‘The Taliban want revenge’: Afghanistan’s female judges in exile in Australia

It was the toughest decision these judges ever made. To flee Afghanistan, the country they love and spent years working to rebuild. To leave behind the familiarity of family and friends for new, unknown lives on the other side of the world.

A sentence of exile, to save their lives.

In mid-August, amid the chaos of the US armed forces' abrupt pullout from Afghanistan, female judges and prosecutors faced a perilous future.

Key actors in the country's fragile justice system, they had jailed high-profile terrorists, drug barons and violent criminals.

Overnight, with the withdrawal of foreign forces and the fall of Kabul, they were left exposed and vulnerable to deadly reprisals.

"At 10am I was at work in Kabul. At 11am I got a phone call: 'The Taliban are in control. They are looking for you, go home and hide,'" said Farah Altaf Atahee, who fled with her husband and three children.

The Guardian met Atahee and other female judges in mid-December in Athens, where they had been evacuated from Afghanistan and were awaiting relocation to new homes.