Status of Women committee  Thank you so much, and thank you for your kind words. Whenever we think about solutions and we're thinking through policy, it also helps to see examples from other nations and countries that have had similar situations and how they handled them and what are the results. As Canada and our government will be thinking through this in the coming days and weeks, I would like to share the example of New Zealand, where in 2019 the world head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, praised the response of New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the New Zealand government and public to the terrorist attack that targeted the mosque in Christchurch.

Status of Women committee  For the benefit of our member of Parliament, I'll just repeat the last couple of sentences. The point I was making is that words matter. Right now, leadership has never been more critical. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson made comments describing Muslim women's head covering and burka as “letter boxes” and “bank robbers” and there was a 375% increase in anti-Muslim hate in the following two weeks.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Asif. Most importantly, thank you for organizing this wonderful panel and giving us this opportunity. Just like Asif, I don't plan to take more than a few seconds so I will be brief and then Saadia will cover the majority of our points of view. The only thing I wish to add here is that words matter and leadership has never been more important.