12 December 2001

Afghan Women Praise Bill to Help Afghan Women, Children

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."