08 March 2006
Iraqi, Afghan Women Visit Capitol Hill on International Women's Day
State's Hughes, Dobriansky cite importance of educating, empowering women
Washington – Female leaders from Afghanistan and Iraq arrived at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on International Women’s Day to observe firsthand how the U.S. Congress conducts the business of legislation.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, at a March 8 press conference, welcomed the delegations she praised as "very brave and proud women," to Capitol Hill. Delegations of Afghan and Iraqi female leaders are spending the day, their third of consultations with U.S. political leaders and experts, individually "shadowing" members of Congress, observing legislative activities and affording U.S. lawmakers eye-witness accounts of the growth of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On March 7, the delegates attended a White House reception at which President Bush praised the enormous strides made by the women of Afghanistan and Iraq since the toppling of the Taliban and Ba’athist regimes. "As women become a part of the democratic process," Bush said, "they help spread freedom and justice and most importantly of all, hope for the future." (See related article.)
Speaking at the International Women’s Day press conference, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes echoed the president’s earlier remarks. Investments in the education and empowerment of women, she said, would lead to improvements in child health and education and help produce a more vibrant civil society.
The under secretary repeated Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s description of the Afghan and Iraqi delegates as among their nations' "founding mothers."
Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky noted the Iraqi delegates’ praise for the Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative (IWDI), established in 2004 to strengthen the democratic skills and practices of Iraqi women. The initiative has funded leadership and management training, workshops on entrepreneurial skills, and how to interact with nongovernmental organizations and the media. (See Women in Iraq.)
In their three days of training, which began March 6, the delegates have met with President Bush and Secretary of State Rice, and a variety of state and local officials. They also received training from experts at the United States Institute for Peace and the Heritage Foundation and attended a mentoring session with Under Secretary Hughes.
Nasreen Berwari, Iraq’s minister of municipalities and public works, said that under the Saddam Hussein regime, Iraqi women had been deprived a public role, subjected to vicious policies including torture, and all too often had watched their husbands carried off by Saddam’s secret police.
Today, she said, Iraqi men and women are building together a new Iraqi society.
Observing the wide range of ethnic, religious and ideological diversity within her own contingent, Berwari concluded that the delegates "have never been united more than at this moment."
For information on U.S. observances of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, see National Women's History Month.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
