[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 92 (Monday, July 11, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H5625-H5630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ANSWERING THE CALL FOR FREEDOM
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Price of Georgia). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Ginny Brown-Waite) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to
highlight one of the most underreported and freedom-affirming policies
that the world has seen since the end of World War II.
For centuries, the world has heard the oppressed, the downtrodden and
the vulnerable cry out for their freedoms, for their rights and for a
chance to emerge from the shadows of the tyranny and bloodshed that
they had lived with. Those yearning for basic liberties and for basic
rights have occasionally been led by vocal and dedicated women of the
world. Their's has been too often a silent battle, however, with no
clear voice, no champion and no opportunity to cry out for their
freedom.
I am proud to say tonight that this Congress and this President have
heard those cries. We have recognized the unmistakable voice of freedom
rumbling across the ocean and into these hallowed chambers, and we have
answered that call.
Too often, this House has dealt with the aftermath of turning a blind
eye to the horrors of present regimes and of past despots. This
Republican-led Congress has said, ``no more,'' to those policies. No
longer should women be denied the right to vote, no longer should women
be treated as second class citizens, no longer should women not be
allowed to be a citizen at all.
The world today is changing rapidly, and we are helping to make it
better for our children's future. Since President Bush took office in
2001, this Congress has supported an agenda of democracy, freedom and
expansion of rights for all peoples throughout the world. The list of
non-democratic regimes that have seen significant reforms since 2001 is
long and significant. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait,
Georgia, the Ukraine and others have all held elections, increased
minority rights or have committed to democratic reforms.
We have before us a picture of an Iraqi woman who voted. She was so
proud that she was able to vote. We see the ink-stained finger that
told everyone that at last she had the opportunity to vote.
While all of these are important and significant events, it is the
United States' foreign policy that furthers the advancement of freedoms
and rights for women that is the most striking for me. The world
watched October 19 as 19-year-old Mokadasa Sidekey cast the first vote
in Afghan's landmark presidential election. Here we have some more
women participating in the Iraqi elections proudly holding up their
ballots.
[[Page H5626]]
We also have the picture of the thousands of women lined up in
Afghanistan to go to vote. They value that privilege. They value that
ability that they now have to vote. Today, women comprise 41 percent of
the 8.2 million Afghan voters. With our support, these women will
continue to lead to fan the flame of democracy and give them hope for a
brighter future.
Tonight, you will hear personal stories from Members who have
traveled to countries like Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan. From the tales
of women who voted for the first time in their family's history to the
meetings with newly elected female representatives of Iraq, these
stories are truly inspiring.
Now I would like to yield to the distinguished gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Poe).
Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida
for allowing me this time and for doing this very important event to
recognize the freedom that women have obtained because of the United
States and the United States' policy with the world and the sacrifice
of American troops.
History will record the devil deeds of Saddam Hussein, the tyrant of
the desert, especially his crimes against his own people, the women of
Iraq. They cry out from their unmarked graves across the wastelands
created by Saddam Hussein in the desert sands. Those women were raped
and tortured. Some were beheaded in the presence of their own families,
and after they were murdered, their bodies were abused.
But on January 30, 2005, the women of Iraq spoke out for the living
and for the dead. It was their chance to be a part of something that
never before ever happened in that part of the world, a free election.
The world, civilization, began between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers. Those civilizations have always had a form of government other
than a democracy. They have had monarchies, dictatorships, tyrants, but
never a democracy.
I was privileged to be in Iraq on January 30, along with the
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays). The two of us were there to
witness this first free election.
The skeptics, the critics, they said it would never happen, that the
Iraqi people did not understand democracy, that they would not vote,
they would not show up, that they were intimidated by the terrorists.
Well, the sceptics, the critics, the cynics, were wrong yet again.
Having been in Baghdad and Fallujah and other parts of northern Iraq,
I went to those polling places, and when dawn came, the whole country
was shut down to vehicular traffic. But, slowly and surely and
defiantly, the Iraqi people walked to the polls. They took their
families, they took their relatives, their neighbors.
They were threatened that, if they voted, they would be killed, and,
sure enough, 57 of them were murdered on election day going to or from
the polls. One lady was murdered with her 8-year-old son as she left a
voting place in northern Iraq, a school. Almost 300 others were wounded
because they decided to exercise the right to be free and vote for
their own rulers.
But yet they voted, in spite of the intimidation. There was almost 60
percent voter turnout on that glorious election day, ``freedom day''
for the Iraqi people.
