16 November 2001

First Lady to Address Taliban Abuses Against Women

Washington -- In a November 17 radio address to the nation and the world, First Lady Laura Bush will discuss the brutal policies towards women of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the al-Qaida terrorist network it supports.

It will be the first time that a U.S. First Lady has alone delivered the customary Saturday radio address, normally delivered by the president, and is the first step in a U.S. government public information campaign to show the world the harm caused to women, and children, by the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The British government also is taking part in the effort to inform the world, and Cherie Blair, a lawyer and wife of Britain's Prime Minister, will participate in a related event in London on November 19.

"The al Qaeda and Taliban war on women represents the vision of society they hope to export to the rest of the world," Jim Wilkinson, who runs the White House Coalition Information Center, told the Washington Post.

The coalition center was set up recently by the U.S. and British governments to counter Taliban disinformation and to provide fast and accurate information about the counterterrorism campaign conducted by the United States, the United Kingdom, and their coalition partners. It also has offices in London and in Islamabad.

By exposing the brutality of the Taliban, Wilkinson said, "we want to help Afghan women and children win back the freedoms they had" before that regime took control of the country.

Before the Taliban took power in 1996, women in Afghanistan were protected by law, had important freedoms, and were active participants in society, a White House fact sheet notes.

But once the Taliban took over, women were restricted from working outside the home, were not allowed to go to school after the age of 8, were restricted in the medical care they could receive, had to completely cover themselves in public, and were forbidden from moving about their communities freely.

Women who defied the rules were beaten, sometimes savagely, by Taliban police.

In conjunction with the White House information campaign, the State Department November 17, immediately following Mrs. Bush's radio address, will issue a report on the Taliban's policies toward women. The report will be posted on the State Department Web site -- www.state.gov -- and the International Information Program Web site -- usinfo.state.gov.

Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky met November 16 at the State Department in Washington with leaders of domestic non-governmental organizations to hear their views on the situation in Afghanistan, to express to them U.S. support for Afghan women, and to outline what the U.S. is doing to help them.

Earlier in the day, Dobriansky and Vice President Dick Cheney's political adviser Mary Matalin held a conference call on Afghan women with women Cabinet officials and women members of Congress.

And on November 19, Dobriansky will host a roundtable discussion of scholars, diplomats and Muslim women leaders at the White House to discuss their views of how to best support Afghan women. Later that day Dobriansky will host a larger meeting of some 150 Muslim women and interest group leaders to hear their thoughts on the situation.

In addition Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke is scheduled to have a conference call with women business leaders on November 19.

The campaign was initiated by Bush's counselor Karen Hughes, who is to join Dobriansky on Tuesday, November 20 for a conference call with women editors and publishers.

The Taliban are "the most repressive, backward group of people we have seen on the face of the Earth in a long period of time, including and particularly how they treat women," President Bush said in a question and answer session with students November 15 in Crawford, Texas.

Appearing with him was Russia's President Vladimir Putin who said "women in Afghanistan are basically not treated as people."