27 November 2001

House Passes Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001

The House of Representatives passed by unanimous consent on November 27 a bill that authorizes the President to fund education and health programs for Afghan women and children inside Afghanistan and in refugee camps outside the country.

The Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001 (S. 1573) says the President "shall ensure that such assistance is provided in a manner that protects and promotes the human rights of all people in Afghanistan, utilizing indigenous institutions and nongovernmental organizations, especially women's organizations, to the extent possible."

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (Republican of Texas) introduced S. 1573 in the Senate October 25. She was joined by the 12 other female senators as co-sponsors.

One month later, under the sponsorship of Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican of Florida), the bill passed the House of Representatives.

The legislation notes that under Taliban misrule in Afghanistan "restrictions on women's participation in society make it nearly impossible for women to exercise their basic human rights."

The restrictions placed on "women's freedom of expression, association, and movement deny women full participation in society and, consequently, from effectively securing basic access to work, education, and health care," says S. 1573.

Afghanistan, the bill notes, "has one of the highest infant (165 of 1000) and child (257 of 1000) mortality rates in the world."

Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, was an original cosponsor of the House companion legislation of S. 1573.

"I rise in support of the Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001," she told colleagues during the November 27 debate.

"In 1996, a heavy shroud was placed on the people of Afghanistan when the Taliban captured Kabul," she said.

"From that moment onward, the Taliban took the peaceful and sacred scriptures of the Holy Koran and distorted them into a rulebook of terror," the Florida Republican said.

"Through their creation of the Department for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the Taliban enforced a perverse rendition of Islam which gruesomely joined prayer with the barbaric practices of beatings, torture, rape, and executions," she said.

The Taliban's "brutality and blatant disregard for the lives and well-being of the Afghan people was perhaps most clearly evident among" the women of Afghanistan, "who bear the deepest scars," she said.

Following are the texts of S. 1573 and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's speech from the Congressional Record:

Afghan Women And Children Relief Act Of 2001

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress makes the following findings:

• In Afghanistan, Taliban restrictions on women's participation in society make it nearly impossible for women to exercise their basic human rights. The Taliban restrictions on Afghan women's freedom of expression, association, and movement deny women full participation in society and, consequently, from effectively securing basic access to work, education, and health care.

• Afghanistan has one of the highest infant (165 of 1000) and child (257 of 1000) mortality rates in the world.

• Only 5 percent of rural and 39 percent of urban Afghans have access to safe drinking water.

• It is estimated that 42 percent of all deaths in Afghanistan are due to diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated food and water.

• Over one-third of Afghan children under 5 years of age suffer from malnutrition, 85,000 of whom die annually.

• Seventy percent of the health care system in Afghanistan is dependent on foreign assistance.

• As of May 1998, only 20 percent of hospital medical and surgical beds dedicated to adults were available for women, and thousands of Afghan women and girls are routinely denied health care.

• Women are forbidden to leave their homes without being escorted by a male relative. This prevents many women from seeking basic necessities like health care and food for their children. Doctors, virtually all of whom are male, are also not permitted to provide certain types of care not deemed appropriate by the Taliban.

• Before the Taliban took control of Kabul, schools were coeducational, with women accounting for 70 percent of the teaching force. Women represented about 50 percent of the civil service corps, and 40 percent of the city's physicians were women. Today, the Taliban prohibits women from working as teachers, doctors, and in any other occupation.

• The Taliban prohibit girls and women from attending school. In 1998, the Taliban ordered the closing of more than 100 privately funded schools where thousands of young women and girls were receiving education and training in skills that would have helped them support themselves and their families.

• Of the many tens of thousands of war widows in Afghanistan, many are forced to beg for food and to sell their possessions because they are not allowed to work.

• Resistance movements courageously continue to educate Afghan girls in secrecy and in foreign countries against Taliban law.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF ASSISTANCE.

In General.--Subject to subsection (b), the President is authorized, on such terms and conditions as the President may determine, to provide educational and health care assistance for the women and children living in Afghanistan and as refugees in neighboring countries.

Implementation.--(1) In providing assistance under subsection (a), the President shall ensure that such assistance is provided in a manner that protects and promotes the human rights of all people in Afghanistan, utilizing indigenous institutions and nongovernmental organizations, especially women's organizations, to the extent possible.

• Beginning 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, and at least annually for the 2 years thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit a report to the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives describing the activities carried out under this Act and otherwise describing the condition and status of women and children in Afghanistan and the persons in refugee camps while United States aid is given to displaced Afghans.

Availability Of Funds.--Funds made available under the 2001 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Recovery from and Response to Terrorist Attacks on the United States (Public Law 107-38), shall be available to carry out this Act.

Ms. Ros-lehtinen: Madam Speaker, as Chair of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, and as an original cosponsor of the House companion, I rise in support of the Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001.

