Remarks by Mrs. Laura Bush at "Educating and Empowering the Women and Girls of Afghanistan"

Thank you all. Thanks. Thanks everybody. Thank you very much, George. Thanks a lot.

George and I are both very thrilled to have the opportunity to co-host, with the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, and the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education at SMU, and the Institute, this meeting of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council. This meeting is focused specifically on literacy and education, and many of the members of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council who are here today, who you’ll hear from in a minute, are the ones who are working with literacy and education for girls and for women in Afghanistan.

We’re thrilled that Irina Bokova, the new woman — I’ll have to say first woman — UNESCO Director has joined us from Paris. Thank you very much. She’s the Director-General of UNESCO.

The Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs, Dr. Ghazanfar is here. Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks so much for coming.

The Ambassador to the United States from Afghanistan and our good friend, Said Jawad, thank you very much, Ambassador. And his wife Shamim, who is a member of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council and is the founder of a wonderful children’s charity, Ayenda, that I hope you all will investigate and learn more about. It’s a great way to be able to help children in Afghanistan.

And of course, from the Unites States State Department, Ambassador Melanne Verveer. She’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, and she’s also the co-chair of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council. Thank you very much, Ambassador.

The Vice Chair of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, Dr. Phyllis Magrab. She’s the director of Georgetown Center for Child and Human Development. Thank you very much, Phyllis, for joining us today.

I want to thank all the representatives of the U.S. government: State Department, USAID, the Afghan students who are here. We have some Fulbright students who are studying here in the United States who’ve joined us, and thank you everyone else who’ve come.

The rest of the members of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, our two Marines, thank you all very much for joining us today. They have been in training for a special new project of the Marines, women Marines who will have an opportunity to interface with women in Afghanistan and bring another face, I might add, to Afghanistan. So thank you both for your service to our country, and thank you for joining us today. 

George and I are very proud to co-host this conference on education and literacy here at the Institute, at SMU. The events of September 11th turned a spotlight on the plight of women in Afghanistan and the severe repression which was part of their daily lives. In the shadow of the Taliban, half of the population of Afghanistan was silenced and was cut off from society. Afghan women were denied education, and as a teacher and reader myself, I remember my own sadness when I heard that little girls were forbidden from attending school. The stark contrast between their lives and our lives horrified many Americans and gave birth to the strong friendships between American women and our sisters in Afghanistan 8,000 miles away.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghan women were among the first to begin rebuilding their country. They filled jobs in healthcare. They opened schools. They assumed leadership positions within the government, and organizations like the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council gave individual American citizens a way to partner with Afghan women. 

Since its founding by President Bush and President Karzai, the Council has worked to help the women and girls of Afghanistan recover from decades of oppression. Council initiatives have educated women judges and lawyers about Afghanistan’s new constitution. Women parliamentarians have come to the United States to meet with women members of Congress. Hundreds of midwives have been trained to help reduce Afghanistan’s high maternal mortality rate. Micro-credit loans have been extended to Afghanistan’s entrepreneurs. American businesswomen have mentored women business owners in Afghanistan. Afghan women manage community banks, and they attend graduate-level business seminars here in the United States, including at Northwood University here in Dallas.

Although these are signs of great progress, we know that today more than ever, Afghanistan’s future depends on literate and educated women and men. Over the past eight years, I’ve seen the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council grow and respond to a lot of differing needs in Afghanistan. Today’s conference brings together policy makers, practitioners, business leaders, philanthropists, and we’re all united by the common belief in the lasting value of education and literacy for everyone. And of course, especially to make up time for women and girls.

Our last year in the White House, I met with a group of Afghan women, many of them parliamentarians who reminded me that their fight is not yet over. These women told me they still live in fear of the Taliban. They’re afraid that the Taliban’s violence will reverse Afghanistan’s progress toward freedom. Their message was that we must take advantage of this time. Or, as one female parliamentarian said, “This is our only chance.” Her words have stayed with me, and they’re a reminder of the stakes in Afghanistan, and they’re a charge for all of us to redouble our efforts.

Today we renew our commitment to the women and girls of Afghanistan. And to our Afghan friends, we want to say we’re proud to stand with you. We’re invested in your success. We applaud your persistence in pursuing equality and opportunity for all the people of Afghanistan: men and women, boys and girls. So I want to thank everyone who’s joined us today for participating in this, and I look forward to our dialog and discussion. Now it’s my great pleasure to introduce a great champion for global literacy and UNESCO’s first female Director-General, Irina Bokova.

Thank you very much.