Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Many in this room will be aware that at the fall of Kabul, when the western states left Afghanistan, the Irish ambassador to the UN at the time issued a statement that Ireland stood with the women of Afghanistan. What exactly did that mean? It meant sweet damn all, to be honest about it. Few of us can be unaware of what is going on in the Middle East. It does not matter which side of the argument you are on, whether it is the side of Israel, Gaza or Hezbollah. All three sides - Hamas, Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Force - are guilty of war crimes.

I am delighted the State has taken a position, with South Africa, against Israel for what it is doing and the genocide it is committing in Gaza. However, few of us think about what is going on in Iran. Over the past number of weeks, we have had people from Iran in the Chamber. The 2024 figures on the total number of hangings show that 993 people were hanged in Iran for political, secular or sexual orientation reasons. Of these, 78 were announced and 915 were not. Four hangings were carried out in public, 32 women were hanged and six minors are currently political prisoners. Most of us will have seen a piece on Facebook where a young student took off her headdress outside her college. When she was tackled by the police, she took off the remainder of her clothing and walked around. She was executed. While we look at high-profile places like Gaza, Lebanon and Israel, let us not forget the brutality that is taking place in Iran. The only way we will stop that type of brutality is by talking about it. I ask for a debate at some stage on the issues confronting the nations of Iran and Afghanistan.