Conservative MP Ms Nusrat
Ghani
participated in the debate on
Afghanistan
Dr Mozammel Haque
Conservative MP Ms
Nusrat Ghani participated in the parliamentary debate on Afghanistan in the
House of Commons on 18 August 2021.
Ms.
Nusrat Ghani, Conservative Member for Wealden, paid tribute to the armed
forces, especially those who reside in my constituency of Wealden. I also want
to take a moment to pay tribute to all those Afghan men and women who were
brutalised for 17 years under the Taliban, did everything that they could to
rebuild their country, and once again will have to face a Taliban without us by
their side.
Ms. Nusrat Ghani said, “There are many who have
served in Afghanistan on these Benches. I had a very brief moment in Kabul. For
17 years under the Taliban, no female voice was heard in the Afghan Parliament,
the Loya Jirga. I worked for the BBC World Service and we rounded up some very
brave women to make sure that female voices were heard for the first time in
the Loya Jirga. We did that under the threat of the Taliban, but I had a
British passport, and I knew that I could come home and be safe. I was naively
optimistic in thinking that these women’s lives would be improved for the
better. I am now receiving phone calls telling me that it is game over.”
Speaking about the progress in Afghanistan during
last 20 years, Ms Nusrat Ghani mentioned, “It has taken 20 years to have 69
female MPs and they will watch us speak here today knowing what will happen if
we cannot get them out, and soon. They cannot wait for five years. It is not
just them, but their families, everyone who has worked with them, and everyone
in an NGO who has worked to un-Talibanise the laws and processes in Afghanistan
who are now targeted. It means that, after 20 years, we will have to start all
over again. This has been catastrophic, cack-handed, cruel and humiliating.
This is the watershed moment of the west’s failure.”
Ms Nusrat Ghani also mentioned about two things.
She said, “I want to say two very quick things, hopefully to try to be
constructive. I need to understand how our intelligence has failed, how the
imagination of those providing the intelligence has failed, and, if we are
relying on this intelligence now going forward, how we can be assured that they
know to do the right thing, whether it is in relation to our regional partners,
the Taliban or any further security issue. I would like to have a better
understanding of where our parameters are when it comes to dealing with the
Taliban, of what leverage we have to ensure safe passage, and of whether any
aid funding will reach the people whom it needs to get to.”
Ms Nusrat Ghani MP concluded, “My final point is
about the radicalisation that is going to emerge from Afghanistan. There will
be not just the extremism that the Taliban will promote, but a fight in the
middle east and Asia about who represents Islam. Members may not agree with me,
but some countries have been trying to become more liberal since 9/11 to take
away the taint around Islam. Will they now have to become even more
conservative and brutal to compete with the Taliban? That will bring forward a
new version of extremism where we cannot rely on any safety and security for
women in the middle east or in any Islamic state.”
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