Council supports motion against gender apartheid

Waterford City and County Council voted unanimously in support of a motion calling for it to support United Against Gender Apartheid in a campaign to have the crime of gender apartheid incorporated of into Article 2 of the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention.

The motion was brought before the members by Social Democrat General Election candidate, Cllr Mary Roche. 

She brought the members' attention to a couple sitting in the public gallery of the chamber and said: "Before I go any further I want to welcome to the Chamber, lawyer and women's rights activist, Mahbooba Faiz and her husband, Hassan."

Cllr Roche said Mahbooba had to flee her native Afghanistan twice as a result of gender apartheid from the Taliban.

"Firstly, her family fled to Pakistan as a result of the inhumane conditions imposed on women," said Cllr Roche. Mahbooba's widowed mother was flogged for not wearing proper footwear when trying to make ends meet. Mahbooba received her bachelors degree in law, through Urdu and English while in Pakistan and having returned to Afghanistan a decade after initially fleeing, she worked for a women's rights group but ended up having to escape away a second time.

"This time she and Hassan, and their son, had to leave the life they built together, behind them, eventually securing visas to Ireland by means of a risky and chaotic journey," said Cllr Roche. After months in a direct provision centre the family now live in a community house in County Waterford and Mahbooba is enrolled in a UCC studying for her second masters in law, while working as a legal secretary.

However, Cllr Roche said the motion wasn't just about Mahbooba: "Today, in Afghanistan and countries like Iran, women as an entire body have no rights. This is something that all of us who enjoy freedom as a given, cannot turn our faces from."

"We cannot abandon entire populations and not at least try to highlight their plight," she said. "Women like Mahbooba are working in Ireland and all over the world, at considerable danger not just to themselves but also to those left behind in Afghanistan and countries like it."

Cllr Roche went on to comment: "In Mahbooba's case, her mother and siblings, are still stuck in horrific, inhumane and worse than medieval conditions."

She said the motion was calling on the Council to support the campaign to specifically make gender apartheid a crime against humanity. Sinn Féin's, Councillor Catherine Burke said she was "privileged to second the motion", commenting: "The definition of apartheid in law, should be amended to include gender hierarchy. This is an important motion for Waterford City and County Council to support."

Sinn Féin's, Councillor John Hearne said it was a timely motion and referred to Ireland's struggle against apartheid laws during penal times and he also referred to Israel's onslaught of Gaza and said "we should stand against that too".

"It's a very basic tenant of human civilisation, to treat each other equally and support each other," he said. The matter was put to a vote and received unanimous support from the members.