Military

DATE=11/19/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BRITAIN / AFGHAN WOMEN (L-O)

NUMBER=2-283318

BYLINE=MICHAEL DRUDGE

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: British officials have met with exiled Afghan women to discuss plans for the world community to help revive education for girls in a post-Taleban Afghanistan. Correspondent Michael Drudge has details from London.

TEXT: The meeting was chaired by Cherie (PRON: sher-EE) Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In attendance were Afghan women who fled to Britain after the Taleban took power in Afghanistan five-years ago. The Taleban abolished education for girls and barred women from working outside the home.

Mrs. Blair told a news conference that the Taleban's treatment of women was "horrifying." She expressed her solidarity with the aspirations of her Afghan guests.

/// CHERIE BLAIR ACT ///

The women in Afghanistan are entitled, as the women in every country are, to have the same hopes and aspirations for ourselves and for our daughters. A good education, a career outside the home if they want one, the right to health care, and of course, most importantly, a right for their voices to be heard.

/// END ACT ///

British Secretary for International Development, Clare Short, said a 100-day plan would be implemented with U-N support to revive the school system in Afghanistan.

/// SHORT ACT ///

Children are hungry. So if you provide food at school, parents will send their children to school. And the World Food Program uses a system of providing, at the end of the month, a can of (cooking) oil for girls who have been in school, so you get girls' attendance right up quite quickly.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Short just returned to London from a World Bank meeting in Ottawa, and she says that institution revealed a plan to fund reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. (SIGNED)

NEB/MWD/KL/RAE