Speech of Ambassador Waissi at the NSW Parliament House

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley, Governor of New South Wales,
Mr Stephen Bali,
Ms Maryam Zahid,
Ms Sally Bradley,
Distinguished guests,

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at the premiere of My Mother & I: The Untold Stories of Afghan Women.

This documentary is not only a cultural production. It is a political statement.

At a time when, inside Afghanistan, women and girls are systematically erased from public life, this film stands as an act of resistance. Girls are denied education beyond basic levels. Women are pushed out of workplaces. Their movement is restricted. Their voices are constrained. Their visibility is treated as a threat.

Let us be clear. This is not culture. This is policy. It is deliberate institutionalised exclusion.

And that exclusion is not an “internal matter” in the way some would like to frame it. A country that locks half its population out of public life cannot build an economy, cannot build legitimacy, and cannot build stability. Repression at home produces volatility abroad: displacement, irregular migration, regional insecurity, and a permanent humanitarian emergency.

Afghanistan today sits at the centre of a tense and fragile region. What happens there does not remain there.

We are also witnessing renewed friction and fighting along the Afghanistan–Pakistan frontier. There are cross-border strikes, clashes, pressure tactics, and a dangerous cycle of escalation. And we should say something plainly: this is not the Afghan people’s war.

Afghans did not choose to be turned into a battleground for competing doctrines and security agendas. Ordinary families in Khost, Paktia, Nangarhar, Kandahar, and across the country want the same things that all people want: to live in safety, to work, to educate their children, to travel without fear, and to have a government that serves the nation, not factions.

When the Taliban position themselves as the sole representative of Afghanistan, they pull the entire country into their confrontations. But Afghanistan is not a militia project. It is a nation of over thirty million people, diverse, proud, and exhausted by decades of conflict. No Afghan child should pay the price for disputes rooted in decades of proxy politics and the blowback of past strategies.

If there is one lesson our region should have learned, it is this: exporting instability is not a long-term security policy. It always returns. When states and armed actors treat Afghanistan as a buffer or a bargaining chip, they do not create order. They create resentment, radicalisation, and cycles of retaliation.

So this moment demands political clarity from the international community. Engagement with de facto authorities cannot mean normalisation of systematic discrimination. Humanitarian assistance must continue, but it must not become a substitute for a political strategy. And counterterrorism concerns must not be used as an excuse to ignore women’s rights. Because women’s rights are not a “soft issue.” They are the foundation of social order, economic recovery, and legitimate governance.

The voices in this film, thirteen Afghan mother–daughter pairs speaking about identity, culture, migration, and resilience, remind us what real Afghanistan looks like. Not slogans. Not propaganda. Human beings. Families. Futures.

In the diaspora, Afghan women are building lives and leading communities. They are demonstrating what Afghanistan could become if governance were built on inclusion, rule of law, and dignity, instead of fear and coercion.

I commend Afghan Women on the Move for creating safe spaces where women can speak in their own words, and for turning storytelling into civic action. I acknowledge Mercy Works for standing in genuine partnership. And I thank Australian institutions for providing a platform where these truths can be spoken openly.

As we approach International Women’s Day, let us move beyond symbolic gestures. Let us commit to sustained, principled advocacy for Afghan women and girls. Let us insist that any pathway to legitimacy for those who hold power in Kabul must be measured not by statements, but by actions: opening schools, restoring women’s right to work, ending intimidation, and allowing Afghan society to breathe again.

Afghan women are not the periphery of Afghanistan’s story. They are its centre. And the Afghan people are not a tool for anyone’s conflict. They deserve peace that is Afghan-owned, rights-respecting, and regionally supported, not another chapter of imposed confrontation.

This documentary is a celebration, yes. But it is also a warning, and a call: do not look away, do not normalise injustice, and do not confuse the interests of a faction with the will of a nation.

Thank you.

2 March 2026