Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Scrymgour, I start by congratulating you as the first Aboriginal person to chair the House of Representatives. On Sunday, I had the most special day with my family. My friend, Dr Nilofar Ibrahimi, hosted a special gathering with her family and friends to celebrate my being elected. Dr Nilofar Ibrahimi is one of the most inspiring people I have the great honour to know. She is a doctor from Afghanistan and was a female member of parliament in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban retook Kabul, she has been a Canberran and here has founded the ZamZam Foundation, which is an organisation that supports the education of young women in Afghanistan. So it was incredibly moving that she organised this celebration for me and my family when really the greatest honour is to know her and her beautiful family. To call her a friend and a supporter means more to me than I can put into words.

Her story is incredibly inspiring and is covered in a documentary called Facing the Dragon that I hope we will be able to screen in the parliament some time very soon. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to view this to do so. It is one of the most powerful things I have ever watched. For me personally as a member of parliament, hearing her journey as a member of parliament representing her community and what that meant for her as a woman and the challenges she faced in Afghanistan was incredibly moving, particularly considering what has happened since then.

Recently, Nilofar's sister, Manizha, and six of her daughters and her son have been able to join her here in Australia. I have seen these incredible young women and the resilience, strength and courage with which they are starting a new life here in Australia. Think about what their lives have been so far, what they have had to endure and what they would be if they were not here. What they will be now is an incredible testament to what it means when we can welcome refugees into this country.

I was really pleased to have the opportunity to share in some of their Afghan culture on the weekend. What an incredibly beautiful and generous culture that is, one that, under the Taliban, is being so destructively attacked, particularly for women and their basic right to exist.

On 15 August we will mark fourth anniversary of the Taliban's takeover of Kabul. Since that terrible day, we have seen the decimation of human rights and a growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. In 2024 our government joined Germany, Canada and the Netherlands to take the Taliban to the International Court of Justice over the violation of women's and girls' human rights. We have allocated 26,500 dedicated visa places for Afghans to migrate to Australia under the offshore humanitarian program through to 2026, focusing on reuniting refugees with immediate family in Australia. We have also committed significant humanitarian and basic aid assistance to Afghanistan. When I see Nilofar's family here and the new lives they are making, I hope we can extend that to even more Afghan people for them to come and have a chance to live a life where women can pursue normal and happy lives like these wonderful women are.

I particularly want to draw attention to the escalating humanitarian crisis affecting approximately four million Afghan refugees who are currently residing in Iran. This has been brought to my attention by two more local organisations, the Afghan Peace Foundation and Susan Hutchinson of Azadi-e Zan, a women's rights organisation based here in my electorate of Canberra which is aimed at bringing justice for human rights defenders of Afghanistan, ultimately for them to be able to continue defending women's rights for Afghan women. The world must not forget the plight of the women of Afghanistan. I'm proud that our government is doing this, and I hope that we can do more.