Gaza genocide: Fatima Payman, the first veiled senator, leaves the Australian Labor Party

Gaza genocide: Fatima Payman, the first veiled senator, leaves the Australian Labor Party

Two years after entering through the front door into the political history of Australia, this land of plenty where her Afghan parents found refuge when she was still a child, Fatima Payman, 29, no longer smiles under the hijab that made her unique.

It was indeed with a grave expression and a heavy heart that the first Muslim and veiled senator in the Parliament of Western Australia, who was a rising star of the Labor Party, appeared before the media to announce her terrible decision, the most ” difficult and heartbreaking part of his life »: she throws in the towel.

Cruelly disillusioned after being suspended by her peers, the one who oscillated between laughter and tears on the evening of her resounding victory in the federal elections, on June 20, 2022, and whose Labour Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who sang the praises of the country, is paying a high price for his unwavering commitment to the martyred land of Palestine.

Yesterday praised, today sacrificed on the altar of base compromises, Fatima Payman, unable to bear it any longer, prefers to resign, head held high and conscience clear, rather than continue to seriously stray within a party whose indifference to the unspeakable suffering of the population of Gaza she condemns.

My family did not flee a country at war and be granted refugee status here in Australia so that I can now stand by and watch the atrocities being inflicted on innocent people in Gaza. When I see our government’s indifference to the greatest and most horrific injustice of our time, I question where this party is headed. ” she protested indignantly during her highly publicized press conference.

Ostracized for signing a motion by the Greens in favour of the recognition of a Palestinian state, the eldest daughter of Afghan refugees, who had won hearts and votes, and whose strength of conviction and eloquence were unanimously praised by the leaders of his party, refuses to be humiliated any longer.

We have all seen the bloody images of young children losing limbs, being amputated without anesthesia and starving to death as Israel continues its assault, broadcast live around the world. This is an issue on which I cannot compromise. ” she hammered, her voice trembling with emotion.

Far from giving up on the noble exercise of politics, as she sees it, Fatima Payman is leaving the Labor ranks to sit elsewhere, in this case on the bench of independent deputies. Two years after being acclaimed at the polls, the exaltation has however given way to bitter disenchantment for the woman who embodied, in the eyes of many, the renewal of Australian politics, in many respects.