The insurgents tried to intimidate. They tried to harm, they tried to
murder those people, but they voted anyway, and, after they voted, they
stayed around the polling places to watch this event. They took
photographs of family members voting. Then, when they would leave the
election polling booths, they would walk down the street with that
right forefinger, ink-stained, held high in the air defiant to those
terrorists, because the terrorists said, even with that marking, that
would mark them to be murdered later. Yet they did not care, because
freedom was more important to them.
I talked to many Iraqis that day through an interpreter, and I
remember one senior citizen, she was a senior-senior citizen, an Iraqi
lady, and she told me through an interpreter that she had lost her son
to the murderous Saddam Hussein, and she wanted to thank me for the
sacrifice of our sons and daughters, American sons and daughters, that
they had made it that she and her other Iraqi friends could vote that
day.
American troops are spreading liberty and freedom. They are
liberating enslaved peoples. The best ambassadors for freedom that we
have in the United States are our young men and women in Iraq and
Afghanistan liberating those enslaved people.
{time} 2100
You know, the critics that say we should cut and run from Iraq now
should remember that freedom has always cost. It has always cost all
people who want to be free. And people in Iraq are free and are
fighting continuously for this liberty because of Americans.
I hope we all appreciate the sacrifice our troops are making and
understand that they have done more for freedom and dignity, the
freedom and dignity especially of women, than any sign-carrying
protester. We should just ask those noble and brave Iraqi women that
held their fingers high.
My grandmother used to say, who was really the most influential
person in my life, that there is nothing more powerful than a woman
that has made up her mind. And I think we have seen in the Iraqi women,
and I saw personally, that they have made up their mind to be free,
that they will not be enslaved and abused or neglected any longer. And
it is all because the United States believes in freedom for all people.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Poe) made some excellent points about the bravery of the
Iraqi people in going to the polls.
You know, we will go to the polls, we may have to wait a little while
to get in. It is nowhere near the long lines that they experienced in
Iraq. And we have to remember that we are free to go to the polls. We
do not face the kind of intimidation that the Iraqi women faced.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have been joined by the gentlewoman
from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), who actually has traveled and can tell us
some information about the women that she met, and we look forward to
hearing from you.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate all that the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) is doing with the
Women's Caucus, and she has done a great job bringing these women's
issues out and how important they are to all of us.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk a little bit first about the Afghan
women, because I had an opportunity to work with them. It was before
some of our women Members were even here, it was in 2002, when there
were a group of women, first of all starting out with women lawyers
from Afghanistan, came over to meet with the Women's Caucus and have a
discussion.
Later on, Habiba Sorabi, Afghanistan's minister for women's affairs,
came over to meet with us and discuss what the mission was all about.
And she talked about that the mission for women was to restore and
improve the rights of Afghan women and to strengthen their legal, their
economic, political, and social status throughout the country.
At that time the Members of the Women's Caucus here came away
convinced that the work of their women's ministry was absolutely
critical to the rebuilding of a peaceful and democratic Afghanistan in
which the women and girls would have full rights.
And one of the things that we did was to establish and to find
funding for women's centers over in Afghanistan. As you see the picture
there with the Afghan elections, wearing the burkas and the veils, and
still how they go around covered. So they needed a place where women
could go where they could have health care, where they called take
their children for education, and where they could have job
opportunities to work on their creations of rugs or chickens or
whatever they were going to do to establish an economic basis.
And with that, we were able to get from the Appropriations Committee,
from foreign ops, money to actually build women's centers in all of the
provinces of Afghanistan. And they are being built, many of them, from
Kabul to the hinterlands, have been established to give the women that.
And then after that, we also were able to not really to go into
Afghanistan, but to go over early in the morning to the State
Department, 7 a.m.,
[[Page H5627]]
and talk to women that were involved in writing the Constitution for
Afghanistan, to make sure that they were included.
And we had to do it so early in the morning because they could not be
out after dark, and with the time change, they were at the end of the
day, we were at the very beginning of our day, the sunrise services.
And we were really able to talk to them and give them encouragement
and advice in what to do. And they also came over here to spend some
time with us really as going out on our day-to-day business to see how
a democracy operates, how the House of Representatives works. We wore
them out, I must say. But they were able to spend some time with us.
And then in January I traveled to Amman, Jordan, to meet with women
who were on the list in Iraq, who were running for office to be elected
to the national assembly. And it is a little bit different from what we
were doing here.
