Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's only one country in the world today where women are banned from education. It's Afghanistan. This horrendous attack on human rights reverberates every day in my community, as we are home to the highest number of people born in Afghanistan of any electorate in this parliament. Despite promising both the Afghan people and the international community that rights to education, work and full participation in civic life would be protected, the Taliban have instead imposed increasingly restrictive policies on women and girls. Women in Afghanistan are now unable to freely express their views, generate livelihoods or contribute to their country—or even move around society without a man accompanying them.

At a protest in the heart of my electorate in Dandenong last month, we heard from Roya, a young woman recently arrived in Australia after fleeing Afghanistan. On the day of the Taliban's takeover, Roya received a message from her friends, telling her how lucky she was to be able to go to school. As she so bluntly said, it is inconceivable that in 2023 there are still places in this world where women are denied a right as fundamental as that of education.

Roya is a remarkable, strong, well-educated young woman. She's the type of person capable of making an extraordinary contribution to Afghanistan, or indeed to any country—now, luckily for us, ours. Yet the Taliban have made it clear that women like Roya are no longer welcome, so long as they hold power.

But Roya's story is just one of millions. I couldn't possibly count how many constituents have come to me with similar stories of what confronts and awaits the women in their family who remain—sisters, mothers, wives, daughters, stranded due to visa delays, border rules or just the vagaries of life and timing. They are traumatised in their grief for loved ones, family and friends living under the Taliban who are facing not just discrimination but forced marriage, sexual slavery and a wasted life of repression.

It's difficult to actually describe to my colleagues who don't deal with this every day the ongoing daily trauma for people from Afghanistan. It's like a nightmare or a natural disaster, but one that just never ends. At every neighbourhood forum, every street stall, every community event, my staff and I bear witness, in conversations, to this trauma, day in and day out.

I firmly stand with the Afghan people in expressing my unequivocal support for Afghan women to participate fully, equally and meaningfully in all facets of life. The Taliban regime and its abhorrent treatment of women and girls must be vigorously opposed, here, and by like-minded nations. So long as Afghanistan remains under Taliban control, the world must treat it as a pariah state, just as we do North Korea or the Myanmar military junta. The Taliban must be excluded from the international community as long as they exclude women and girls from Afghan society.

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