The 100th woman in the Upper House, Greens’ Senator Mehreen Faruqi, rose to give her maiden speech. But the occasion was momentous for another reason.
She is the first Muslim woman ever to claim one of the Senate’s red chairs.
Commencing her Senate term 75 years after the election of Australia’s first female M-P, Senator Mehreen Faruqi reflected on how far women in politics have come and the contribution they have made.
“I am very grateful to the 99 women in the Senate before me who have actually forged the way for people like me. And the difference women being in parliament makes is that they really fight hard for things to change for women. "
The Pakistani migrant, who arrived in Australia in 1992, raised two children and carved out a successful career as an academic and engineer before serving a five-year stint in New South Wales' Legislative Council.
Australia’s first female Muslim senator hopes to help reflect the diversity of the Australian experience.
“Obviously there’s a lack of diversity across Australian parliaments, no matter where you are. They don’t look like contemporary Australian society; they don’t look like the streets and suburbs that I live in.”
Her message for the Senate stands in stark contrast to that of her new colleague, Fraser Anning, who last week used his maiden speech to call for a ban on Muslim immigration, dubbing it a "final solution".
Senator Faruqi says it was a “very disgusting” speech.
“I think generally Australians are very warma and open-hearted people, but there are of course underlying elements there which are further exploited, if I can say that, by people in parliament."
Only a year ago, One Nation’s Pauline Hanson entered the Senate in a burqa.
Senator Faruqi says Australia’s Muslim community is “anxious”.
“Because we have seen when things like this are said, and when there might be some terrorism attack somewhere, people living in the community in peace are made scapegoats. We have seen attacks on Muslim women recently on public transport, we have seen people continuously attacked and abused on social media.”
The 55-year-old has been a victim herself.
“I’ve received handwritten letters with those attacks, my son [ABC journalist Osman Faruqi] recently received death threats on the phone. So it does make us feel anxious and really fearful as well as to what might happen.”
Enid Lyons became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives in 1943.
Despite the notable achievement, the wife of a former prime minister and mother of 12 once remarked that her Liberal colleagues “only wanted me to pour the tea”.
Today, only 23 per cent of Liberal Party M-Ps is women, while Labor is edging towards a 50-50 split.
The Greens have as many women as men in the Senate.
Senator Faruqi describes former Greens deputy leader Larissa Waters’ taboo-smashing decision to breastfeed in the Senate last year as “a beautiful moment that showed we’ve come a long way.”
But, she says, she doesn't want it to be another 75 years before true equality is reached.
“I have to say that there was a report that came out a couple of years ago, a World Economic Forum report, which said that parity between men and women will be reached in 2133. That's globally. Now for me it is quite unacceptable that it will take another 100 years to be able to do that. So we really need to fight harder, because unless we do we cannot take things for granted.”
