Page 3756 - Week 11 - Thursday, 24 November 2022
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shared this on her Instagram, alongside a photo of herself in the capital of Tehran without a headscarf:
Maybe this will be my last post. From this moment on, know that, as always, I am with the Iranian people until my last breath.
This week the Iranian soccer team playing in the World Cup silently protested by not singing their national anthem. In Australia, the foreign minister, Senator Penny Wong, tweeted:
We call on Iran to end its oppression of women and its brutal suppression of protests. To those brave Iranian women and girls and others, peacefully protesting, Australia is with you.
Acts of solidarity are happening here in the ACT, too, to show support for the people of Iran, who continue to stand up for the women and girls of their country, despite the personal risks. Here in the Assembly, members of this place are joining together to condemn this atrocious abuse of women’s rights, of human rights, and lend our voices and raise our arms in solidarity with the people of Iran. We are with you.
Madam Speaker, the Assembly women MLAs caucus, hosted by you, met last week. It was agreed during that caucus that we could combine our voices in a way to lend our support on matters of importance to women here and across the world. This ministerial statement provides women members of the Legislative Assembly with the chance to do that—to unite and show tripartisan support for matters of importance to women. This will be the first of what I know will be many more opportunities to do that. I present the following paper:
Support for women in Iran—Ministerial statement, Thursday, 24 November 2022.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (10.12): I thank Minister Berry for making a ministerial statement on what we have all seen as the deplorable plight of women in Iran over the last few months. I think we were all shocked to read the story of Mahsa Amini, who died after being released from custody. That you can be taken away against your will and held—and who knows what happened to this young woman during the time she was held—for what you are wearing or not wearing is, I think, anathema to us here in Australia, and certainly here in Canberra. That is why it is important that we take a stand and say that we support Mahsa Amini’s family and all women in Iran.
Women’s rights are human rights and, if we ignore the plight of women in Iran or anywhere else, it is tacit approval of what is happening. We have heard this in many guises in many situations—perhaps most famously, in recent times, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” If we do not speak up today about the plight of women in Iran, we are walking past that standard about human rights, about women’s rights.
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