female judges remain in Afghanistan and for various reasons cannot leave. But rescuers will not rest until they are safely relocated. The courage of these women is breathtaking.

This writing is personal, sobering, powerful and hopeful. I also appreciate learning more about (in)justice and am once again reminded of our freedoms.

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that might make you angry. It might also make you wonder if the whole male portion of Afghanistan deserves to have women and girls around so long as that is how those men think they should behave. Before 9/11 women in Afghanistan had few rights and very limited freedoms, but after 9/11 and the response from the US and Europe, women's rights in Afghanistan improved markedly for quite a while. Then the US withdrew from the region and left the Taliban to run rampant through the country imposing their vicious and pointedly misogynist worldview and rules on everyone, and placing professional women in extreme danger. The female judges who had been working in the country for just the past couple decades were obviously a target for the Taliban, and women judges around the world swung into action to develop an escape plan. This book looks at the situation in Afghanistan and how the women who have escaped made it out. There are still professional women, including judges, stuck inside Afghanistan, and all the women and girls now effectively imprisoned in their homes, forbidden from being educated and forced into a lifestyle required by their Taliban overlords.
Hopefully these sorts of stories will be just human interest tales of courageous humans of the past, once we figure out how to keep such rabid subcultures as the Taliban from overrunning our communities. It is uncomfortable to know that women like me are stuck in such a place, where the men who supposedly love them are part of the system imprisoning them, and where they are really only valued for making and raising babies and cleaning their houses. But, not knowing just serves to allow such injustice to continue unchallenged longer.
This is a powerful book, and tells some great stories about people being good and brave in the face of serious dangers.Well worth reading.

[The_Reading_ Rabbithole · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5*]
Highly recommend for those that like their non-fiction centred on personal narratives, human rights, gender inequality and failures of government ⚖️
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The book focusses on a group of female Judges, who were trailblazers in the 1970’s Afghanistan and those during the 25 years of US intervention. During the non-Taliban years women’s agency increased, they earned law degrees, presided over courts, and worked to reduce corruption and raise protections for women and children. They even sentenced Taliban supporters to jail - which is exactly why they feared for their lives once the Taliban regained power in 2021 and opened the prison gates to release the very men that the Judges had convicted 👩‍⚖️
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I remember the news footage of Afghans desperately clinging to departing aeroplanes when the US finally withdrew. It’s amid this backdrop of chaos that the Judge’s attempt to flee 🛫
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The most inspiring aspect of the book is the incredible lengths that the 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝒜𝓈𝓈𝑜𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝒲𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓃 𝒥𝓊𝒹𝑔𝑒𝓈 went to to enable the escapes. A worldwide network of ladies laboured 24/7 to organise an extraction, ensure safe harbour, champion asylum claims, and then support the Judge’s and their families in new lives overseas. Women advocating for women can be truly magical 🧚‍♀️
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The saddest part was realising that many of the women who had worked so hard to get where they were in life would never again be able to practice Law. Whether it was age, asylum restrictions, language barriers or retraining - some hurdles were just too great in the end 😞
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Overall, it was a thoroughly captivating read. A small slice of Afghan told through a remarkable set of women ♛

[Aoife · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the US pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021 after 20 years, the Taliban instantly reverted back to the old ways of submission, oppression and tyrannical rule. Women were no longer allowed to go to school/college or work and became their husband’s property.
Within those 20 years society had changed, women had gained more independence and rights especially the women that worked their way into the legal/court system to become judges. They were able to challenge corruption, sentence husbands for killing wives marrying and raping underage girls and educate women on their rights.

When the Taliban took over, they rescued and released these men that were imprisoned and went seeking vengeance for these wrongful imprisonments, as they saw it. This is a story about those female judges who fleed for their lives to freedom and how they started to rebuild their lives with the help of fellow female judges across the world; from overcoming the bureaucracy of visas, asylum status and citizenship, learning new languages and ultimately realising that they may have to retrain due to the typical career trajectory of a judge in other countries.

I was worried at the start about the writing style and thought it was going to romanticise this story, but no it shares the struggles, reality and survivor guilt of these families and the people they left behind. This was a story I was unfortunately too privileged to have thought about and I thank NetGalley, The New Press and Karen Bartlett for sharing this with me. Escape from Kabul is out Aug 5th

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, any advances made by women in the previous 20 years were put at nought, and the lives of the country’s women judges in particular were immediately put at risk. They had to get out before the Taliban and those they had condemned but who were now set free from incarceration came for them. Their lives were daily in danger, and an international rescue committee was set up to get them out. This is the story of what happened and the tireless efforts that were made at great personal cost to save them. Their harrowing journeys are documented here in this powerful and compelling account, which describes not only the rescues, but the help given to the judges and their families to settle in their host countries and build new lives in exile. It’s a dramatic tale, ably written, but it was sometimes hard to distinguish the individual women one from another, and thus it felt repetitious at times, and I couldn’t keep track of who was who. Nevertheless, it’s important account of solidarity and courage, and a useful reminder of the plight of women in Afghanistan.

[Saturnia · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two books entitled Escape from Kabul, describing the astonishing and horrifying events of August 2021, and those leading to and away from it. This is the more focused and intimate, taking as its theme the women judges who were at the leading edge of Afghanistan’s twenty year transformation between 2001 and 2021, and therefore, because they pioneered women’s rights and had sat in judgement on men, at the sharp end of the retribution of the Taliban and those they had judged. The task of getting these women away from imprisonment and death fell to an international group of female judges who moved mountains to bring these women and their families to safety. But the story is more than derring-do and dodging checkpoints- the book dives into the careers of the judges pre-Taliban, and how they pioneered their roles in a society stacked against their progress in a way difficult to comprehend from the West, as well as their efforts to restart their lives and integrate into the countries they escaped to. The story is not over yet- tens of women judges remain on the run in Afghanistan, with the prospects of escape diminishing fast.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️ This is an immensely important topic and I am so grateful to Karen Bartlett for giving a voice to these powerful women and their stories. I think the content is something everyone should read because so few people know the struggles of women in countries other than their own. In the type of news cycle we have in Western countries, people move on too quickly from serious issues like these.

My only issue with this book is that the writing style seemed sort of jilted to me. We were brought back and forth in time to learn other people’s perspectives, which I think is important. But to me, it made the book feel a bit disjointed and made it more difficult to keep track of everything. I think that this is likely just personal preference and many people won’t find that this interferes with their reading of the book! And overall, I am glad I read this book. Getting the chance to learn these women’s stories is valuable to me.

Thank you to NetGalley, The New Press, and Karen Bartlett for the opportunity to read this ARC!

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Story

Despite the title of my review, this is not just a story. It is about the lives of women who fight to make a change for their people that is just as important and the women’s fight for the vote in the United States. These women, human beings, are living a life from the dark ages, in the modern world. And it is truly tragic that this is not on daily national news.

[DarkS · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book pulled me in with a strong narrative voice and characters that truly mattered. While the pacing felt a bit awkward for me at times, overall it was a very good read that left an impact.

[Meg Dowling · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Afghans are also human beings, and they deserve the same rights and protections as everyone else” !!!!!

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a voice to Afghan women judges. It tells their story trough multiple taliban occupations and trough many troubles faced. It's inspiering to see the resilience of these women in the face of discrimination and challenge.
The book gives insight in the fear and uncertanty faced during the Taliban's march and occupation of Kabul in 2021 and all the work that was put into getting as many gemale judges out of the country alive.
The timeline of the book jums back and forth in the years to tell stories of the women. Sometimes this is a little confusing. Other than that it's a well written book.

Thank you NetGalley for providing a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.