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CNN Live Saturday
Laura Bush Takes Center State in Fight for Women's Rights in Afghanistan
Aired November 17, 2001 - 16:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Just about six weeks into the military campaign in Afghanistan, the Bush administration now stepping up the information war against the Taliban. In fact, first lady Laura Bush took to the airwaves today. She denounced the Taliban's treatment of women. CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett has more for us. He's from near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Good to see you this afternoon. Interesting move, to see the first lady on the radio.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Catherine. You know, many millions of Americans came to know Laura Bush's voice, a soothing, calming, reassuring voice in the days after the calamities of September 11, but today they heard a different voice -- a steelier, more determined voice from the first lady Laura Bush, as she became the first first lady in U.S. history to deliver an entire nationally broadcast radio address.
And she stepped on the international stage to deliver the coalition's message that the harsh Islamic rule brought to Afghanistan by the Taliban was unbelievably cruel to women and children, depriving them of the access, in the case of women, to work and to higher education, but also denying women and children the simple basic human joys that many people around the world take for granted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Life under the Taliban is so hard and repressive, even small displays of joy are outlawed. Children aren't allowed to fly kites. Their mothers face beatings for laughing out loud. Women cannot work outside the home, or even leave their homes by themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT: In addition to the first lady's radio address, the State Department released a report chronicling the downfall of women since the Taliban seized control of the country in the mid-'90s. In the early 1990s, the State Department says, roughly 70 percent of all school teachers in Afghanistan were, in fact, women. Fifty percent of the government workers, 50 percent of the university students were women, and 40 percent of Afghanistan's doctors, also women.
But once the Taliban took control, all access to work was denied, all access to higher education similarly denied, and for this, the White House says, the Taliban deserves widespread international condemnation. And another point from the first lady is that though things are improving, now that the Taliban is in near full retreat throughout Afghanistan, the issue of women's rights and children's rights must be front and center, as the international community debates the future of a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Major, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that. Certainly, a state of confusion right now about a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan. Now we have the deposed president of Afghanistan in Kabul. Certainly, this has to be a big concern of the Bush administration at this hour.
GARRETT: It is a top concern of the Bush administration. It's going to work with the United Nations and other interested parties to create what it has always said it wants to bring to Afghanistan, a broad-based and multi-ethnic government for that country, one that will not become in the future again a safe harbor for terrorists.
That's a very big job, one that has gotten off to kind of a rough start, but as the administration takes pains to point out, goal number one in Afghanistan remains the military objective, which is defeating the Taliban everywhere it stands, and also routing the country of the al Qaeda terrorist network. And until that objective is thoroughly and completely achieved, it's going to be more difficult for the administration to put all of its attention on forming this broad- based, multi-ethnic government, but they're working on it as hard as they can -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Yes, and things are moving rapidly. Thank you. CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett. Thanks, Major.
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