Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is great to be able to speak on International Women's Day and to be here with so many colleagues. It would be nice to have more colleagues in the room, not just the female Senators, but it is great that we are all here together.

I want to focus my comments on Afghanistan and Iran. While today is a very happy International Women's Day for all of us, I am keenly aware of and grateful for the huge freedoms I have as a woman in Ireland, in a first-world country where we aspire to full equality. We may not always get there but we are doing pretty well in lots of areas.

Afghanistan under the Taliban's rule remains one of the most repressive countries when it comes to women's rights. Girls and women can no longer access education in that country. It is worth pausing for a moment to think about the implications of that today and into the future. In Iran, the protests against the regime, its forced hijab rules and the general oppression of women's rights across the country continue. Mahsa Amini's name was mentioned here today and I have mentioned her previously. She lost her life when she was imprisoned and was never released. Many women and men have lost their lives during the protests in Iran. Mass poisonings have now taken place on school students, with many believing that these are deliberate attacks. It is just horrific and an abomination, flowing from what is happening in Iran. Ireland and the EU need to get louder about what is happening in Iran and Afghanistan and continue to highlight the horrific abuses of human rights against women in those countries.

While we are standing in a position of privilege today it is worth remembering, as others have mentioned, those who are in marginalised communities, such as migrant women and those who are not at the table, as Senator Flynn pointed out. We need to continue to fight for their rights to achieve what we have managed to achieve in this country.

I also want to focus on some of the achievements we have made in Ireland in progressing some key women's issues. We continue to work towards some of the unfinished business around domestic violence, and violence against women and lone parents, who are predominantly female and at greater risk of poverty. Those performing caring roles, in the caring professions and those caring at home, are predominantly women. There is also the massive gender inequality we still face in the gender pay gap and women's representation across all sectors of society, whether it is in our Parliament, on boards or in senior management positions.

We have what is often termed an unfinished democracy and an unfinished society because we have not achieved that equality. While we have lots of good stories to tell and lots of positive comments to make, it is worth reminding ourselves that there is still a way to go in terms of achieving full equality for the women and girls of Ireland and the women and girls of the world. We are in a privileged position in this House to be able to platform these issues and, more importantly, to effect change and make those changes happen. I agree with the comments of Senator Boylan when she said today is about celebrating the sisterhood and that by working together and being a collective voice, we are more powerful as a unit and as one than we are individually.