Hansard

What is it to be a woman? It is a risky business. So many harrowing examples of why that is have already been provided by colleagues in the debate. I could list all the negative aspects of being a woman in Scotland, and I have done so many times before. I spoke last week on bias and economic disparity, in a members’ business debate on international women’s day that was led by Michelle Thomson.

Today, I will check my privilege and use it, because there are women in the world who are silenced and who, due to decisions that are taken and actions that are made by powerful men, are bearing the brunt of the contempt, dismissal, hatred and fear of the female that endangers their lives and erases them from their societies. What is happening to those women around the world is a problem for us all.

Last year, the women of Afghanistan had their rights stripped from them wholesale. The voices of condemnation of women around the world were not enough to convince leaders in the west not to remove international troops, opening the door to the Taliban, who removed those women’s rights, as we knew they would. While heaven and earth were moved to rescue dogs from Afghanistan, Afghan women were plunged back into the dark old days, after 20 years of having the rights and freedoms that we enjoy here.

The bias that comes from looking at the world through a male lens leads to women being let down. The women of Afghanistan have been let down, as they and we knew that they would be. Taliban leaders are currently implementing a raft of discriminatory measures to, in effect, erase women’s participation in civic life. Women’s refuges are being closed, which is putting women at risk of death at the hands of their abusers. It has been more than 150 days since girls over the age of 12 were allowed to go to school. To keep sanctions at bay, the Taliban have said that they are committed to reopening all girls’ education institutions by the end of March. As we near that deadline, we must not be distracted by other world events—the Taliban must know that the world is watching.

In January, UN-appointed experts highlighted the fact that, far from the Taliban keeping their promises in relation to women’s rights, they are, as many people predicted and feared,

“barring women from returning to their jobs, requiring a male relative to accompany them in public spaces, prohibiting women from using public transport on their own, as well as imposing a strict dress code on women and girls.”

The UN has called it

“a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices.”

Those Afghan women who are brave enough to demand their rights are in grave danger. On 16 January, some Afghan women marched near Kabul University to demand the right to return to work or to continue their education. Footage of the march shows Taliban fighters pointing their firearms at the women and calling them “puppets of the west”. Three days later, one of the attendees—a 25-year-old journalist called Tamana Zaryabi Paryani—put out a frantic livestream message, saying that the Taliban were at the front door of the flat that she shares with her three sisters. The four Paryani sisters, including the youngest, who is just 13, were missing until 13 February, when the UN confirmed that they had been released by the de facto authorities.

Another woman who attended the march, Parawana Ibrahimkhel, went missing, too. She was released two days earlier, on 11 February. However, for some time, no one knew what had happened to the women. Their detention speaks to the risks that women in countries all over the world are having to take, day after day, to ensure that their voices are heard.

Other marches are happening in Afghanistan, but they are bigger and more tolerated by the Taliban. They are full of men condemning the women who marched for their rights. These men hold up pictures of the women marchers with their images crossed out in red ink. There are slogans saying that the protesters were not “representatives of chaste Afghan women” and demands that they “should respect their worth”. Meanwhile, the women on those placards are in hiding, fearing for their lives.

Today, our eyes are rightly on Ukraine, and I urge anyone who has not already watched Michelle Thomson’s really powerful speech from last Thursday to do so. She talked about how the Russian invasion is affecting the women of Ukraine in particular. The people who are fleeing Afghanistan to safety are more likely to be men and boys, because they have the money to leave. The women do not. In Ukraine, it is the women and their children who are leaving the country in their millions. We have a duty, as a democratic country, to support them until they can return to their own country, which will hopefully be a preserved independent and democratic one. I also send my solidarity to the brave Russian women who are putting their safety at risk by protesting against Putin’s invasion.

Both situations have toxic masculinity at their core, with the worst of humanity made heads of state. It was ever thus. What is more, some of those leaders in the west who claim to uphold the rights of women make decisions that enable their erosion in other countries. Tackling the suffering of women is not a high enough priority when it comes to international relations. Those who left the women of Afghanistan high and dry, fearing for their rights and lives, must take responsibility and threaten sanctions if those rights are removed.

Over here, in the UK, we should not just be celebrating international women’s day with debates and banners, nice as that is. We should be opening our borders to Ukrainian women and children now. We need action to help women and action to uphold their rights. Anything less is virtue signalling.