The Hon. AILEEN MacDONALD (14:12): I speak about the ongoing and systematic repression of women and girls in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. It may be happening a long way from Australia, but that does not diminish how reprehensible it is that women and girls in Afghanistan are denied basic rights and freedoms, including the right to education, personal autonomy and participation in public life. How can we not condemn these severe restrictions, which include subjecting them to forced marriages? This is the stuff of the Dark Ages. These are violations of basic human rights. In Australia we take it for granted that we have the rights to freedom, education and dignity—basic liberties that Afghan women and girls have been stripped of. Their voices, dreams and aspirations have been crushed under the weight of a regime that views them as second‑class citizens.

As the ABC recently reported, the Taliban's latest decree has banned women's voices in public, and over the past three years the Taliban have waged a relentless campaign to erase women from public life in Afghanistan. I bring it back to those of us here in Australia, because we believe in a woman's right to live freely. I am fortunate to have my voice in this country and, indeed, lucky to be able to use it. How can we not as a Parliament, as a country, speak up for these oppressed women? It is barbaric that they are silenced. We need to speak up for them. We are not talking about privileges; this is about basic human rights. It is inconceivable that girls are banned from school past the sixth grade and women are barred from all professions. Not only are they forbidden from holding leadership roles, but the forced marriages are a sham—sexual slavery masked as matrimony to Taliban fighters.

It is not my style to attack other countries, but as a woman I find it difficult just to stand by, knowing that women in Afghanistan are subject to such atrocities. As humanitarians, how can we accept that these women must ask for permission to simply exist? We in this Parliament know the worth of those fundamental freedoms and we know that nations have gone to war for less. Our country and this Parliament need to stand up and speak up, because if we do not, we relegate ourselves to a blind acceptance. As a woman and a proud Australian, I refuse to turn my back.