International Women’s Day

Debate between Baroness Uddin and Lord Roborough

Friday 8th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I thank all noble Baronesses for their work in this House and in their communities. I warm-heartedly welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, to this Chamber and look forward to hearing from her. I also want to acknowledge my mother’s strength and tenacity. Today, my sister, my daughter, my granddaughter and I stand tall because of her journey, courage and sacrifice.

In my contribution today, I wish to highlight the importance of protesting and marches. I have just returned from Bangladesh. I wish to pay homage to the women and men who rose to the call of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 7 March 1971 for a free, independent nation. My mother led, walking in the streets of Bangladesh to demand freedom and justice from the then occupying Pakistani army. Bangladesh today is a thriving nation and fast-emerging economy. The UK Government are much loved and respected for their earliest recognition of its independence and their ongoing support.

The number of women who were raped and tortured at that time is estimated at over 300,000. The USA kept silent on that genocide and stood with the occupiers and barbaric genocidal army. To this day, that army has not been brought to justice or made accountable. It pains me to say that the US has continued its blinkered support to some nations. I find it heartbreaking that it has continued to show callous disregard for human rights and justice in nations where it provides weapons of war.

As a daughter born of that nation, and as a Londoner for more than 50 years, I have marched many times since, demanding an end to the war in Iraq, better NHS services and so on.

As noble Lords have noted, some progress has been made for women throughout the centuries. I draw the attention of the House to the first UK women’s liberation March, commencing on 6 March 1971, when over 4,000 women participated on the streets, demanding equal and universal rights for women. Today, this has evolved to become a 1 million-strong women’s rights movement, demanding the right to live in freedom from the fear of violence, rape, torture, sexual and physical abuse, and, of course, the universal right to participate in public life.

This coming Saturday, this global movement of 1 million women will rise and coalesce alongside hundreds of thousands of men and women of every background, creed, colour and faith, or none. They will stand in solidarity with all the oppressed, occupied and violated women of our world, and in opposition to the killing of women and children in their thousands. They will call for an immediate halt to the killing fields of Palestine, where 30,000 women, children and their families have been murdered, tens of thousands buried under tons of rubble, with bombs more horrific than Hiroshima, while 70,000 more have been injured, maimed or burned with phosphorus, or are starving—women and children—without water, basic food or medicine.

We must hold the perpetrators to account. Until that time, together with many hundreds of thousands, I shall march in peace and solidarity, giving voice to those who cannot. In honour of the Palestinian mothers, daughters and granddaughters who have been slaughtered, I will walk in the tradition of my country—this country—and shout out to demand that our Government must stop their support for the Israeli occupying force and its brutal warfare on the Palestinian people. The PM should rest assured that such marches will not stop until that slaughter stops.

We debate economic equality and justice while women in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Nigeria, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan cannot truly comprehend freedom, justice or economic liberation. We have been the architects of so many global conflicts. We at home, in Europe and in the USA, cannot contemplate peace, pay gaps and boardroom equity while women continue to be murdered and raped, regarded as collateral and the dispensable property of wars.

Given what we are witnessing on our screens, millions of citizens no longer accept or believe that our arrogant Governments’ war objectives are to free and liberate nations and their women from the shackles of inhumanity, injustice and dictatorship. We have fallen so short of our own moral compass, becoming oblivious to one dictator who is currently slaughtering a whole people while citing freedom and peace.

We appear to have learned nothing from the illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and, sadly, have become even more emboldened towards war. Once again, we are whispering peace despite the mass civilian killing fields of Rafah, the West Bank and Khan Younis. The IDF is roaming free, at will bombing to smithereens hospitals and schools, and thousands of women and children, doctors, nurses and journalists. Women have lost everything that they know as home. Women are holding babies torn to shreds.

What can citizens do but march? I pray that these marches will yield peace and justice. The cause of Palestine has been awakened in the hearts of all citizens throughout the nations, among thousands of ordinary men and women who understand the differences between self-defence and genocidal murder, collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and war crimes. We demand justice and peace.

I hope that these marchers will continue to oppose the actions of our Government, who are so complicit with Israel’s breaking of international laws and breaching the international norms of war. The PM standing and declaring war on protestors may provide temporary cover over his conscience. Allying them with extremist behaviour will do nothing to dissuade me, my neighbours, my children or my grandchildren from marching in the tradition of the Suffragettes, and for all those who march today for freedom and justice, as they have done for hundreds of years. Yes, to call for freedom and justice across all the rivers and the seas, and all the continents, until all women in all nations are free and triumph over occupation, oppression, wars and genocide.

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, I remind the House that while this is a wonderful debate, we have a six-minute advisory speaking time for a reason: so that we can hear the Minister properly later and finish at an appropriate time.