Gender Specific Religious Persecution

Debate between Sarah Owen and Jim Shannon

Thursday 17th March 2022 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Owen (Luton North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Rees.

May I start by wishing all those who are celebrating them a happy Purim, happy Holi festival—for tomorrow—and a happy St Patrick’s day for today?

It has been an absolute privilege to hear the powerful speeches here in Westminster Hall today; each case that was cited was as heartbreaking and shocking as the others. I thank the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Dr Cameron) for their leadership in this area. Along with other Members of this House, they have fought for the rights of persecuted religious minorities with dedication and heart. The all-party parliamentary group on international freedom of religion or belief is an invaluable resource in pushing these rights forward. We have our own desperate problems with violence against women and girls in the UK, which we must attend to, but we cannot take our eye off the rest of the world. With Members such as the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Lady in the House, I know that we will not do so.

I also thank and pay tribute to the work of organisations such as Open Doors, which was mentioned. However, nobody else’s courage can ever match up to that displayed by the very people who are being persecuted. Today we have heard stories of women and girls who have stood tall in the face of death and danger, while continuing to worship in such dangerous environments. It is clear to us that the perpetrators of such crimes against women are not motivated by genuine religious faith. These atrocities are driven not by a pursuit of God but by a pursuit of power, an often masculine determination to enforce patriarchy to the extreme.

Female genital mutilation continues to be used as a weapon against young women and girls. It has absolutely no place in any culture in 2022, regardless of religious belief or practice. It is misogynistic torture, which causes physical injuries and lifelong psychological damage. Along with the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Lady, I should be grateful to hear from the Minister what action Britain is taking to end this grotesque practice worldwide.

As we heard, families across Nigeria remain heartbroken for the daughters and sisters who were stolen from them. Boko Haram is pursuing war against women’s rights to freedom of religion, education, employment and marriage. What hope are we offering to those families and to the girls themselves?

[Jim Shannon]

I asked a business question of the Leader of the House yesterday in order to highlight the killings of 50 men, women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was hoping that the Minister who is here today would perhaps be able, in responding to that, to give us some indication of any help that we might be able to give the authorities in the DRC, to try to find the perpetrators of those killings and to offer the authorities there some support.

[Sarah Owen]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I hope the Minister has taken notes of all the questions that have been asked today.

The past year has reminded us what horrors the Taliban could inflict upon women and girls in Afghanistan, starting with banning girls from schools, with such devastating impact. When the overseas aid budget was slashed, warnings were raised that it would be to the detriment of girls’ education worldwide. Can the Minister assure us that providing safety and education to girls, including those suffering from religious oppression, is still an objective of this Government? Christians are also at intensified risk in Afghanistan under the new regime, and Christian women face being forced into marriages and conversion. Will the Minister please tell us whether there are still asylum routes open to Christians and to women and girls fleeing persecution in Afghanistan?

In China, the Chinese Communist party regime flattens anyone and anything that challenges the prescribed ideology. Christians are forced underground and risk detainment just for owning a Bible, and in Xinjiang, as we have heard, Uyghur Muslims are victims of genocide due to their religion and ethnicity. While thousands of Uyghurs are known to be slaving away in cotton fields, particular brutalities are saved for women: they have been sexually assaulted, tortured, had their children stolen from them, and been forcibly sterilised. The Chinese Communist party is motivated by the same principles as the Taliban, Boko Haram, Islamic State and others—the ruthless pursuit of domination. Faith is not a factor in this religious persecution, only power. Although the Government conceded last year that what is under way in Xinjiang is genocide, there has been very little change in our national response. Every day the Uyghur Muslims face ethnic cleansing, and other religious minorities, including Christians, live in fear of being found out by their oppressive Government. Will the Minister advise us on what steps are being taken to address the dangers faced by those minorities in China?

Human Rights Watch has highlighted Government policy in India as reflecting bias against Muslims. Since October 2018, Indian authorities have deported over a dozen Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar, including women and children, despite the risk to their lives and their security. In May 2019, the Government revoked the constitutional autonomy of India’s only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. They deployed additional troops, detained thousands of people and cut off phone and internet connections, with women and girls reporting rapes, attacks, and living in a constant state of fear.

The world risks looking more divided than ever at a time when there is no Department for International Development. Although we were promised that the cuts to international aid were temporary, that budget has not been restored. What hope does that give women and girls around the world who need our help? What future is there for our own humanitarian interventions, and what damage has this done to Britain’s standing on the world stage, especially when this is all compounded by a Prime Minister who has chosen to visit Saudi Arabia following the execution of 81 people?

