For the women of Nauru

April 13, 2018 Ruth Halbert

Dear Prime Minister,

Today, March 8, is also International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate our achievements and hard won freedoms. When we say ‘leave no woman behind’. However, there are some women who are left behind. These are the women who our government has incarcerated for nearly five years on Nauru and in Immigration Detention in Australia. They include women who have suffered sexual and physical abuse while in our ‘care’. They include women who have given birth alone because our Government refused to allow their partners to attend the birth. They are women denied access to adequate medical care. They are women who are forced to live apart from their husbands or children. They include women denied timely and safe abortions. They are women whose health suffers because they still live in mouldy tents. They include women who have succumbed to self harm and mental illness because of our government has stolen their hope and their futures. Malcolm Turnbull pays lip service to the need to afford women safety and respect. Yet he affords this group of women neither safety nor respect. He affords them only danger, cruelty, neglect, suffering, and vilification. Ring Malcolm Turnbull (02 6277 7700) today and tell him that he has no right to partake of our celebrations while our sisters in Immigration Detention still suffer at his hands.

Michele Feinberg

To the person who opens and reads these letters at the PM's office: I imagine that not one of the letters I have written so far to the Prime Minister (591) has been seen by him. Please show him this one. If he won't look at it, ask yourself 'Do I want to be working for a system which allows this to happen? Should my income and career depend partly on women and children being locked up on Nauru?'