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Like many of you, I have been consumed by thoughts of the disturbing human rights situation currently unfolding in Afghanistan. I have read many stories of professional women—attorneys, judges, journalists, women’s rights advocates, and other professionals—who are now at risk of being killed, tortured, or imprisoned. There are approximately 270 women judges in Afghanistan, many of whom are now in the process of burning records of their decades-long careers in order to avoid imprisonment or death.1
In 1999, a presidential proclamation declared June as Pride Month to recognize the struggles and achievements of the LGBTQ+ community in the fight for equality and inclusion. Using Pride Month to look closer at the history of the LGBTQ+ legal community, we learn that the late United States District Judge Deborah A. Batts was the first openly gay Article III federal judge in the nation.
In recent years we have heard “DEI”, “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion”, “allyship” “ally” etc., by a growing number of organizations including courts and law firms. And while we have seen this growing awareness, progress continues to be slow both for women and people of color, and at times just lip service.
Among the many lessons we all have learned during the pandemic, we have learned the real meaning of cabin fever. We have learned that having our freedom of movement restrained even for our own health and safety was difficult and unimaginable long-term. This unimaginable truth despite the fact that we had access to the comforts and niceties in our own homes. We certainly were not incarcerated in our own homes like Yuri Kochiyama was during Japanese internment in the United States.
Let us reflect on our own freedom to be or not to be a women’s rights activist.
Lawyers Club is deeply concerned and saddened by the killings in Atlanta, Georgia. We stand in solidarity with all women and Asian communities to denounce all violence based on gender and race. This past Tuesday, March 16, eight people were killed in Atlanta, seven were women. Six of the seven women were of Asian descent and one was Caucasian. While authorities are determining if the killings are hate crimes, one cannot ignore the common elements of gender and race—especially in a time where “nearly 3,800 hate incidents targeting Asian-Americans have been reported in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., since last March”.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, emerging data and reports from those on the front lines have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, and particularly domestic violence, have intensified. (United Nations Women: The Shadow Pandemic: Violence Against Women during COVID-19.)
Most of us in the legal community are privileged to be able to pivot during this pandemic to the new normal without knowing the despair of the women and girls in our community that are seeking assistance to survive domestic violence, sexual assault, violent crimes, torture, and retaliatory treatment for being in the transgender community.
