International Women’s Day

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Helic (Con)]

I start by welcoming my noble friend Lady Lampard; I look forward to learning from her.

It is important that we celebrate the progress we have made on women’s equality and the many achievements of remarkable—and of ordinary—women. It is also important that we highlight, as we should year-round, some of the areas where we are roundly failing women.

Since August 2021, Afghan women have been systematically forced into marriage, abducted, raped and assassinated by their new de facto authorities, the Taliban. Contrary to hopes, restrictions on women’s rights have ratcheted up. The Taliban have banned women from secondary school and university. In December, the Taliban banned women from working in non-governmental organisations, putting vital services for women and girls across the country at risk. Brutally imposed social restrictions, such as mandatory burka coverings, restricted access to healthcare and prohibitions on women appearing in public places without a male chaperone, are once again a daily reality.

As we mark International Women’s Day, we should remember what we helped build, shona ba shona, shoulder to shoulder, with our Afghan friends and particularly with Afghan women. From 2001 through August 2021, Afghan women musicians, artists and journalists thrived. It was not easy, but their strength and determination were globally recognised. Some 6 million Afghan girls went to school; more than 100,000 women graduated from university. More than 4,000 women served in the Afghan police and armed forces. By 2020, 21% of Afghan civil servants were women, compared with none under the first Taliban regime. Some 27% of Afghan parliamentarians were women—compare that with 29% in your Lordships’ House.

We know that the progress made in urban Afghanistan was not immediately replicated in the countryside. The prior history of Afghanistan, which affirmed women’s equality in its constitutions of 1964 and 1976, was already a reminder that human rights are fragile and that without defence they can be rolled back, but the situation is now devastating. As we mark International Women’s Day, I ask for a clear way forward to help the Afghans—women in particular—we left behind, particularly those whose lives have been crushed.

I have four questions for my noble friend the Minister, on four commitments which His Majesty’s Government could make to improve the lot of women in Afghanistan. First, will they ensure that Afghan women facing death and persecution at the hands of the Taliban have practical, accessible and timely routes to seek refuge in the United Kingdom? The two refugee referral pathways for people still in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries were launched last year. According to a Commons Library briefing note in January, only four people have been resettled under one of them, and none yet under the other. Earlier this week I received a message from a female Afghan journalist now in Pakistan. She fears that the Taliban are still hunting her. She is seeking safety in Britain. What will my noble friends in the Government do to ensure that she can find it?

Secondly, will His Majesty’s Government commit to continuing to find ways of providing aid to the women and girls of Afghanistan, who so desperately need it, while making clear to the Taliban leadership that restrictions on humanitarian workers and aid delivery are unacceptable?

Thirdly, will His Majesty’s Government seek to work with our allies around the world in majority-Muslim countries which emphasise religious tolerance and gender equality, to influence the Taliban, empower the more moderate factions, and persuade them that restrictions on women and women’s education are not the only or true interpretation of Islam?

Fourthly, will His Majesty’s Government make every effort to support long-term social change in Afghanistan, and to reach Afghan woman and girls and provide them with continued access to knowledge? I note that the women of Afghanistan, stuck in their houses, watching as every aspect of their life is restricted by the Taliban, are among those who are most dependent on BBC Persian radio, which helps to keep horizons wide even as autocrats seek to limit them. I continue to hope that the Foreign Office, the Treasury and the BBC will find a way to reverse the terribly short-sighted decision to close this lifeline service later this month.

Successive UK Governments have told Afghans that we would be with them for the long term. I am afraid that we have not lived up to those promises, and the women of Afghanistan are paying the price. As we mark International Women’s Day, let us recommit to not walk away and to do what we can for Afghan women.