What Samira spoke about.

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

Question Time (Commission) - Legacy of the European Year of Youth

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Madam President, I wish to thank the Commissioner for being here. So the European Year of Youth was obviously very necessary. I mean, if we speak about the future of Europe, or even the future of our European institutions, we need to make sure that the youth is engaged and that they participate also in the decision—making process. I think a lot of good things happened in relation to the European Y…

30 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (debate)

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Mr President, thank you, dear colleagues, for your support and the valuable contributions. You know, I’m not going to waste any time anymore in this House to explain that we have gender inequality in Europe. I’m just not going to do that anymore. I’m going to fix it, because it needs attention, it needs time to fix gender inequality. The administrative burden for companies, I hear. Really? You wan…

30 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (debate)

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Mr President, good morning, dear colleagues, good morning, Commissioner. Today we will make history. I am incredibly proud to stand in this House and to say to all women in Europe, ‘We are here for you’. In fact, we can say this to all workers in Europe. This directive says you deserve to be treated equally and you deserve to be paid fairly, regardless of your gender, your background or your physi…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Iran: in particular the poisoning of hundreds of school girls

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Mr President, so obviously the Government of Iran has completely lost their legitimacy when they decided to systematically discriminate against women and minorities. And what is so much important right now is that there will be a legitimate investigation. To make sure that the UN can do a fact-finding mission to Iran to also make sure that we have an investigation that is legitimate and that is fa…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Combating discrimination in the EU - the long-awaited horizontal anti-discrimination directive (debate)

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Mr President, it’s very important that we discuss the topic today of anti-discrimination legislation. Equality is one of the fundamental values on which the European Union is founded, and it is through legislation that we can protect the fundamental rights of citizens. And it is therefore very important that we continue with implementing anti-discrimination legislation. The numbers don’t lie. We h…

15 Mar

2023

NL Speech

Women activism – human rights defenders related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) (debate)

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Mr President, apparently we now live in a continent where women can be punished for wanting to help each other and enable safe and legal abortion. Is this a free Europe for women? Now that's the question we face. This case should never have gone to court. What am I surprised to read in the media today? That the European Commission does not wish to respond to individual cases. Nor does the Presiden…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Implementation report on the Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU - The Windsor Framework (debate)

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Madam President, so I think many of us would agree still that Brexit was a strategic, political and economic mistake. It was expected to have a negative impact on our trade, on our companies, on our jobs and on our people. But we need to move forward. And therefore the Windsor framework will give now economic security for a lot of people who were waiting for this security. So I would like to appla…

15 Feb

2023

NL Speech

A Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, the transition must be clearly green and, above all, fair. It is important that European citizens stay warm at home. Unfortunately, many citizens can hardly pay their energy bills or sleep in the cold. The transition must be fair and inclusive. The industrial sector has a very important role to play here. We need to help the industrial sector tackle the transition in a sustainable an…

14 Feb

2023

NL Speech

Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, I am indignant by this debate, and I am very surprised. The whole debate is about whether the Istanbul Convention is the right instrument, and whether the European Union can impose it on the Member States. Then I think to myself: “Why are you here? Why are you a member of the European Union?" Do we understand what our job is? Our task as legislators is to protect the rights of reside…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

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Madam President, the situation for women in Afghanistan is very alarming, more than that. What is happening in Afghanistan right now is gender apartheid. That’s what it is. It’s not gender segregation, it’s gender apartheid. We have a duty as the international community to first understand that the Taliban will not restore the situation of women and girls. They will not do it. They will keep doing…

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

The storming of the Brazilian democratic institutions

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Mr President, it’s obvious: democracy is under attack worldwide. And let us begin with condoning the storming of the democratic institutions in Brazil, because that is awful and that is really bad for our democracy worldwide. What I see here is a pattern. The US Capitol, the prevented attack of the German Bundestag and now Brazil. This is a pattern; this is a dangerous trend. And what I also see h…

18 Jan

2023

NL Speech

Terrorist threats posed by far-right extremist networks defying the democratic constitutional order (debate)

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Mr President, our democracy is under pressure. The core, the heart of Europe, is being attacked by the extremist ideology that we see not only in our Member States, but also here in the European Parliament. Theories that are harmful, theories that are also spreading here in the European Parliament. Just a few months ago, I heard a colleague here talking about the theory of population repopulation.…

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Terrorist threats posed by far-right extremist networks defying the democratic constitutional order (debate)

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I hear a lot of, I would say, complaining that we speak a lot about the rise of extreme right movements. I would like to know from my colleague, are you basically saying that the extreme right is not at all a problem in Europe? Like, are you recognising that we have a serious issue with extreme right movements? What exactly are you recognising or not in this regard?…

