Laura Bush: Good morning. I'm Laura Bush, and I'm delivering this week's radio address to kick off a world-wide effort to focus on the brutality against women and children by the al-Qaida terrorist network and the regime it supports in Afghanistan, the Tablian. That regime is now in retreat across much of the country, and the people of Afghanistan - especially women - are rejoicing. Afghan women know, through hard experience, what the rest of the world is discovering: The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists. Long before the current war began, the Taliban and its terrorist allies were making the lives of children and women in Afghanistan miserable. Seventy percent of the Afghan people are malnourished. One in every four children won't live past the age of five because health care is not available. Women have been denied access to doctors when they're sick. Life under the Taliban is so hard and repressive, even small displays of joy are outlawed - children aren't allowed to fly kites; their mothers face beatings for laughing out loud. Women cannot work outside the home, or even leave their homes by themselves.
The severe repression and brutality against women in Afghanistan is not a matter of legitimate religious practice. Muslims around the world have condemned the brutal degradation of women and children by the Taliban regime. The poverty, poor health, and illiteracy that the terrorists and the Taliban have imposed on women in Afghanistan do not conform with the treatment of women in most of the Islamic world, where women make important contributions in their societies. Only the terrorists and the Taliban forbid education to women. Only the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women's fingernails for wearing nail polish. The plight of women and children in Afghanistan is a matter of deliberate human cruelty, carried out by those who seek to intimidate and control. <snip>
http://www.state.gov/g/wi/7192.htmShe was on this kick for about a week. Then, apparently, the Bushistas <edit spelling> thought the better of this campaign to liberate Afghani women and pulled the plug.
Beyond the Burqa
The Rights Women Need in Afghanistan are Basic Human Rights
by Laura Flanders
Published on Thursday, December 13, 2001 by WorkingforChange.com
<snip> Few were the media's details about just who was "liberating" Afghan women. Neither the first lady's speech nor the State Department report even mentioned the United States' allies' record on women's rights. Of the Northern Alliance leaders who were just then invading Kabul, most had a long record of misogyny.
General Rashid Dostum stands accused of raping, killing and looting around Kabul in 1992. His forces committed atrocities from 1992 to 1997 when he controlled the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. As Laura Bush spoke, Dostum was leading an assault on that city, assisted by U.S. bombing raids. <snip>
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1214-03.htmA long period of silence followed, after which LB reappeared in public chirping happily at the RNC about the new day in Afghanistan:
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush at the 2004 Republican National Convention
<snip> After years of being treated as virtual prisoners in their own homes by the Taliban, the women of Afghanistan are going back to work. After being denied an education, even the chance to learn to read, -- the little girls in Afghanistan are now in school. Almost every eligible voter - over ten million Afghan citizens - have registered to vote in this fall's presidential election. More than 40 percent of them women. And wasn't it wonderful to watch the Olympics and see that beautiful Afghan sprinter race in long pants and a t-shirt, exercising her new freedom while respecting the traditions of her country.
I recently met a young Iraqi woman. She is one of the new Iraqi Fulbright scholars. She survived horrific ordeals, including the gassing of her village by Saddam Hussein. She told me that when people look at Iraq, what they don't see is that Iraq is a country of 25 million people, each with their own hope. <snip>
http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=4595 But here's HRW last October:
<snip> “Many Afghan women risk their safety if they participate in public life,” said LaShawn R. Jefferson, executive director of the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. “The Bush administration is particularly proud of the progress women have made. But Afghan women themselves say their hopes for even basic rights have gone unfulfilled.” <snip>
The failure of international donor countries—including the United States and Germany—to send promised funds on time and bolster security may adversely affect women’s participation on election day. The months leading up to the election have been punctuated with violence. So far, at least 12 election workers have been killed—at least three of whom were women—and dozens injured. Failing to enlist the thousands of female poll workers needed, election officials have resorted in some places to staffing female polling stations with local male elders.
The report describes how women are targeted for challenging women’s traditional roles in society. Women journalists, activists and government officials have reported death threats, harassment and attacks for speaking out about sensitive women’s rights issues such as divorce. Through intimidation and armed attacks, local warlord factions, the Taliban and other insurgent forces have forced the closure of women’s development projects, which provide desperately needed education, health, rights awareness and job training to women and girls. <snip>
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/04/afghan9436_txt.htm
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