Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

21 June 2007 marks one month since Afghan Member of Parliament and democracy advocate Ms Malalai Joya was suspended from the Afghan Parliament as a result of criticising some of its members,

(ii)

Ms Joya’s electoral term runs for another 3½ years and she received the second highest number of votes in the district that she represents,

(iii)

a core criticism of the Taliban regime was that its treatment of women was deeply oppressive, and

(iv)

Ms Joya has been a strident critic of the continued oppression of women in Afghanistan and has said that life for women in Afghanistan today is no better than life under Taliban rule, and

(v)

supporters of Ms Joya are organising, around the world in the week beginning 18 June 2007, to mobilise international support for her case and call for her reinstatement to the Afghan Parliament; and

(b)

calls on the Government to:

(i)

communicate to the Afghan Government its concern at the suspension of Ms Joya from the Parliament and request that she be reinstated to the Afghan Parliament, and

(ii)

urge the Afghan Government to take steps to protect and promote the rights of women in Afghanistan.

Question put.