We have our precincts and our designation, our States, but there this
was a national list. There were four of us that went: the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Granger), the gentlewoman from California (Mrs.
Tauscher), and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) and myself.
We were over there to train them in the election process. Now it is a
little bit different, because here were a group of women running for
office who could not have their names on a list, known, who could not
have their pictures on a brochure, who could not pass out any
literature that they were running, because of the fear of
assassination.
And as a matter of fact, many of these women were intimidated. One of
them lost her 17-year-old son to an assassin as he was trying to
protect her. Another one was kidnapped and held for ransom. Another one
lost five members of their family.
But these women were willing to really put their lives on the line to
run for national office. And I think we sometimes wonder, you know, we
take so much for granted: the opportunity to run for office, the
opportunity to vote. And here were women that really said, we possibly
will lose our lives, and some of them have lost their lives, and some
of those that were elected.
But what happened was that we met with Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds,
Independents, and Christians. And there was a group of about 22
members. And they were from all of the different parties. And the first
thing, one of the first things that they said as we were sitting at the
table, why? You are from different parties? And we said, yes. And they
said, well, why are you laughing and talking together? You are from
different parties so you really should not be speaking together.
We said, that is one thing about a democracy. We have different
parties, but we respect each other. We are friends, we are colleagues,
and we laugh and talk and joke; but we do have different philosophies.
And so with that, these women were able to sit around and talk together
on how they were going to get over their differences, because the
Sunnis were there saying no, no, we should postpone the national
elections.
And the others were saying, no, we need to go forward, but we want
you, being the Sunnis, to join us. They wanted all participation from
all of the different groups. And so some of the Sunnis said, well,
maybe that is a good idea.
So they did learn that democracy is the art of possible. And so it
was that after that election, 25 percent of those elected out of the
275 were to be women. Well, 33 percent were elected and 33 percent were
women. Of course, I got a call from one of them, or an e-mail, which we
have e-mailed back and forth on election day. She said, I was the first
to vote in my district. I cast the first vote. And it was fine.
Everything was going fine.
So they were elected. Many of those that came, were elected. Then in
April there were three of us that went back to Jordan: the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Granger), the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis),
and myself. And we met went back to meet with 150 Iraqi women who were
chosen because of the leaders in their provinces, leaders like mayors,
and were developing into the leaders in their country.
And that was to train them in democracy. And just think, suddenly you
have a democracy and you have come from a dictatorship. What do you do?
So we had a lot of role-playing with them and instant translation so
that we could talk to them. And I have to tell you that some of them
talk very loud. I think it is a cultural thing when they want to make
their points.
So we would say, cannot hear you through the earphones. But we
learned that this is just a cultural difference in how we differ. But
one thing that they said was that they did not really want to have a
quota system. They wanted to be like us where they ran as women, and
they were elected. And we said, well, now you have got 33 percent. Just
take it easy for a while, because we only have 14 percent in the
Congress. You are way ahead of us. So keep up the good work and make
sure that you stay that way, and one day you will have the same as we
do.
One day you will have the brochures that you pass out. One day you
will have the sponges and the combs and the pencils that you are giving
out to get elected. But what they have done, I think, has been
fascinating, and they have just been able to move ahead and to be able
to find out how to run a democracy. I think they are way ahead of the
game; they really caught on very quickly.
We had them doing some role-playing. They would pass on to the next
group some of the tips that we would give them, like tell the
provincial council that you are talking to what your name is, what
group you represent, and why you want them to do something.
As each group, during the 2\1/2\ days that we were there, came up and
did some of this role-playing, they got better and better. But they
loved doing it, and we loved having them.
But again they came to us at great risk. They had to drive through
Iraq, and they were shot at, a group of them was held at the Jordanian
border for 13 hours, and you know what they have gone through for the
freedoms that we believe in, that we sometimes do not, you know, take
the great care and go out to vote, that we do not do the things that
they think is, you know, they are willing to give their lives for.
