Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to appear before the subcommittee.
I would like to start by noting how timely your study is. Decades of progress and hard-earned wins for women’s rights are under attack across the globe, and it really feels like we are swimming against the tide. I know that this committee has heard extensively on the state of women’s rights in Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, so I will focus my remarks on brief updates and recommendations for action.
First, in Saudi Arabia, you may recall that the Personal Status Law, which was passed just a year ago and was framed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a step towards progress and equality, has just marked a year now. In reality, although the law did introduce some positive reforms such as setting a minimum age for marriage, for instance, it really has codified some of the informal and very problematic practices of the male guardianship system. The law fails to protect women from domestic violence, and it entrenches a system of gender-based discrimination in marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance.
It is therefore key for the Government of Canada to press Saudi authorities to act on their CEDAW commitments, which they ratified in 2000, and to end the male guardianship system in full.
Also crucial is ending the imposition of travel bans against women human rights defenders and releasing the women who are unjustly imprisoned for their peaceful expression in support of women’s rights. This would include the release of women’s rights activist, Salma al-Shehab, who was sentenced last year to 34 years in prison based on tweets in support of human and women’s rights.
Canada, in partnership with its G7 allies, can and must sustain international pressure on the Saudi authorities to respect women’s rights and freedoms.
In Iran, the penal code, as you know, enables security and administrative bodies to arbitrarily arrest, detain and punish women. To put this in real terms, the punishment for women’s acts that are deemed offensive to public decency includes 10 days to two months of imprisonment or 74 lashes under article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code.
Canada must condemn these laws and regulations that deny women access to public institutions, and here I mean hospitals, schools, government offices and airports, if they do not cover their hair, as well as the ongoing surveillance and harassment to implement the forced veiling laws. Also critical are independent investigations of the torture and ill treatment of Iranian women human rights defenders.
Canada should not be deceived by claims of disbanding the morality police, but instead call for immediate transformative change that will transition Iran to a political and legal system that respects women’s basic human rights.
In Afghanistan, as you know, the situation is disastrous. In December of last year alone, women were banned from attending university and from employment by local and foreign NGOs. These rules followed a ban on women entering parks and gyms, attending secondary schools and participating in sports.
The Taliban have decimated the system of protection and support for those who are fleeing domestic violence. They have detained women and girls on minor violations, and we are now seeing a surge in the rates of child, early and forced marriage. Last November, three prominent women human rights defenders were arrested with their colleagues for their peaceful activism.
Canada must call not only for the Taliban to urgently lift their restrictions on women and girls but also for an end to their crackdown on anyone who dares to protest these constraints. Again, sustained international pressure is the only hope to reverse the stifling ban on human rights and women's rights.
Mr. Chair, as tragic as the situation in these three countries is, I wish to note that the rise of attacks on women and gender rights is global, and I encourage you to investigate these trends as well as situations in other countries. Online violence and the spread of transnational anti-feminist and anti-gender narratives are at an alarming high, with devastating impacts on women, particularly here in Canada as well.
Last, I will just highlight the need to support women human rights defenders in peril, particularly when they arrive on Canadian soil, because existing systems are inadequate, and we need practical solutions to support them.
I’ll stop here now, and I'll be happy to expand on these further in the question period.
Thank you.