Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the three years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, women have been banned from most forms of paid employment, prevented from walking in public parks and shut out of the criminal justice system, and girls have been stopped from going to secondary school or university. Just three weeks ago, the Taliban went even further and banned women from speaking in public and from looking at men other than their husbands or relatives and required women to cover the lower half of their faces in addition to the head covering that they must already wear. In spite of this crackdown, Afghan women continue to resist, speak out and champion their rights.

The Taliban must be held to account for the human rights violations that they are perpetrating, and the Australian government must do everything in its power to ensure that they are held accountable. This ongoing assault on Afghan women is not just a local issue; it's a human rights crisis that demands global attention and action. We cannot look away while an entire generation of women is systematically erased from public view.

Minister Wong has expressed solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan, but we must do more. The Australian government must urgently increase humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and increase its refugee intake for people fleeing Afghanistan. Australia's military involvement significantly contributed to the political instability that we are now witnessing. The oppression of women and girls and the curtailing of their human rights by the Taliban is a crisis, and we urgently need to respond.