I think that we have to honor them and all of the other women that we
see throughout these countries that are now going to vote and having
the elections and making sure that they are included and their children
are going to be included. I think that we honor them. I am very
delighted to have the opportunity to be here tonight.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. I appreciate the gentlewoman from
Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) telling us first hand your mentoring project
with some female candidates, and also some supporters who just want to
make sure that women are playing an active role in both the Jordanian
Government and the Iraqi Government.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Let me just say one more thing too. The message from
them was, do not leave us until we have a stable government, because
they want to have the freedom and the democracy that we have.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. I found that also when I traveled
to Iraq: do not leave us. I wanted to remind you and the other Members
of Congress that a week from this Thursday, on July 21, we are again
hosting some Iraqi women who will tell us of the progress that they
have made in Iraq, both for women's rights and for human rights in
general, and their view of what is going on in Iraq.
We all know that, unfortunately, the media does not always portray
the good things that are happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this
will be a great opportunity for us to glean some information from the
Iraqi women who are here for us to also take back to our constituents.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that we have been joined this evening
by the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn). Welcome.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) for her leadership on this issue and
all the work that she is doing to assist women in the House in a
bipartisan effort as she chairs the Women's Caucus, and working to
serve as a role model for our colleagues and our friends in Afghanistan
and Iraq, showing them how to take that leadership role, how to lead by
doing and role modeling.
[[Page H5628]]
And I thank the gentlewoman for her work in that effort. And I also
thank you for organizing this tonight and taking the leadership role in
drawing our attention to Afghanistan and Iraq and the importance of
women in those issues.
I had the opportunity to be a part of the CODEL in October of 2003
that was led by the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce). It was an all-
female CODEL. It was a bipartisan CODEL. And how exited we were to go
and be a apart of what was going on there, to see firsthand what was
taking place.
We were so touched with some of the women that we met in a women's
center in Mosul, as they poured into a little house, hot tiny little
house, cramped rooms, and talked with us through an interpreter about
their hopes and their dreams. One of the things that struck us was that
there was not a word that they used that translated into mentor.
{time} 2115
And a word that is so important to us. So our delegation sat about
explaining to these women that a mentor is different from a sister or a
parent, it is more than a teacher, and how a mentor is someone that
will walk with you and stand with you and go through all of the trials
and the bumps and the starts of creating a place, a life, a spot for
yourself. And what a wonderful lesson that was for us to realize how
important it is to mentor and how important it is for us to realize how
uniquely American it is for us to put our arms around mentoring and
pulling up along with us those that we would seek to help and work
with.
We have, as the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) was
mentioning, brought some of the women with us here to be a part of what
was going on in our Nation's great capital so that they could
experience and live and have an idea of how we work in freedom and how
democracy works and how we apply it each and every day in our lives. I
have also had the opportunity to have some of them in Tennessee with
me. We had them in Nashville at Vanderbilt University at the Freedom
Forum First Amendment Center. And there they had the opportunity to
meet with and talk with some of the members of our military, female
officers and members who had been in Iraq, who had fought for their
freedom. How wonderful to watch them say thank you.
This past March, I returned to Iraq, and I would like to share with
you just a little bit of an update on a couple of women that we have
mentored and have worked with over there. One has three children who
are currently in school in the northern part of Iraq. They are in a
village school there that actually has been put in place by a school in
my district. It is a private endeavor. They are working with the local
officials. The children are happy. They are excited, and they are
learning. Each and every day, they learn a little bit more, not only
about reading, writing and arithmetic as we like to say, but also about
freedom, about democracy, and how to live and prosper and work in a
free society. The elections were great for them. It was a lesson, a
living lesson in democracy.
Another, in Tikrit, I had the opportunity to visit with when I
returned there and visited with the troops, she came on post. What a
wonderful reunion we had, and we celebrated the success that she and
her colleagues had enjoyed during the election.
Mr. Speaker, it was wonderful to watch her reach out to the troops to
say thank you; thank you for opening new doors, thank you for helping
give a new life to me and my people.
Mr. Speaker, I had an e-mail from this young lady the other day. She
said, I request your help, I am applying for a Fullbright scholarship.
And she wanted a letter of recommendation. How exciting for me to take
out a pen and paper and sit down and draft a letter talking about the
tenacious spirit, the love of freedom that this young woman has
displayed. How wonderful to know that once she, who could not even walk
outside her door without fear of what may lie beyond that door with
Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, she who helped carry out the elections
in her province, that she now says, You know what, freedom brings the
opportunity for education and I can apply for this scholarship. That is
progress. It is progress of providing hope and opportunity and
encouraging the human soul. How wonderful that that exists for these
folks.
