More than a hundred Afghan female lawyers and their families were saved from death, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of pounds that J.K. Rowling has donated.
The Harry Potter author made her massive donation after the rapid withdrawal of British and American forces from Kabul, which put hundreds of female judges, prosecutors, and defence counsel in danger from the Taliban.
It meant that 508 Afghans could be transported to safety, thanks in major part to a million-dollar donation from industrialist and philanthropist, Lord Michael Hintze, as well as considerable sums from other important figures and lesser donations from the public.
Only on Thursday, in a debate in the House of Lords, did it become public that Miss Rowling, author of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, among other titles, had donated to the 2021 rescue.
Lord David Alton related to the chamber how the writer and Lord Hintze stepped forward to help when senior human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy required money to rescue female lawyers, primarily judges, and their families.
”Spontaneous, generous, and very substantial private funding,” Lord Alton said.
Out of the roughly 500 people that were rescued, 103 were female lawyers whose families were all on the Taliban’s hit list.
One of the female judges said, “I have met some of the women judges and know that the noble Lord’s intervention, and that of the author JK Rowling, undoubtedly saved many lives.”
After the Taliban were defeated in 2001 by the United States, Britain, and their allies, Baroness Kennedy told the Daily Mail that she had become close friends with attorneys in Afghanistan because she had helped introduce female judges to the country’s legal system.
Those female lawyers were in danger after US President Joe Biden pulled the American and British military out of the volatile country in August 2021 and Miss Rowling, who has become immensely wealthy largely to the sales of her Harry Potter books and the subsequent films based on the boy wizard, swiftly replied to the calls of female judges in Afghanistan.
“J.K. Rowling just said, ‘I want to support these ladies,” Baroness Kennedy added. “She gave me hundreds of thousands of pounds, a very significant sum, to pay for hostel accommodation and people’s living expenses.”
Of the 508 people saved, Baroness Kennedy estimated that about 60 had settled in the United Kingdom. The 57-year-old Miss Rowling has been criticized in recent years for her fear that trans rights pose a danger to women’s rights.
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