What Abir spoke about.

17 Dec

2025

EN Speech

The urgent need to combat discrimination in the EU through the horizontal anti-discrimination directive (topical debate)

Watch

Mr President, Commissioner, Council, we have been building a Europe that excludes, a Europe that is not accessible for everyone, a Europe that discriminates with its structures and systems. We have built a Europe that is not for every European, and there is a debt to be paid by us back to all our citizens. Not only because it is about democracy, human rights and social justice, but because we are …

17 Dec

2025

EN Speech

European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My voice, my choice: for safe and accessible abortion’ (B10-0557/2025, B10-0558/2025, B10-0560/2025, B10-0563/2025, B10-0564/2025) (vote)

Watch

Madam President, it came as a surprise to us who have been working with this text and resolution for a while that there was an alternative resolution invoking the principles of subsidiarity, given that the Commission has already stated that this Citizens' Initiative falls within the EU competence in relation to cross-border health services. Subsidiarity does not appear to be an issue for Mr Bellam…

16 Dec

2025

EN Speech

European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My voice, my choice: for safe and accessible abortion’ (debate)

Watch

Mr President, 'My voice, my choice' exists because women in Poland are dying. Because women in Malta are treated as criminals. Because in Italy, access to abortion is only on paper, but in reality, it's blocked. Because in Hungary and in Slovakia, women's rights are being pushed back systematically under the banner of 'tradition'. 'My voice, my choice' exists because right-wing politicians in this…

26 Nov

2025

EN Speech

Post-election killings and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tanzania, including the case of imprisoned opposition leader Tundu Lissu

Watch

Mr President, what we are witnessing in Tanzania is not the aftermath after elections, but a national tragedy. On 29 October, President Samia Suluhu Hassan crowned herself with a victory of 97 % of the votes after silencing the very people who challenged her. When citizens rose up – especially the young – they were met with bullets, brutality and a blockade on truth. Hundreds killed, hundreds inju…

25 Nov

2025

EN Speech

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (debate)

Watch

Madam President, we stand in orange and we stand in fury. We are furious because still women are controlled, beaten, raped and murdered by men in the EU. Let me be very, very clear: this is not a woman's problem. Gender-based violence is a man's problem. And to the men in this Chamber, and beyond, unless you choose building safety over staying in your comfort zone, nothing will change. Unless you …

12 Nov

2025

EN Speech

Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the islamist attacks of 13 November 2015 in Paris (debate)

Watch

Madam President, in accordance with Rule 118, I would like to make this House aware that on 28 October, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, His Excellency Danny Danon, called the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian occupied territories, Ms Francesca Albanese, a 'witch', and her report a 'spell book'. I would like to ask you, Madam President, to call upon the Israeli Ambassador to the EU and rem…

23 Oct

2025

EN Question

Combating violence against women and girls, including the exploitation of motherhood (debate)

Watch

I loved the tribute that you did to your mom. But have you ever asked her if she was seeing any violence? Maybe she felt it herself, she was maybe a victim of violence herself, and in that same question – were there migrants around her? Or was it a man? This is what you are not listening to when we are talking about men's violence. It's about the gender, it's not about the origin, because what is …

23 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Combating violence against women and girls, including the exploitation of motherhood (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear Commissioner, the EU has a violence problem, a gender-based violence problem. It's vast, it's severe, it's devastating. It is online, it is in real life. It is at home, it is in the workplace, it is in the public. It stretches from microaggressions to murders. This not only damages and changes a woman forever, but it is also costing the EU EUR 290 billion a year. So what's to…

21 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Recent peace agreement in the Middle East and the role of the EU (debate)

Watch

Madam President, on my way here this morning, I was looking at my phone and I had to see yet another Palestinian mother hug her kid, calling him to wake up from his death. Yet another mother, yet another parent, had to bury their child. What role can the EU play for these people? My answer would be to make the short lives of these kids, and their violent deaths, matter. And how can we do that? Yes…

21 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Recent peace agreement in the Middle East and the role of the EU (debate)

Watch

Dear colleague, do you claim that our demonstrators – our citizens who are outside demonstrating for peace, for human rights, for Palestinians – are on the wrong side of history? Do you, by any chance, mean that the recognition of a Palestinian state is a big mistake? Something that I think is a debt we have to the Palestinians for the last 70 years. Do you really mean that when we demand justice …

9 Oct

2025

EN Question

Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society (debate)

Watch

Thank you for this very not enlightening speech, because you only just criticise what feminists are doing. You're talking about gender, but then you claim that we are the sexists when you actually are the one who is because you only talk about sexism, not gender. So tell me, what do you actually want to do to combat the violence against women inside the EU? Besides talking about migration – all ki…

9 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society (debate)

Watch

Mr President, every step towards women's rights began with a woman who refused to wait for permission to be equal. They were called difficult, emotional, demanding. I will never wait for permission either. Today we are witnessing, across Europe and beyond, a global backlash against gender equality and a growing anti-gender movement that yesterday was outside the House – today they hold seats in th…

7 Oct

2025

EN Question

Situation in Afghanistan: supporting women and communities affected by the recent earthquakes (debate)

