International Women's Day breakfast featuring women in Afghanistan

 On March 8, I worked with the Afghanistan Task Force Group - Manitoba and Manitobans for Human Rights to help with a breakfast featuring the stories of women in Afghanistan.   An article on this  which appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press's Community Forum is above.   To make it easy to read, I will put the article in print below. 

Plight of Afghan women lamented

As I write this article, it is International Women's Day, and I have just returned from a breakfast marking this special day with a sombre reminder of the challenges women face in many places in the world. 

The breakfast speakers focused on women's stories from the front lines in Afghanistan.   Sadly, the stories told were of the opportunities and rights being taken away from women.   Under the Taliban, most girls are no longer allowed to go to school.   Under the Taliban, women - even those who are highly educated with post-secondary education degrees, including doctors, lawyers, judges and midwives - are not allowed to work.   Too often women, particularly those from minority groups including Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara, Shia Muslim or Christian backgrounds, are being persecuted.   It is a sad and very tragic change from the situation less than a year ago, when much greater freedom and opportunities were available to women in Afghanistan. 

The event was emced by Victoria Romero, Sheva Schwartz and Anita Neville and the speakers included Kobra Arianta, orginally from Afghanistan.  She has relatives who remain in Afghanistan and want to come to live in Winnipeg to escape the incredibly difficult and dangerous conditions there.   We also heard from Ariana Yaftali, a leader in the Afghan community in our province.  She has been working closely with Hospitality House in helping to greet new refugees from Afghanistan and to help them to transition to life here.  Karen Gorden, of Hospitality House, spoke of the work she and her organization do daily to help refugees. 

Lloyd Axworthy also spoke of the global situation.  There are rapidly growing numbers of refugees, not only from AFghanistan, but many more recently from Ukraine.   The infrastructure for helping refugees is based on what has been developed over many years but is not out of date.  The global effort to help refugees needs to be improved and to be better supported financially. 

In his role as chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council, and co-chair of the new Manitoba Advisory Council on Immigration, Axworthy is leading the way in calling for changes and improvements. 

Thanks are due to the many who helped bring to light the situation of women in Afghanistan, and the need to address globally the rights and opportunities of women.

I also spoke on a Members Statement in the Manitoba Legislature on March 8.  It is below (from Hansard) 

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, earlier today, I joined others at a breakfast celebrating International Women's Day organized jointly by the Afghanistan task force group, Manitoba, and Manitobans for Human Rights. The focus was on women in Afghanistan.

      Both organizations are working with Hospitality House to support Afghan refugees to come to Winnipeg and to live with family members already here. The stories we heard were difficult.

      Currently, in Afghanistan, the situation is horrible with women's rights being taken away. Most young women aren't allowed to go to school. Women are not allowed to work, even with training as doctors, teachers, midwives and judges.

      Women are being persecuted. Women are not safe. Many are fleeing or trying to flee Afghanistan.

      Kobra Arianta, a member of the Afghan com­munity in Winnipeg, she has relatives in Afghanistan who need and want to escape and come to Winnipeg. She described these horrors.

      Ariana Yaftali, a leader in Winnipeg's Afghan com­­mu­nity, talked of her important work to help new immigrants from Afghanistan settle in our city.

      Karin Gordon of hospitality house described the critical work of helping refugees who come to Winnipeg to transition to life here. She emphasized the contribution that refugees make to life in Manitoba.

      Lloyd Axworthy provided a global perspective of the refugee situation. He stressed the importance of improving the infrastructure for welcoming refugees to Canada. The current infrastructure is too slow and needs major improvements and better funding.

      We have many refugees, especially recently from Afghanistan and Ukraine. On International Women's Day, it is important we're aware of the situation of women globally and that we work together to improve the situation of women here in Canada and in the rest of the world.

      Thank you. Merci. Miigwech. Dyakuyu.