Just a couple of thoughts on the elections, Mr. Speaker, that I do
want to touch on. I mentioned my friend there in Tikrit, and not only
did I hear from her stories about the elections and some of the things
that they did there, it was the women, as my colleague from Illinois
was saying and also my colleague from Florida was saying, it was the
women in Iraq who led the way to the voting booth, and how exciting
that was for us. There were stories of how they hid people in
ambulances and police cars, and they made their way along with first
10, then 20, and then 100. And then as the posters have shown, lines
and lines of women who were coming to exercise that freedom.
Some of the emails from some of our Iraqi friends were so inspiring.
A few little tidbits of those: We are voting with courage. We showed
bravery and great strength. We showed brave hearts and blue fingers. We
achieved our identity in front of a watching world, and then, to sum it
up, saying thank you. Thank you to the best friend Iraq has ever had,
the United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, they mean every word of that. They mean every single
word. And I was thrilled on July 3rd and 4th as I opened my e-mails, as
I went about my district celebrating this Nation's independence and
freedom, that I had notes from these individuals, so many of these,
congratulating me on living in America and congratulating America on
having another independence day.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the opportunity to speak and to
share, and I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for her time and effort
in this.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentlewoman from Tennessee. I think anyone who has had any exposure to
the Iraqi women know how very, very brave they are.
Just this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, in this House of Representatives,
we debated a resolution honoring Kuwait on the recent efforts to give
women the right to vote. As is the case with many Middle Eastern
nations, women are nowhere near equal to men when it comes to basic
freedoms and rights that we take for granted every day. However,
Kuwait's leaders have recognized that denying half of your population
the right to vote and participating in the business of the nation is
wrong. As Secretary of State Condoleesa Rice has said, half a democracy
is not a democracy.
While Kuwait is not a democracy, giving only half the population a
voice in their government is not a policy this Congress should support
and one that I am glad that Kuwait's leaders are changing. I certainly
applaud the House leadership for bringing this resolution to the floor
and for recognizing the significant changes made for women's rights in
the Middle East. If women are not allowed to participate in the
decision-making process, if women are denied the right to run for and
seek elective office, if women are barred from determining their own
future, then those women will suffer oppression and human rights'
violations.
When given the chance, women have proven they will participate in the
electoral process. In Iraq, during the first free and fair elections in
several decades, it was the women of many towns who led the surge to
the polling booths. Women showed that they were not afraid to take
their fate in their own hands and show the world what it truly means to
be free.
Now, I would like to recognize my colleague, the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Gingrey). I appreciate his joining us here this evening to
celebrate the rights that Iraqi and Afghani women have recently
received, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. GINGREY. Well, I am very, very honored to have the opportunity to
join my colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-
Waite), Mr. Speaker, and I commend her for putting this hour together
to talk about the rights of women.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that the gentlewoman from Florida, with
others in this body, have recently put together a women's caucus, a
bipartisan effort with Members from both sides of the aisle coming
together on women's issues, and I really commend them for
[[Page H5629]]
that. I commend her, and I commend the bipartisan spirit, Mr. Speaker,
in speaking out on women's issues.
We Members of this body who happen to be physicians, and I think
there are now ten of us, Mr. Speaker, including yourself, recently did
the same thing coming together in a bipartisan fashion on issues of
health care. I think what we are showing tonight as we discuss women's
issues is we can do that as a Congress, and our citizens in every
district, all 435 of this great body, they want us to do that. They
realize we have differences of opinions on certain things, and maybe
sometimes it seems like it is virtually impossible to come together,
but I know that we can. I know we can on health care issues, and I know
we can on women's issues.
And so, Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Ginny Brown-Waite) for putting this together, and especially tonight,
talking about Afghanistan and Iraq; maybe, in some ways comparing and
contrasting their situation, the women in these two countries, compared
to what we enjoy today. Mr. Speaker, in this country, women have equal
rights, and I think it was mentioned earlier, maybe by the gentlewoman
from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), about the fact that in this body, in the
combined bodies of the House and Senate, 14 percent of 535 Members are
women. Yet in these elections that just took place on January 30 of
this year in Iraq, some 31 percent of the 275 seats in the transitional
national assembly went to these brave women who, before that, under
Saddam Hussein and that brutal dictatorship, they were not even given
the opportunity to vote.
Through our efforts and trying to bring some democracy, Mr. Speaker,
to that part of the world, we have given them the opportunity, as we
turn the country back over to the Iraqi people, for them to hold their
own elections. And not only did women vote, they voted in force.
