Moments that mattered: Yasmin Waljee, Hogan Lovells
At last month's NatWest WISE100 awards event, we tasked four leading women with choosing just one moment that shaped them. Watch Yasmin Waljee, head of pro bono at Hogan Lovells and WISE100 guest judge, as she shares her dramatic story of crisis, collaboration and rescue.
Yasmin Waljee helps law firm Hogan Lovells deliver 100,000 hours of pro bono work each year to support social enterprises, impact organisations and social innovators across the world – sometimes in unexpected ways.
As the humanitarian crisis escalated in Afghanistan in August 2021 and the Taliban entered the capital of Kabul, the national women’s cycling team – who had spent the past 10 years challenging perceptions of women in sport – suddenly feared for their lives.
Waljee asked herself what a corporate law firm could do to help. Acknowledging their strengths as lawyers with a sphere of influence across international borders, she reflects on 14 intense days, during which her team worked alongside individuals on the ground to evacuate 151 women from different Afghan cycling teams – the day before the international borders closed.
“When you sit in area of privilege, it's important to think about how you can use that for betterment of communities,” says Waljee.
Watch her moment that mattered above, and check back soon for more stories from the WISE100 network.
Yasmin Waljee was a guest judge in the Environmental Champion category of the 2022 NatWest WISE100 awards.
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