Watch

You said something very interesting: that the Afghan women were born oppressed, on the one hand, and on the other hand that we women in Europe are already gender-equal. What is your answer to the women in, for example, Malta or Hungary, who are not allowed to have a safe and legal abortion? Many of them have damage for life, and some of them have actually lost their lives.…

7 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Situation in Afghanistan: supporting women and communities affected by the recent earthquakes (debate)

Watch

Mr President, allow me to speak directly to my sisters in Afghanistan: all my respect for your fight and resilience, for your strength and courage. We see you, we hear you, and we are going to fight with you. Because we – women in Europe – know the fight for gender equality too well. But those who are trying to oppress us here just come in nicer suits. I know that gender equality is possible in Af…

7 Oct

2025

EN Speech

The EU’s role in supporting the recent peace efforts for Gaza and a two-state solution (debate)

Watch

Madam President, today we are thinking about the victims of the terrorist attack on 7 October and their families. Peace is needed and it has been needed for the last 70 years. So let's talk about the peace plan then, and here, I really need the Commission to listen, because this plan comes at a time when several international organisations and bodies of authority and human rights organisations hav…

10 Sep

2025

EN Speech

Rule of law and EU funds management in Slovakia (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Robert Fico – you are following the schoolbook of the crackdown on democracy and human rights. We've seen it before; you go after the LGBTQI+ persons, you go after the right of safe, legal abortion. You then go after the next group and the next group. You incite corruption. The freedom that you are enjoying, the democracy that brought you to power, the rule of law that is protecti…

10 Sep

2025

EN Speech

After 10 years, time to end mass migration now - protect our women and children (topical debate)

Watch

Madam President, this debate is both factually and morally wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And two factual wrongs you will find already in the name of this debate. There is no mass migration to Europe, but in fact, there is a 66 % drop in the applications of asylum. The second wrong is the EU-wide data shows that sexual violence is committed by EU nationals, by men who are known to the women in their …

18 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Case of Ahmadreza Jalali in Iran

Watch

Mr President, nine years ago, Ahmadreza Jalali was arrested in Iran with fabricated charges of espionage. He was sentenced to death without a trial. Under the influence of torture, he is held in the notorious prison Evin and at risk of being executed at any time. Jalali has constantly been denied medical care and held in isolation without any contact with his family, and in the last year his healt…

18 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Stopping the genocide in Gaza: time for EU sanctions (topical debate)

Watch

Madam President, for too long have we spoken of Palestinians suffering. For too long have we done close to nothing. Just sending money over is not enough anymore. I know that there is not so much you can do, Madam Commissioner. But there are some things that actually you can take a lead on, and be the one who will redefine how history will look at us. There are 40 000 displaced in the West Bank; n…

17 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

Watch

Mr President, earlier today, 51 Palestinians were killed by Israeli tanks just because they were standing in line for food. They were starving. They were not armed terrorists. The Israeli‑backed humanitarian fund is nothing else but a war strategy of Netanyahu. In Stockholm, in The Hague, in Brussels, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets showing a red line, marching for a ceas…

21 May

2025

EN Speech

The EU's response to the Israeli government's plan to seize the Gaza Strip, ensuring effective humanitarian support and the liberation of hostages (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, representative of the Council, dear colleagues, I'm tired of having this debate in this Chamber. So now I'm speaking to the people of Europe directly. I know, like me, the eyes of the starving children in Gaza, the pictures of the shredded bodies of the children in Gaza are haunting you. 14 000 children are on the brink of death – 14 000, by the end of today – as a d…

21 May

2025

EN Speech

The EU's response to the Israeli government's plan to seize the Gaza Strip, ensuring effective humanitarian support and the liberation of hostages (debate)

Watch

Madam President, thank you for giving me the word on the point of order. I noticed that both Ms Bentele and Mr Leggeri had symbols on their jackets that resemble the association that you also made to the symbols of Ms Boylan and I wish to just draw your attention to that. If we want to have no symbols at all, then I suppose that we should not have symbols at all.…

1 Apr

2025

EN Speech

Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2024 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Madam High Representative, the world is in turmoil. In the heart of all that are the attacks on human rights: war, sexual violence, crimes against humanity, climate crisis, man-made disasters, state-capturing oligarchs that tear down humanitarian aid. The ICC is being threatened; the ICJ is undermined; international law as we have known it is no longer existing. Nobody is coming t…

12 Mar

2025

EN Speech

Secessionist threats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the recent escalation (debate)

Watch

Mr President, there will be a time when it is too late to act. Bosnia and Herzegovina is wrapped up in a conflict that is driven by Milorad Dodik and his boy band: Putin, Orbán and Vucic. Together they struck a serious blow to the Dayton peace agreement. Mr President, Commissioner, esteemed colleagues, let us not fail the people of Bosnia again. We failed them as we watched the first genocide afte…

11 Mar

2025

EN Question

Roadmap for Women`s Rights (debate)

Watch

A lot of what you said was utter nonsense, among others, about being a Muslim, that if you are against Islam, then you are for women's rights. Of course, that is just utter nonsense, because in the Islamic world there are women that are so much stronger than you are. Nevertheless, to my question: you don't see yourself as a threat to women's rights? Because I am so much more afraid of you and what…