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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-09 Daily Xml
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Afghanistan

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:46): I rise to speak about the situation in Afghanistan, but in particular give voice to Afghani people living in my electorate of Badcoe. It is a heartbreaking, violent and unfathomable situation. What was once a nation on the long path towards equality and democracy has now veered off and is speeding in an entirely different direction, back to a dark past. There is great suffering and the constant fear of even greater suffering to come.

We watch the slivers of news emerging from an ever-diminishing number of journalists in Afghanistan and we see some flickers of hope. Now women protest in the streets, but they have guns pointed at their chests—some incredible bravery. We know that the dark cloud of intolerance for such voices is gathering. As the journalists, diplomats and aid workers recede from the country, the world will not be privy to the horrors that are already playing out.

For so many Australians of Afghani descent living here in South Australia, they had been plunged into a state of helplessness, not knowing what to do but so desperately wanting to act. They are so far away from their homeland and there is so little they can do to effect change and bring peace from afar. Although they are safe and because they are the lucky ones who are safe, Afghani people in Badcoe have told me they feel an overwhelming sense of survivor guilt. Several have said to me that they would switch places with their mother, their cousin, their friend, or their child who is still in Afghanistan, if only they could.

The only thing they can do and we can do is use what power we do have to make whatever difference we can, even on this small and remote scale, and so that is what I am doing. Unlike so many people in Afghanistan right now, I and we have a voice. We can speak out for them—and we must.

Every one of the Afghani people I have spoken with who lives in my neighbourhood has asked me to share their story here today in the hope that every tiny bit of pressure will somehow change the fate of a people and of a nation. I will not use people's full names because they are in grave danger, but I will tell you what they have told me.

Mas said to me, 'We need people like you to use your voice. We need support from our international friends. People who have wealth and power should help because people can only hide and live for so long. We cannot turn our backs on people in need.' She described, as did many others, that the Taliban are going door to door seeking out activists, anyone who worked with coalition forces and anyone who has been sympathetic to the former Afghani government.

Shari told me, 'We have gone back 20 years. My Hazara family are in huge danger. My aunty is a sole earner in her home and a single woman with four dependents. Now she is not allowed to work. If the Taliban do not find men in a home, they will take away the women as sex slaves.' She said another of her friends served in the Afghan National Army, telling me there is a great risk now that her whole family will be murdered.

People are fleeing from house to house, sometimes with children in their arms, sometimes they are single women and sometimes they are old people, knowing brutal killers are hunting them down. This woman's aunty's husband used to be a High Court judge and the Taliban militants are demanding to know where he is and torturing people to find him. Kat's mother ran 30 domestic violence shelters in Afghanistan until just weeks ago. Her mother's home was raided and her staff tortured, and she has now been evacuated to Germany with her father and brother.

Although her mother is now safe, the women she used to help are in more danger than ever, many having fled their violent husbands. She describes how so many women are now prisoners in their home and unable to even set foot in public due to their fear and knowledge about what the Taliban will do to them. She begged me to speak out about the complete annihilation of women's rights, human rights, in Afghanistan. She explained to me that, even here in Australia, Afghan people cannot speak out on social media because the Taliban will track down their families, persecute them and even kill them, such is the reach of this evil regime. She told me, 'We are all caged.'

When I spoke with Said, he told me he is really struggling. He feels hopeless and helpless. He told me the Australian government needs to be much more open to migration and humanitarian access. His whole family still lives in Afghanistan. His mother and brothers used to work with the Americans. They are all desperate to get out now, and they are trapped, and all Said can do is plead their case to politicians like me. Frankly, this is the brutal reality.

Although I pride myself on being someone who always strives to help my constituents and go the extra mile, the truth is I simply cannot help in getting their loved ones out of the talons of this brutal regime. So what do I want for these Afghani people in my community? Kindness matched with action, federal and state governments to move mountains to help people who helped our forces. I want our nation to stand by our values. We may well think: was that 20-year war worth it? To me, the fight is not over and it is up to each of us to work with Afghani people to make the sacrifices already made worth it.

Time expired.

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