Pursuant to notice of September 19, 2023, moved:

That the Senate call on the Government of Canada to recognize the erasure of Afghan women and girls from public life as gender apartheid.

She said: Honourable senators, the very first school for girls opened its doors in Afghanistan about a century ago, and the women in Afghanistan were given the right to vote in 1919, years before the women in the U.K. By 1991, 7,000 women were enrolled in higher education, 230,000 girls were attending school, 190 women were professors, and 22,000 women taught in schools across the country.

On a personal note, I always loved visiting Kabul. Men and women co-existed side by side without gendered rules or prejudice. Women wore Western attire and owned businesses. I fondly remember my favourite sidewalk cafe, Khyber, was owned by a woman.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led to 10 years of civil war and, with it, intense discrimination and violence against Afghan women as a military strategy to repress insurgency. Sadly, the Taliban regime that followed only served to further strip women and girls of their human rights. For example, by 2001, girls had stopped attending school altogether. However, Afghan women and girls are resilient.

I would like to take a moment to share with you the story of one such Pashtun woman. Those of you who know the history of that region know that Pashtun women are fearless warriors, and I think some of you might know one who sits with you in this chamber.

This Pashtun young woman, Malalai of Maiwand, was the daughter of a shepherd, and she was born in 1860. On the day of the battle against the British, Malalai, as a woman would in those days, supported the fighters by tending to the wounded, providing water and supplying guns. As she saw that the Pashtun fighters were losing heart, she took off her veil — and taking off the veil in our Pashtun culture has a lot of significance, but that’s a story for another day — and she shouted “young love” because her fiancé was one of the fighters. She said, “Young love, if you do not fall in the battle of Maiwand, by God, someone is saving you as a symbol of shame.”

This gave new resolve to the fighters. When the flag bearer was struck down, it was once again Malalai who made a flag out of her veil and led the men into battle. Although they emerged victorious, Malalai lost her life on the battlefield. She was only 19. The day of the Battle of Maiwand was meant to be her wedding day.

Honourable senators, just to give you a bit of history, that region, the surrounding area in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has seen 60 wars in the past 300 years. That means a war every five years.

By 2021, women had secured nearly 30% of the seats in Parliament. They were represented by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and laws were put in place to protect their human rights. For example, women were finally able to include their name on their children’s birth certificates and identification, and violence against women was a crime. Women were making gains once again, and Canada was actively working to empower Afghan women and girls through training and grants.

Yet, they lost everything once again two years ago when the Taliban took over the country. Their first order of business was to order women to stay at home, justifying this act of gender apartheid as a safety measure, as their foot soldiers were “. . . not familiar with seeing women outside the house and were not trained to respect women.”

Afghan women’s rights have since been stripped away, every new edict further erasing them from a society they helped build. Since, the Taliban have issued 80 edicts, 54 directly targeting women and girls, who are now essentially confined to their homes, being unable to work or visit parks, gyms and public bathing houses or even attend school beyond the sixth grade. There have been reports of a sharp increase in Afghan women taking their own lives rather than living in the shadows without any hope for the future.

As I was getting ready to speak, it was reported yesterday that women who face gender violence are being put in prison, supposedly for their safety. How bad can it be?

Colleagues, we are witnessing the complete erasure of women and girls in Afghanistan, and I worry that if we do not act now, this will embolden other countries where women’s rights are silently and progressively being rolled back.

In its silence, Canada is complicit. Therefore, I call upon the Canadian government to recognize the situation in Afghanistan as gender apartheid. Thank you.