[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15376]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   WOMEN'S ACTION PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity 
tonight to address the positive effects which American foreign policy 
has had on the rights of women throughout the world.
  As vice-Chair of the Congressional Women's Caucus and as Chair of the 
House International Relations Subcommittee on Middle East and Central 
Asia, I have witnessed U.S. efforts to support women across the globe, 
especially in post-conflict situations.
  The progress is historic. Just ask the survivors of Saddam Hussein's 
regime and the Taliban. The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq 
indiscriminately slaughtered all Iraqis, but the women were among the 
most vulnerable.
  The notorious Fedayeen beheaded women in public and dumped their 
severed heads at their families' doorsteps. The regime used widespread 
rape to extract confessions from detainees. Saddam Hussein's legacy of 
terror knew no boundaries.
  In assessing U.S. contributions to Iraqi women, I look to leaders 
such as Dr. Khuzai, who served as a member of the Iraqi Governing 
Council and National Council of Women. After being prisoners in their 
own country for 35 years, she said, for the Iraqi women, the morale is 
so high that you cannot understand it unless you go and see. We will be 
grateful forever.
  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Iraq as part of a 
historic all-female congressional delegation. We met with women from 
all sectors and all educational backgrounds, and the message we heard 
from all of these women was very clear: They want a say, they want a 
role, they want to participate, and they want to have the U.S. help 
them in getting there.
  To achieve this end, the United States is helping Iraqi women 
reintegrate themselves into Iraqi society and indeed to the outside 
world. The administration embarked on the Iraqi Women's Democracy 
Initiative to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of 
democratic public life.
  It also established the U.S. Iraqi Women's Network, helping to 
mobilize the private sector in the United States and to link important 
resources here to critical needs on the ground. Recently, we saw the 
fruits of our efforts as countless Iraqi women went to the polls.
  U.S. efforts have contributed to a significant positive change in the 
lives of women in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the Taliban's brutality 
and blatant disregard for the lives and well being of the Afghan people 
was perhaps most clearly evident among half of its population, the 
women of Afghanistan. Made widows and orphans by the will of the 
Taliban, they were banned from receiving any education past the age of 
8, for which the curriculum was limited to the Taliban's corrupted 
version of the Koran.
  In the year 2000, the United Nation's Educational Scientific and 
Cultural Organization estimated that as few as 3 percent of Afghan 
girls were receiving primary education. Today, it is thrilling to note 
that thanks to our U.S. efforts, Afghan women are active participants 
in their political future. More than 8 million Afghans voted in this 
country's first-ever presidential election, and 41 percent of them were 
women.
  Hamid Karzai was announced as the official winner; and in his new 
cabinet appointments, he named three women as ministers. We as a Nation 
provided political and advocacy training for Afghan women and provided 
the funds to support voter registration and the election process.
  One Afghan woman casting her ballot said, when you see women here 
lined up to vote, this is something profound. I never dreamed that this 
day would come. And through the Middle East Partnership Initiative, the 
United States is also helping to create campaign schools that provide 
leadership and organizational training for women seeking political 
office. With MEPI support, the International Republican Institute and 
the National Democratic Institute conducted the first of these 
political skills training courses for women from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, 
Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
  MEPI and the Government of Jordan hosted a workshop in Oman on Women 
in the Law in February of this year. Nearly 90 women from 16 countries 
in the Middle East and North Africa regions gathered to support the key 
issues affecting women in the legal profession and to develop plans for 
future collaboration.
  At the end of the conference, MEPI announced that it would support 
two follow-up activities: The establishment of a regional association 
for women in the legal profession and a public legal education campaign 
on women's rights and equality. We must continue to strive forward in 
the pursuit of equality for women and develop on our own success.

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