Thirty-one percent in their very first election are now members of the
transitional national assembly. I think it is a wonderful thing that
they have that opportunity.
And as I said, Mr. Speaker, so much of these things, these freedoms
that we just take for granted, for instance, there is no longer a glass
ceiling in this country. I know in my own medical practice we had six
doctors, three men and three women, and in that specialty of obstetrics
and gynecology, probably 60 percent nationwide of the specialists are
women.
When my wife, Mr. Speaker, graduated from college, and I will not say
how many years ago because she will get mad at me if I do that, but
with a degree in psychology and a minor in religion, there were not
really great opportunities for her in the job market. She did not have
a teacher's degree so she could not teach, and so it was either
secretarial or flight attendant status, and that was really just a few
short years ago.
I am so proud, being the father of three daughters and the
grandfather of two granddaughters, two grandsons as well, Mr. Speaker,
to see that those little girls have an opportunity to, yes, be a mom
and a homemaker if they want to, or be out in the business world at the
highest level of corporate America, the highest level of this body
politic that we enjoy so much here in Washington. These are things that
we just kind of take for granted. But thanks to the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) and her leadership on this issue, to
come tonight and to spend this time and this special hour talking about
these brave women who stood in line, we all are filled with such
admiration.
Mr. Speaker, I remembered the picture, I guess this one right here,
and I want to show it again, because I will never forget this one, with
that peace sign and that purple indelible ink to prove that there was
no vote of fraud; that a person would vote once and only once. Maybe
this took a week or more, by the way, Mr. Speaker, as you know, to wear
off.
{time} 2130
These women were putting themselves in grave danger of being killed
because they had the courage to go and vote when the minority was
determined to see that they did not, that they returned to the same old
same old.
My colleagues mentioned that one of the recurring themes that they
heard when they were visiting, the Women's Caucus actually went to Iraq
and Afghanistan. And what those women were saying, the new leaders who
are struggling to get their feet under them, please do not leave us.
Please do not leave us. We need your help. They were crying out, we
need mentoring. We are new at this, and we want to succeed.
This is the same thing that the president and vice president, this
new transitional National Assembly is saying to us today in regard to
this question of Mr. President of the United States, when are you going
to bring our troops home. As the President said in North Carolina just
last week, if the Iraqi people wanted us to bring the troops home
tomorrow we would; but clearly they do not. What a terrible message it
would be to set a date certain and say in a year or year and a half we
are coming home, whether we have succeeded or not. No. These men and
women in Iraq are absolutely right when they say do not leave us, and
we will not leave them. It is times like this when we bring this home
to our colleagues and remind them of what we have accomplished.
I have been to Iraq twice. I went the first time in December of 2003,
5 days after the capture of Saddam Hussein. We went to Fallujah, and
that was before things completely deteriorated in that part of Iraq. I
went with a small bipartisan group. Each Member brought something from
his or her district. I brought school books donated by the great men
and women of the Rome Rotary Club, 3,000 pounds of school books and
equipment. Yet when we went into schools, they were all closed. There
were no little kids in those elementary schools. There were no
teachers. But today those schools are open. There are teachers to
instruct those little kids in elementary school. And yes, Mr. Speaker,
a good portion of those students are female.
Before we gave these wonderful people an opportunity for freedom and
equal rights, little girls were not given an opportunity to get an
education. It is unbelievable to us. We take so much for granted.
Again, the opportunity to share with the gentlewoman from Florida
(Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), the
gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), and the gentlewoman from
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) to talk about this issue tonight, I thank
the gentlewoman for staying up late and for preparing this and for
giving me an opportunity to participate, because, truly, we cannot go
home and leave them alone. We have to continue and finish the job.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman
from Georgia for joining us this evening and for sharing with us the
stories he brought back when he went to Iraq, not just once but twice.
The majority of the Members of this body have been to Iraq, and every
one of them came back with the same information of please do not leave.
Do not leave us. We need to have time so we can stand on our own.
Mr. Speaker, one of the surest ways to guarantee long-term success in
spreading democracy and success throughout the world is to support and
promote the education of children and especially the education of young
girls. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, girls were legally
prohibited from going to school. That is right, girls were prohibited
from going to school. This Congress heard the sad stories of education
being denied to women, of keeping them from making better futures for
themselves and their families.
Well, now that the United States has liberated the Afghan women, that
oppression is no more. As President Bush has said many times, girls go
to school now in Afghanistan. Obviously, this is a good sign for our
future.
