Senate debates

Wednesday, 1 September 2021

Adjournment

Afghanistan

7:45 pm

Photo of David VanDavid Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The fall of the Afghan government and the subsequent Taliban takeover have quite rightly sent shockwaves around the world. Largely, the public discourse is centred around a narrative that the Taliban takeover means that the last two decades have accomplished nothing. I rise tonight to say that I strongly disagree. What that narrative fails to see is that, over the last 20 years, generations of women have seen what gender equality—or, more accurately, nearly gender equality—looks like. This gave the whole country hope for a freer life and a better future.

These brave Afghan women unshackled themselves from restraints placed upon them and achieved things that seemed unimaginable 20 years ago. In the past two decades, Afghan women have fought for their equal and rightful place in society, protected by our coalition forces. Young girls were free to attend school. Women were welcomed into universities, the police force, politics and professions such as the law. In Afghanistan, this was a radical step forward, evolving the very fabric of their society. Make no mistake: the Taliban's likely unravelling of these gains is an atrocity, and this is the greatest tragedy to come out of the fall of Kabul.

Recent pronouncements by the Taliban that they have somehow modernised themselves are being proven false by anecdotal evidence every day, as brutalities are being reported. However, to say that the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan discards the last 20 years of work is a fundamentally flawed notion that erodes the progress that was achieved by Afghan women. It erodes all the progress that those Afghan women achieved in patriarchal Afghanistan. With or without the Taliban, Afghan society was still a hyperconservative, patriarchal society. The presence of our coalition forces simply provided these women with the space to fight their own battles and take up their rightful place in society.

If the Taliban want Afghans to live in peace, women must play a role in that peace process. Women's participation in peace processes results in a more durable and stable peace. It is just over 20 years since the adoption of UN security resolution 1325, which affirms the important role of women in the resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace building and postconflict reconstruction. The foundations of an inclusive and fair society stand strongest when they are built on the active participation of all of its population. The quality of a society is determined not only by the form of civil institutions within it but also by the extent to which different social groups participate in these institutions.

A nation cannot modernise without progress on women's rights. The women of Afghanistan have fought to improve the quality of the governing systems within their country over the last 20 years. They freed themselves from the shackles constraining their civil liberties in a big step towards modernising the region. What the 'achieved nothing' discourse fails to recognise is that decades of progress made by these women cannot be eroded in a few days. The opportunity, the freedom and the hope provided by the last 20 years of progress are firmly seeded in their minds. However, there is a finite period before the memory fades. It is in this period, starting right now, that the international community must insist that the Taliban not completely erase these gains. If the Taliban want to be recognised as the leaders of Afghanistan, they must demonstrate that they lead all Afghans equally.

The gender norms and values of a whole generation have been challenged. Afghan society has seen how important gender equality is and the great many benefits that come with empowering women in society. While hard-won territorial battles may have been overrun by the recent Taliban takeover, the notions and ideas of a freer society still burn bright within the hearts of Afghan women—the women who fought off the oppressive yoke of society and who are changing the country by existing the way that they wish to exist. The liberation of Afghan women was the greatest accomplishment in the region, and it is this loss that should be mourned along with the lives of our 41 defence personnel, whose sacrifice enabled this accomplishment.

Senate adjourned at 19:51