I stand with Afghanistan's women marching against the Taliban and cannot accept Home Secretary Priti Patel's migrant policy - Christa Ackroyd

After all that’s why the suffragettes chained themselves to the railings and threw themselves under the king’s horse, so I can enjoy the freedoms that sadly so many of us take for granted. I believe it is my duty to stand shoulder to shoulder with any woman who is fighting a just cause. Oh, and before anyone you comments that I must hate men – I don’t. Because if we want to win the fight, we must take men with us on our battle. And that means engaging with everyone. We seek equality not superiority. But I digress.

This week has seen many shining examples of women who were told they can’t and simply have done. The fight it seems goes on.

Take tennis player Emma Raducanu who, by her own admission, collapsed under the pressure of playing at Wimbledon to the point she couldn’t come back on court, and yet this week became the new darling of British tennis in the US Open.

Ask yourselves if you could have been castigated by some as not having the mental fortitude to be a winner. And still win. Ask yourself if you could have coped with so much attention at the age of 18 and still beat others older and more experienced. Because I couldn’t. What a great role model for our young girls she is. Never give in. Never give up. And never let others determine what you can and can’t do.

In this, Britney Spears is a shining example. A woman who took her fight to be in control of her own destiny to the highest court in the land. A fight she lost, but was to eventually win with news this week that her father has filed to give up his conservatorship over her which sees him control her finances and her life.

Here was a woman who had lost the right to decide who she saw, how she spent her own money and more importantly what to do with her own body, having been refused the right to stop contraception. Her court case when all her mental health issues were debated in public, is a reminder to fight for what is right. Because that is justice.

Which brings me on to the London estate agent who took her bosses to court when they refused to allow her flexible working so, as a single parent, she could pick her little girl up from nursery every day. The bosses said no, she had to be in the office at nine and not leave until six. So she resigned. And this week the judges agreed with her that her role as a mother was just as important as her job. Well good on her. And more fool the boss who couldn’t see a woman valued as a hugely successful part of his team, who just wanted to be a mum as well.

Brave courageous women, all three who put their reputation on the line to make life easier not just for themselves but for others who follow.

But nothing and no one has moved me so much this week as the women of Afghanistan who took to the streets to demand equal rights knowing this could cost them their lives. In the same week as a the BBC reported a pregnant prison officer was shot dead in front of her husband and children, the Taliban announced its all male government, a government it wants the world to recognise.

And so ended the charm offensive and their claims of treating women with respect. Women, they said, will have all their rights within Islam. Just not have one single representative in a position of power. And so the women began marching.

If you don’t believe the threat they face is real, examine the footage which emerged when they kept on marching even as guns were pointed in their faces. Now that is female strength.

Of course the Taliban government has made the protests illegal. It demands days to decide whether placards and slogans meet their rules. Which of course they won’t. Oh, and it has announced women probably won’t be allowed to play cricket (they have an international team) because it’s not ‘‘a necessity’’. Maybe not but it’s a choice. And that I am afraid is all we need to know about the ‘‘new’’ regime. They are in fact the old regime.

But to be a strong woman does not negate the need to show compassion, in my view the greatest strength of all. This is why I cannot and will not accept our Home Secretary Priti Patel ploughing on with plans to turn back migrants crossing the English Channel to reach our shores.

Those who risk their lives now the escape routes from Afghanistan have been formally closed could have been among the crowds at Kabul airport as our soldiers fought to get them out, an operation lauded for its humanity. They could also in a few weeks time contain women fleeing persecution for refusing to be silent.

A process which often takes far longer than the six months we are promised.

Ms Patel, of all people, should know in showing compassion we are at our strongest. And in fighting for the freedom of others we are at our most compassionate.

God bless the women of Afghanistan. Let us promise them we hear their pleas. And that we are with them every painful step of the way.