OSCE Asian Partners for Co-operation Group Meeting
Towards a Peaceful and Inclusive Society: The Nexus between Education and Political Agency of Women in Afghanistan
Statement by H.E Ambassador Ian Biggs, Australia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organisations in Vienna
7 April 2025
Secretary-General, Chair, excellencies, colleagues
I thank the Permanent Representatives of Afghanistan and Malta for raising this important issue and thank our expert speakers for their valuable work and insights.
In commencing my remarks, I acknowledge that the Australian Government has entered a caretaker period in advance of an upcoming election.
Consistent with Australian political convention, my remarks should not be held to commit a future government to any particular policy approach.
But there is nothing controversial, within the Australian context, about the rights of Afghan women and girls, nor about the need for peace and inclusivity.
Chair
Australia has a long history of advancing, promoting and protecting the education and agency of all women and girls.
Successive Australian Governments have stood in solidarity with the Afghan people.
And we have stood against the Taliban’s repressive edicts upon women and girls.
These represent the most acute and systematic forms of oppression, including by restricting access to education.
The Taliban’s prohibition on girls attending school beyond grade six—which has been in place for over three and a half years—will cause long-lasting harm to the country’s prospects and its people.
The Taliban’s December 2024 edict banning women from attending medical training will further worsen health outcomes for women and children and deepen Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.
Australia has worked closely with our international partners to oppose the Taliban’s repressive restrictions and attempted erasure of women and girls from public life, and to advocate for fair and equal treatment for all.
Chair
Australia has long held that the full and equal participation of women and girls in society is critical.
It is critical for sustainable economic and political development, for social cohesion and stability, and for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Since 2021, successive Australian Governments have committed over AUD260 million in humanitarian and basic needs assistance to respond to the Afghanistan crisis.
Our assistance has focused on supporting women and girls, including both those in Afghanistan and those displaced in the region.
Delivered through the United Nations, our assistance has prioritised areas of critical need, including food, water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter and protection.
Chair
Empowering women and educating girls can alleviate economic challenges for families and communities.
Education and empowerment also provide the basis for exercising social rights, political representation, participation and leadership.
Collectively, women and girls contribute with their education to their country’s development, peace, security and social justice.
We know that gender equality is the number one predictor of peace—more so than a state’s wealth, level of democracy or religious identity.
Barring women and girls from receiving an education, and excluding women from working in crucial sectors, continues to severely inhibit the much-needed economic recovery of Afghanistan.
Australia has long supported the Afghan people’s calls for women and girls to return to public and political life, to work, to school, and to university.
We have also called for women to continue to play essential roles in humanitarian and basic needs assistance delivery.
And we have urged the Taliban to respect the political, economic, social, and cultural rights of women and girls in all provinces of Afghanistan.
I again thank Ambassador Bakhtari for facilitating this discussion and for her continued advocacy for the women and girls of Afghanistan. I commend to everyone the new documentary, “The Last Ambassador”, on her work.
Thank you.