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CNN Saturday Morning News

First Lady to Deliver National Radio Address

Aired November 17, 2001 - 09:37   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush hands the microphone to first lady Laura Bush today. Mrs. Bush will take to the airwaves and make an unprecedented radio address.

CNN's Major Garrett joins us from near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, to tell us a little bit more about this historic move.

Hi, Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

You know, first ladies have joined their presidential spouses at the microphones before to deliver nationally radio -- nationally delivered radio addresses, but never before has a first lady carried the entire address.

Mrs. Bush will do that today, and the topic: women's rights to the future of a post-Taliban Afghanistan. In addition to the first lady's radio address, the State Department is releasing a new report on the condition, the plight of women under the rule of the harsh Islamic Taliban regime.

Let me go over a few statistics from that State Department report, which CNN has obtained.

In the early 1990s before the Taliban seized power, fully 70 percent of the school teachers in Afghanistan were women, 50 percent of the government workers, and 50 percent of university students also women. Forty percent of Afghanistan's doctors were women.

After the Taliban seized power, however, access to higher education and work was extremely prohibited, and even women were beaten up for laughing out loud. All of this is part of a concentrated administration campaign that will link itself and the British government and other voices to explain to the world exactly how harsh the Taliban has been to women.

Presidential counselor Karen Hughes explained on Friday why that message was so important and why there'll be so many administration voices carrying it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAREN HUGHES, PRESIDENTIAL COUNSELOR: We were asking women throughout the administration, led by our first lady, Laura Bush, to help us speak out and tell this story, not only to the American people but also throughout the world.

So we'll have our women cabinet members, our women ambassadors around the world, we'll have senior women in Congress, women in the administration, as well as men. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld feels very strongly about this, as does President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: Now, the original thrust of this campaign was to intensify world condemnation of the Taliban. But now that the Taliban is in near full retreat in Afghanistan, there's a new goal, and that is to put the issue of women's rights front and center as the international community begins to mold a new post-Taliban government in Kabul -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Major Garrett, thanks so much.

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