In 1996, a heavy shroud was placed on the people of Afghanistan when the Taliban captured Kabul. From that moment onward, the Taliban took the peaceful and sacred scriptures of the Holy Koran and distorted them into a rulebook of terror.

Through their creation of the Department for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the Taliban enforced a perverse rendition of Islam which gruesomely joined prayer with the barbaric practices of beatings, torture, rape, and executions.

But the Taliban's brutality and blatant disregard for the lives and well-being of the Afghan people was perhaps most clearly evident among half of its population, the women of Afghanistan, who bear the deepest scars.

Made widows and orphans by the will of the Taliban, the same women who

[Page: H8347] once made up 50 percent of Afghanistan's doctors, nurses, teachers, college students, and diplomats, have been made destitute, sick, and marginalized.

The Taliban further banned them from receiving any education past the age of 8, for which the curriculum was limited to the Taliban's corrupted version of the Koran. In the year 2000, the United Nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization estimated that as few as 3 percent of Afghan girls were receiving primary education.

The gender adviser to the U.N. in Afghanistan further reported that female literacy was approximately 4 percent versus 30 percent for males.

Women in Afghanistan were further alienated by the denial of proper medical treatment. They could only be treated by male doctors in certain hospitals; and when allowed to be treated, the male doctor was prohibited from examining her unless she was fully clothed in Taliban-approved garb.

Further, the doctor could not touch her, thus limiting the possibility of any medical diagnosis or meaningful treatment.

Throughout, the indomitable will and courage of Afghan women have helped them endure these most deplorable circumstances. While the end of the Taliban's oppressive rule is now palpable, the struggle of Afghan women to save themselves and their children from disease and starvation, their hope for a future for peace, freedom, and democracy continues.

How can we discuss the future of Afghanistan without first addressing the humanitarian crisis which engulfs its people? We cannot. How can we talk about reconstruction when half of its population, its women, have been marginalized, and when many of its future leaders, the children of Afghanistan, barely survive past the age of 5?

This bill seeks to address these grave concerns. The legislation before us today is about helping to save lives by focusing U.S. assistance on providing basic medical care to the women and children inside Afghanistan and those living in refugee camps outside their beleaguered country.

This bill is about helping to secure a future of hope and prosperity for women and children by calling on the President to provide educational assistance for these two critical sectors of Afghan society. It lays the groundwork for democratic principles, as it requires the protection and promotion of human rights for all the people of Afghanistan.

It builds on the ingenuity and the courage of the Afghan population by recommending that institutions and nongovernmental organizations, especially women's organizations, be used to the extent possible.

The U.S. and the international community should invest in these efforts, as they can afford the greatest access to those who are suffering the most.

The value and importance of using indigenous women's organizations is perhaps best reflected in the health sector. In the refugee camps of Pakistan, for example, most medical assistance is provided by the Pakistan directorate for health.

However, in instances where camp-based medical units are operating, women's access is restricted due to the transportation problems and cultural restrictions on mobility which require that women be escorted by a male relative, among many other restrictions. As a result, there have been frequent complaints from Afghan women about the quality of the services provided.

Immediately, Afghan women NGOs began to work on filling the gaps from multiple angles, running small clinics and providing mothers and children with basic medical assistance so they may live long and healthy lives.

[Time: 14:15]

This is what the bill that we are considering today supports, Madam Speaker.

The legislation also acknowledges and supports the impressive work of Afghan women's groups in filling the educational void created by the Taliban's oppressive and discriminatory practices against women. Several women-led organizations have established and are operating home schools to afford this forgotten and marginalized sector of Afghan society with the opportunities denied to them by the Taliban and their perverse interpretation of Islam. Many are involved in the provisions of education within the refugee context and running schools in the camps, adult literacy classes, and English language training.

Indeed, Afghan women's groups are not novices to humanitarian response activities. Beginning with the decade-long Soviet occupation of their country, more and more Afghan women's organizations have emerged to address a variety of needs, particularly in the areas of medical care, education and, in recent years, trauma counseling and rights awareness.

Throughout the years they have refined their skills and gained expertise through working in United Nations' agencies as administrative staff and as implementers of assistance programs both inside and outside of Afghanistan. Some examples include UNICEF projects as well as refugee resettlement protection programs with the Office of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Afghan women and groups that they lead have also entered into symbiotic relationships with international NGOs as implementers of their programs, programs such as CARE's widow's feeding program in Kabul and Action Contre La Faim's programs for malnourished children in many locations.

These are the types of activities that this bill supports, activities which, in turn, are vital to the welfare of Afghan women and children; activities which, in turn, will help ensure that women will be prepared to actively participate in the future of their country.

This bill is about relief and survival. It is about life.

As Surah 5 of the holy Koran reads, ``He who wrongfully slays another would be as if he slew the whole people; and if any one save a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.''

The Congress of the United States must act to save one life at a time and, by that, do what we can to help save the people of Afghanistan. We can begin by rendering our full support to the legislation before us today.