12 December 2001
Afghan Women Praise Bill to Help Afghan Women, Children
(Say new law will help restore human rights to Afghanistan) (1000)
By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent
Washington -- Farida, an exiled Afghan woman activist, led off a
December 12 event at the National Museum of Women in the Arts where
President Bush signed into law The Afghan Women and Children Relief
Act of 2001 -- legislation to help provide health and educational
assistance to the women and children of Afghanistan.
Farida spoke as a representative of all Afghan women.
She said she represents "the million of Afghan women whose voices have
been silenced over the past five years. Today our voices are finally
being heard, and our rights are finally being restored."
On the stage with Farida were President Bush and first lady Laura
Bush, other Afghan women leaders and women members of the U.S.
Congress who sponsored the legislation.
Farida, who came to the United States as a refugee in 2000, thanked
members of Congress and President and Mrs. Bush for their leadership
and support.
She said she has "great hope for the future" of her country. "I have
hope because of the legislation being signed today. I also have hope
because of the talks last week in Bonn and the place that women are
taking in our new government," she said.
"I have two boys. My husband and I have taught them that women are
equal and I want them to grow up in a country that treats us that
way," Farida said.
She noted that she was forced to leave her homeland three times --
once during the Soviet invasion, the next time during the chaos and
brutality of the war lords, and finally when the Taliban took over.
"But I never stopped working for my people," she said.
"Even when I was living in exile in Pakistan, I continued to go into
Afghanistan every month," she said. "Often I would walk for three
hours in the middle of the night, wearing the burqa and carrying my
small children in my arms in order to reach women living in some of
Afghanistan's most remote regions."
First Lady Laura Bush said she was proud of the women legislators who
sponsored the bill, and proud to be standing at her husband's side as
he was about to sign it into law.
President Bush, in his remarks, said the women and children of
Afghanistan have suffered enough and the United States is working hard
to bring them "hope and help."
Muslim women, small children in traditional Afghan garb and the women
in Congress who had championed their cause crowded around the
president as he put his signature to the bill.
The legislation, (S-1573), authorizes the President to provide U.S.
funding for educational and health care programs for women and
children in Afghanistan and in refugee camps in neighboring countries.
The new law also targets aid to nongovernmental groups that are
providing help to Afghanistan's women and requires the secretary of
state to submit a report to Congress describing the condition and
status of women and children in that country.
Following the ceremony, Nafissa Mahmood Ghowrwal, the founder and
president of the International Federation of Afghan Women, said the
new law "is a big step toward restoring human rights back in
Afghanistan."
"I'm optimistic and I'm hopeful," about the future of Afghanistan, she
said in an interview with The Washington File.
The women of Afghanistan "were stripped from their basic rights for
the past ten years," she said, noting that the Taliban and the
previous regime both issued decrees eliminating human rights for
women.
"This will give them an opportunity to participate in the rebuilding
and reconstruction" of their country, she said.
Ghowrwal was educated in Afghanistan and came to the United States in
1975 as a Fulbright scholar. "I traveled alone" when I came to the
United States to further my education, she said. In 1977 she obtained
a masters degree in public administration from the University of
Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.
She now works for the U.S. government but volunteers her free hours to
the Afghan cause.
Ghowral is also the founder of a one-hour weekly television show for
the Afghan community in the Washington, D.C., region.
"It serves the Afghan community in their mother tongue," she said,
noting that "the whole show is produced by Afghan women -- the
producer, the director, the camera woman, the lighting. That says
something to the world that Afghan women can do things if they are
given the opportunity," she said.
Tooba Mayel, Director of Marketing and Public Relations of Afghans
Tomorrow, an organization formed in 1999 by young Afghan professionals
living outside their country, said, "Today is a very historic moment
-- a day in which all Afghans can rejoice that peace if finally coming
to our country, especially for the women and children."
In an interview with the Washington File, Mayel said that women have a
constructive role to play in Afghanistan, for example as
businesswomen, educators and health practitioners, and it is vital for
them to receive the kind of help that they deserve.
"Our hearts and our minds are with the people there and we want to do
everything we can to help them," she said.
Mayel was brought to the United States from Afghanistan in 1980 when
war with the Soviet Union began. She attended high school and college
in the United States.
"For those of us who have been fortunate enough to live in a free
country and to have acquired an education, it is our responsibility to
assist in the rebuilding" of Afghanistan, she said, adding that Afghan
exiles do have the resources, "it just needs to be tapped into."
Professionals of Afghans Tomorrow, she said, "are hoping to work on
different projects and stabilize the country in many respects,
agriculture, culture, education, health care, housing, urban
development."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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