Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last October, a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai, was singled out and shot in the head on board a school bus by a member of the Taliban. She miraculously survived after life-saving surgery and was recently discharged from a UK hospital. I want to wish Malala well, as I am sure all colleagues in this chamber do. The Taliban stated that they shot Malala, who is a campaigner for girls' education, for promoting secularism. These hardliners consider the education of females to be an abomination rather than a human right, and not surprisingly this shooting sparked domestic and international outrage. On 1 February Malala gave her first public interview since her recovery. In a courageous display of vision this teenage girl made a vow to continue to serve her people and fight for the right of every girl and child in her home region of the Swat Valley to be educated. Malala has come to represent one of the many females who are the contemporary face of activism in the Muslim world. They speak up for justice where girls and women face a continuing tirade of misogyny embedded in the cultural mores of their communities

One of these women is Miss Tasneem Chopra, Chairperson of the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights. I would like to quote Tasneem:

It is no coincidence that Malala was targeted in this attack. Evidence shows that Muslim women and girls who stand at the front line of activism frequently find themselves at the front line of attacks, often facing dire circumstances. Radicals do not target women activists by accident. This is a deliberate strategy to undermine their pathways to sovereignty through education and equality.

Miss Chopra explained that the Taliban in their extraordinary feudal interpretation of Islam enact brutal acts of misogyny. The attempted murder of Malala is by no means an isolated event. Young girls wanting to go to school in areas like Pakistan's Swat valley and neighbouring Afghanistan have come to typify a growing resistance against the Taliban, which seeks to subjugate them completely. In recent years in Afghanistan, they have carried out multiple atrocities aimed at schoolgirls, some of which include the November 2008 attack on 16 schoolgirls with acid while they were walking to school, a poisonous gas attack on a girls school in May 2009, and in August 2010 seven Kabul schoolgirls were hospitalised after another poisonous gas attack on their classroom. In April 2012, 150 Afghan school girls were hospitalised after drinking poisoned water in their school.

These are despicable acts of evil. But, unfortunately, they are done often in the name of Islam, so it is crucial to highlight that the Islamic faith strongly encourages the education of Muslim males and females. In fact, countries such as Indonesia and Egypt, for example, boast amongst the highest rates of Muslim female literacy and tertiary qualifications in the world. It is the Taliban's selective view of Islam that favours a patriarchal interpretation. Theirs is premised on a belief that in order to control society they must control their women. Because of these tactics, the Taliban ensure that, if you are a female, Afghanistan is recognised as one of the most dangerous countries on earth.

In our quest to right these wrongs that are committed against women and children in the region, we must be very mindful and note that as long as men continue to define what makes a women's role in society acceptable the parameters of her life chances will never be her choice. That is why strides must be made for women's sovereignty both at home and abroad, and they must continue to be a matter of global significance. From the rights of the girl child to eliminating violence against women, we all have a stake in the protection of females in order that we progress into healthier societies. It will always be women who remain best placed to articulate their lives, their lived realities, to speak of their disadvantage, their burden, their glass ceiling and how these injuries must end. So I want to join with all my colleagues and recognise that this Thursday, 14 February, marks the celebration of a global movement known as One Billion Rising, an international movement where for one day women, men and children stand together in solidarity to end abuse against women. This is an event that was put together by One Billion Rising founder Eve Ensler, who has said that the reality is that one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, and that is one billion violated, and that is an atrocity.

Debate interrupted.

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