Unspeakable violence against girls and women meets global silence |
The teen social media ban is not the only “world first” Australia has just introduced. Canberra also slipped into play an unprecedented sanctions framework against the Taliban. It includes listing some of the most horrendous abusers of women’s rights, such as Afghanistan’s “chief justice” Abdul Hakim Haqqani. The man whose family name is synonymous with torture and hanging bodies from powerlines.
The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for his arrest. So, Australia banning him from entering the country is really a no-brainer. Nevertheless, the package of new autonomous sanctions goes further than any other country has dared. Or bothered.
A woman walks past a mural calling for women and children’s rights in Bamian, Afghanistan.Credit: Getty
Afghan women traversing the globe as advocates since the fall of Afghanistan in 2021 are weary of pleading with the world to not turn away. One of the most vocal is Dr Sima Samar, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and former vice president of Afghanistan’s interim administration and minister for women.
In Australia to address the diaspora at federal parliament on Sunday, Dr Samar is adamant: “Afghanistan is a collective failure.” She says every nation shares a collective responsibility to stop the gross inhumanity and gender apartheid crippling women and girls in her........