23 Nov

2022

NL Speech

Eliminating violence against Women (debate)

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Mr President, it is indescribable that one in three women worldwide has to deal with physical, psychological or sexual violence. In the Netherlands, in my own Member State, eight women die every day from violence. These are not just statistics, these are human lives. Think of 16-year-old Humeyra who was shot dead at school. She and her sisters called the police 28 times in the last seven months of…

22 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges (debate)

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Madam President, so, you know, this is just this famous common argument that it is about knowledge. It’s about expertise. Like, seriously, do you really think that we would attract women for such positions if they would not have the knowledge, talent and competencies? Of course, you know, we will look for competent women. That’s not the issue here. We have enough women who are competent. The issue…

22 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges (debate)

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I heard a lot about what is not actually possible, what actually should not be done, and then you end up with the conclusion that we need fair competition. Like, seriously, how do we reach fair competition? If we have the conclusion now that women significantly lag behind, like how do you want to intervene in the first place on that specific fact? So I wonder, how would you like to organise fair c…

22 Nov

2022

NL Speech

Gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges (debate)

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Mr Hoogeveen, I have a question for you: what exactly do you say about the usefulness of a quota? Because I hear you say that we should accept that there are gender-specific characteristics and we should accept that this plays a role within certain sectors. But you are aware that the companies we are talking about here, the organisations we are talking about here, are in principle not so much conc…

22 Nov

2022

NL Speech

Gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges (debate)

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Mr President, it is a historic moment. Finally, we will get more women in important decision-making positions in a few years' time. It's about their future, it's about the future of a new generation. It should just be the case in 2022 that we as women are also sitting at those tables to decide on important issues in society. It provides more innovation and creativity. Businesses are only going to …

10 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Racial justice, non-discrimination and anti-racism in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, we live in a world where digital surveillance has become common. CCTV and face recognition are part of our daily lives, whether we want it or not. However, we fail to understand and address how these already uncomfortable circumstances can become very dangerous for members of racialised groups. There is ample evidence that artificial intelligence tools heavily discriminate against bl…

19 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Fighting sexualised violence - The importance of the Istanbul Convention and a comprehensive proposal for a directive against gender-based violence (debate)

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Madam President, finally, we have a very important proposal on fighting gender—based violence. But it is very important that this proposal works for all, and that all women are included. This is about intersectionality. So I really much wish that we pay attention to the victims of marital captivity. A lot of women were manipulated into a bad situation, and at the end they end up in their marriage,…

19 Oct

2022

NL Speech

Whitewashing of the anti-European extreme right in the EU (topical debate)

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Mr President, I hear some colleagues say: “It is a matter of undermining, it is a matter of unsubstantiated criticism.” No, it is not! What matters is that the far right pollutes the political debate with anti-feminist, anti-migration and anti-LGBTI rhetoric. Disgusting rhetoric that puts people away in society. The far right does not want to acknowledge this. But sometimes I think: They know damn…

5 Oct

2022

NL Speech

The Dutch childcare benefit scandal, institutional racism and algorithms (debate)

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Mr President, ‘Look!’ says my friend, and she shows me this certificate. It says: “You are not a fraud” and apologies are offered. She had to adjust her dreams, because she got into a fight with a system that took away her human dignity. And now a certificate, but the recovery process is stalling. I'm relieved that we're finally discussing the impact of the supplement affair here. Commissioner, I …

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The recent humanitarian and human rights situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, notably that of children

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Mr President, (off-mic) ... Ethiopia, and it was terrible, terrible to see how women are being used as a weapon of war. You often hear about it, but now we could really hear about it, see it, and we could really speak to these women. And the situation is so bad. And often we see in war and in conflict that women and girls are being used as a weapon of war. And this is why this situation needs to s…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Access to water as a human right – the external dimension (debate)

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Madam President, so I think by now a lot of us already had access to a glass of water. We have bottles with water. And for us, it’s very easy to access water. For us it’s very common to just drink water whenever we want, whenever we feel like it. But for so many people in the world this is not a guarantee. They do not have access to even this glass of water. And this is why I find it very importan…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women's rights protesters in Iran (debate)

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Mr President, since the murder of Kurdish Mahsa (Jina) Amini, 92 people have died in Iran. Only because a brave woman stood for her individual choice. And the individual choice of women in Iran is at stake. And all these women have fathers, just like Mahsa (Jina) Amini had a father – a man. And I’ve been thinking of what’s been going on in his mind. Did I protect my daughter enough? Did I give eno…