Since the U.S. and allied forces overthrew the oppressive Taliban
regime in 2001, approximately 5 million children have enrolled in
Afghan schools. Approximately 40 percent of them are women. The United
States and the Republican-led Congress have also been leaders in
ensuring that the Afghan people have the resources they need to rebuild
their ravished and neglected homeland and make it suitable for
children's education. We have appropriated hundreds of millions of
dollars for Afghan education, and our soldiers have helped construct
countless
[[Page H5630]]
schools throughout the country. Overall, the United States has given
Afghanistan $4 billion in 3 years since the fall of the Taliban. For
Afghanistan education alone, USAID has allocated nearly $218 million in
aid. According to the State Department, approximately $60 million has
been earmarked for primary education. This is more than the amount
given for education to Egypt, which is the third largest recipient of
foreign aid from the United States.
Certainly these are significant sums of money and show the United
States' commitment to the Afghan people. These sums show our continued
desire to work together to forge a partnership for the future.
In 2003, during my first few months in Congress, I actually went on a
congressional delegation trip to Iraq and saw the conditions on the
ground there. We talked to women. We talked to men. We talked to
children and doctors. Almost to a person the request was there, please
do not leave. At first I thought it was because they liked me, they did
not want me to leave. They said they did not wanted troops to leave
until the country could stand on its own.
Today, women in Iraq can go to school and go to the market and hold a
job. And they can vote. As we saw here the very proud Iraqi woman
displaying the new-found freedom that she has. These brave women now
have the chance to determine their own future now that they know what
it is like to savor the sweet taste of freedom and to make their nation
a better place for their children and grandchildren.
One of the most important roles that Congress can play in the future
development of Middle Eastern democracies is for Members to act as
individual mentors to future women leaders. We heard the gentlewoman
from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) tell us how she was mentoring a young
Iraqi woman. In too many nations, women have not participated in the
political process. They lack the training and the background and the
parliamentary education necessary to be successful in the political
arena.
I was so glad to learn that the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs.
Biggert) actually helped to mentor women who were contemplating the
very dangerous act of running for office in their country.
Following my trip to Iraq, I hosted on two different occasions women
coming to my district, Iraqi women coming to my district; and I also
hosted a group here in Washington, D.C.
In the group that came here to Washington, D.C., there was a
wonderful woman by the name of Nagam Kedhum. She was a woman from
Najaf, Iraq; and she wanted to use her new-found political freedom to
provide a better life for her two sons. She and I had several
discussions on that day about what it meant to be a citizen legislator
in the U.S. and how I, as a woman, first got involved in politics.
Since then, women leaders in Congress have hosted several groups of
Iraqi and Afghanistan women in Washington to continue our efforts to
mentor them and to engage in mutual learning. I learned a lot from
them, and I hope that they learned a lot from me.
In fact, as I mentioned before, the same women members will again
host a return trip of Iraqi women a little more than 2 weeks from
today. As I hope is clear to all, Members will continue their efforts
at outreach and mentorship to future women leaders in the Middle East
and throughout the world.
When I brought the Iraqi women to my district on several occasions, I
brought them to a crowd of a combination of chambers of commerce and
some wonderful service groups in my district, Rotary and Kiwanis. Their
story was so poignant. As I explained to my constituents, most of them
will never have the opportunity to go to Iraq, but I can bring a face,
I can put a face on an Iraqi person who is very grateful for our
involvement and very, very grateful for our troops serving in Iraq to
help their country become stabilized.
When we hear the stories that the women had to tell, such as one of
them, her sister was killed because they thought it was her. Her sister
was not involved politically, she was not against Saddam Hussein, she
was very complacent, but the one young lady was very, very active in a
group that was opposing Saddam Hussein. She lost her sister due to
Saddam Hussein's brutality. Her father was also brutalized by Saddam
Hussein; and yet she continued to be a brave leader in her country,
someone who wanted to ensure that future generations had the freedoms
that she wanted for so long and that she fought for and that she wants
to make sure that Iraq never goes back to taking those freedoms away
from the Iraqi citizens, and women in particular.
Democracy continues to spread throughout the world, and this Congress
will continue to support the policies and projects that promote the
freedoms and the rights of women. While there is still much to be
accomplished, every Member of this body should be proud of how far we
have come.
I would once again like to thank all of the Members who joined me
this evening and shared their personal and heartfelt stories.
____________________