[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15384-15389]
[From the U.S. 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.
  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).

[[Page 15385]]


  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., 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

[[Page 15386]]

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.
  And I thank the gentlewoman for her work in that effort. And I also 
thank

[[Page 15387]]

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.

[[Page 15388]]

  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 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.

[[Page 15389]]

  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 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.

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