Editor's note: This article is adapted from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Kathy King's prepared remarks delivered on March 6 before the Commission on the Status of Women, which the International Federation for Peace and Sustainable Development hosted at the United Nations.

The ramifications of the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 were completely unfamiliar to me, until I received a call from Judge Lisa Walsh of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to chair the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) New York Mentor Team.