As I mentioned, faith is by and large a force for good in the world, and a very powerful one—just look at the way that people of faith are stepping forward to lead the welcome for Ukrainian refugees, just as they did for Syrians, Afghans and Hongkongers. Throughout the pandemic, churches, mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues served their communities with compassion and hospitality. We are lucky: we live in a country where community cohesion may not be perfect, but everyone has the right to express their beliefs in freedom and safety. That should not be a privilege; it should be a basic human right. Female believers here are largely protected from forced marriage, FGM and other abuses and have access and rights to healthcare, including reproductive healthcare.

However, there have been shocking increases in Islamophobia and antisemitism, and again, women and children in schools have borne the brunt of them. Muslim women have increasingly been subjected to horrific Islamophobic abuse in the streets and online, and even death threats. There have also been approximately 2 million antisemitic tweets in the UK; that is on one platform alone, so it would be good to hear what the Minister has to say about tackling the rising religious persecution that we are seeing in our own country.

This summer, we are due to host a global summit on freedom of religion or belief in London. It is very welcome that the Foreign Secretary has marked the issue as a priority in her brief. However, as hosts of the conference, we must be able to lead with integrity. That means using the full range of the financial and political resources that we have to intervene in religious persecution of all kinds.

I have posed many questions to the Minister today, as have other speakers. I will give him the opportunity to respond. I know there will be consensus that we have a moral duty to intervene in these areas of gross violence, suppression and misogyny. That is clear in every debate that we have on religious persecution. My hope is that we no longer need to keep having these debates to encourage our Government to make the interventions needed.

Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

Debate between Sarah Owen and Jim Shannon

2nd reading
Monday 25th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Owen]

I was going to thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but the tone was a little patronising, to say the least. I wholeheartedly disagree, given that any zookeeper who had to look after an animal in their home would be doing so through their work, and under the licence for that job. That was not a valid reason to keep a primate as a pet—it was not a pet.

The Government’s manifesto even promised the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on Earth, yet we have the Prime Minister saying he is worried that COP26 will not be a success. Probably the less I say about the Government’s record on the environment at the moment, the better. We have a duty to protect the planet and the environment for all animals, kept and unkept.

I turn to something more positive and light-hearted. In the recent recess, I visited Whipsnade zoo with my family. It was the first time that I had taken my daughter to a zoo, and the magic in a child’s face when they see in real life an animal they had seen only in books and on the television is a real joy to behold. Whipsnade zoo is much loved by people in Luton North and across the region. During the covid restrictions, I received hundreds of emails from people asking me to campaign and ask the Government to allow zoos to reopen. People are right to be proud of Whipsnade zoo, not just for the happy memories that it provides but because of its proud history of sector-leading work on conservation.

Whipsnade’s freshwater aquarium is home to more threatened and extinct-in-the-wild species than any other in the world. Whipsnade provides significant insights that inform work to help reintroduce and conserve species in their natural habitats, including projects in Madagascar, Greece and Turkey. Its work with elephants directly contributes to protecting the species in the world. It is doing such important work.

Whipsnade zoo’s conservation work also encompasses young people. On-site teachers deliver engaging learning programmes in biology and conservation, inspiring tens of thousands of schoolchildren every year and instilling them with the wonder of and desire to protect wildlife. I will never forget when I saw all these schoolchildren at Whipsnade being hurried around to see the chimpanzees. I explained to my toddler that chimpanzees are not monkeys. Now she points at them and says, “Not monkeys.”

When Whipsnade zoo wrote to me to tell me of its concerns about the Bill, I had to voice them in the House. Removing the definition of conservation work from law and giving the Secretary of State the power to define conservation could easily undermine Whipsnade’s fantastic work and lead to an overly simplistic view of conservation—and, dare I say, a politicised one. We know that the Government have an uncanny ability to turn any old issue into a culture war. I ask them please not to do so with zoos.

I hope that in Committee we will work to protect the brilliant work of our zoos by leaving it to the experts and keeping the politics out of conservation. However, there is one place where politics and animals should meet: the Westminster dog of the year award. I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) in saying, “Please lend your vote to Sir David Amess’s dog, Vivienne.” Please, anyone who was willing or wanted to vote for Herman and me, do not do that—vote for Vivienne instead.

On the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones) about fireworks and dogs, and animals in general, I recently presented a Bill calling for tougher punishments for the misuse of fireworks and tougher enforcement of those measures. We know how much that misuse affects animals and animal owners across the country. I hope that there is scope for those measures in the Bill.

[Jim Shannon]

Back home, my provincial press this morning referred to the fact that at this time of the year and during fireworks week, more dogs go missing than at any other time of the year. The hon. Lady is right that we must address fireworks to ensure that dogs do not feel threatened.

[Sarah Owen]

The hon. Member is absolutely right. This time of the year should be one of celebration, but for many animal owners it is one of absolute fear. There is no need for fireworks to be as loud or as late as they are. Everyone across the House seems willing to work on the Bill to ensure that it is not a missed opportunity to make Britain the country with the highest animal welfare standards in the world. I hope that that is what we see.