The 25 Afghan Women Judges and their Families in Ontario

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Most of the families arrived in Ontario between May 25, 2022 and December 31, 2022.   Three families arrived in early 2023. The 25th Afghan family arrived in May, 2024.  Five of the families live in Mississauga and one family lives in each of Kitchener, Guelph, Hamilton, Oshawa and Sudbury.   Two families live in Ottawa.  The remaining 13 families live in Toronto.

Nineteen of the families consist of the Afghan woman judge, her husband and their children.  In two families, the Afghan woman judge is a single mother with young children.  In four of the families, there are the Afghan woman judge and her husband, of the Afghan woman judge together with related adults such as siblings or parents. There are approximately 45 children, most of whom were under 14 years on arrival. Four of the children were born in Canada. There are also 49 adults. 

The Afghan women judges are amongst the 5% of females in Afghanistan who had attained post-secondary education by 2021.  They all have an undergraduate degree in Sharia law or Islamic law or Law and Politics.  Three of them have a Masters degree.  Most of them attended  the 2 year judicial training program and they presided as judges in Afghanistan in a range of 4 to 12 years.    

All of the husbands have undergraduate degrees and several have Masters degrees.  In Afghanistan, they had careers including judge, prosecutor or defence lawyer, engineer, and electrician. 

On arrival, few of the newcomers had sufficient English language proficiency to work or attend educational programs.  Most of them accessed the literacy program [LINC] available through the federal government. While committed to improving their English skills as quickly as possible, they rose to meet the many challenges of the new environment including access to child care.   

They were all welcomed to Canada as Government Assisted Refugees and as a result, they became Permanent Residents on arrival. They were all entitled to financial support from the federal government for 12 months along with settlement services to assist in obtaining access to housing, education for the children and health care.  

With the exception of the family that arrived in May, 2024, all of the Afghan women judges and their families have exhausted the financial support provided by the federal government. They are grappling with decisions about trying to obtain employment at minimum wage jobs or in the gig economy, about deciding whether the Afghan women judges will prioritize language and other educational options while the husbands find employment, and about defaulting to OSAP or Ontario Works because no other options are available.  Most of them are challenged by housing, including crowded conditions and high rent.  Some are reliant on food banks.

All of the Afghan women judges express anxiety for the family members they were forced to leave behind as the situation in Afghanistan for girls and women continues to deteriorate.

As judges, these Afghan women made an enormous contribution to the re-establishment of civil society and to the introduction of the rule of law in some areas of Afghanistan.  As a result, their lives and the lives of their families were endangered. Canada has provided a welcome refuge but they face many challenges.