Women and the Transition to Democracy: Iraq, Afghanistan, Beyond
Paula J. Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
Remarks at the Heritage Foundation
Washington, DC
April 11, 2003
Thank you, Lisa, for that kind introduction. I d like to thank Becky Norton Dunlop of the Heritage Foundation and
Michele Easton of the Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute for inviting me to speak with you today about the U.S.
Government s approach to the role women can play in transitions to democracy. I am delighted to recognize someone whom
many of you already know: Charlie Ponticelli. Charlie will play a crucial role on this vital issue, as the new Senior
Coordinator for International Women s Issues, working directly with me. Both of us look forward to continuing a very
productive relationship with you and other key groups who have important contributions to make to our policy dialogue. I
d like to also recognize Cindi Williams from the White House, Office of Public Liaison, who has been an outspoken
advocate on behalf of women.
The main examples of democratic transitions that I intend to discuss with you today, as the title of my talk suggests,
are both very timely ones, though they are also quite different: Iraq and Afghanistan. I know these two countries have
been on the minds of many Americans during the past 18 months.
Let me say at the outset that the broad principles underlying our approach to democratic transitions are truly global
in scope. As President Bush said in his first State of the Union Address: America will always stand firm for the
non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the power of the state; respect for women; private
property; free speech; equal justice; and religious tolerance. These values are a vital part of our interaction with the
whole world -- and their scope includes both women and men, always and everywhere. Indeed, as the President delivered
those words, one of his invited guests of honor in the Chamber was the first Minister of Woman s Affairs in liberated
Afghanistan, Dr. Sima Samar.
Now, think about the significance of placing respect for women on this list. So often, a subset of issues is labeled as
women s issues , when at root, all issues are women s issues -- from the fight against terrorism and religious extremism
that will make women and their families safer, to health, to education, to financial opportunity. Ensuring women s
rights benefits not only individuals and their families, it also strengthens democracy, bolsters prosperity, enhances
stability, and encourages tolerance. It thereby helps every society realize its full potential, which is an overarching
goal of our own national security strategy. And women s rights are at the core of building a civil, law-abiding society;
a prerequisite for true democracies. I think Secretary Powell summed it up best when he said, on International Women s
Day last year, that women s issues affect not only women; they have profound implications for all humankind. And that
helps explain why this month s State Department magazine features a signed message from the Secretary whose title tells
it all: Women s Issues Are Integral to Our Foreign Policy.
That leads me directly to some comments about Iraq. As President Bush said just a few weeks ago, we have fought this
war both to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and to free the Iraqi people from the clutches of a brutal
dictator -- and that includes Iraqi women and children as well as men. We are committed to help the Iraqi people
transition rapidly to a sovereign, representative form of government that respects human rights, rejects terrorism, and
maintains Iraq s territorial integrity without threatening its neighbors. We are determined to achieve our objectives,
and we have clearly made significant progress.
In introducing a group from the organization Women for a Free Iraq a month ago, I said that we are respectful of
nations that differ from our own. At the same time, we believe that democracy and human rights are not just for some
people but for all people. They are universal principles that every man, woman, and child is entitled to. We want to
help Iraqis take back their country after decades of tyranny and build foundations of a democratic society, a society
based on Iraqi traditions and culture and founded on the universal principles of freedom and liberty. The women of Iraq
have a critical role to play in the future revival of their society. They bring skills and knowledge that will be vital
to restoring Iraq to its rightful place in the region and in the world. However, the U.S. will not dictate what the
future Iraqi Government will look like. Those decisions are for the Iraqi people to make.
Until just now, Saddam s regime brutalized all Iraqis. Men died in the hundreds of thousands, in wars of aggression and
internal repression, leaving women and children without husbands or fathers. Men, women, and children were
indiscriminately slaughtered in gas and other deliberate attacks on civilian populations. People were tortured in front
of their families, leaving all scarred for life. That is why we see scenes of jubilation in Basra, Baghdad, and Kirkuk,
as the statues of Saddam are toppled by the people of Iraq. Now they can build a future in which all Iraqis, men and
women, can participate in full.
The Office of International Women s Issues has put together a fact sheet outlining the horrible fate of Iraqi women
under Saddam. You will see that Saddam s regime has used beheading, rape, torture, and legalized murder of women as a
way to punish women and their families, in Iraq and abroad, for speaking out simply about the truth and the horrors of
his regime. Saddam s military, almost incredibly, actually had an official assignment called al-I tida ala sharf al-nisa
; violation of women s honor.
Those women who have nevertheless chosen to speak out have often been forced into exile. And even in the midst of this
war, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Dr. Rice have met some of these free Iraqi women, to discuss the
situation in Iraq and to develop ideas to insure the full participation of Iraqi women in their country s
reconstruction.
I was moved by these women. They told chilling stories of the atrocities they and their families suffered in Saddam s
Iraq. These are the sorts of crimes that this dying regime has continued to commit right to its bitter end. And yet,
despite the terrors that these women recounted, they exhibited the resolve and courage to reclaim their country. Allow
me to quote one of these brave women, Maha Al-Attar, in full:
We are willing to work together and also with the U.S. to establish democracy, she declared. It s not going to be easy.
Nobody has said it s going to be easy. But we don t have any other option but to proceed toward democracy. There is no
other option. And, she continued, there have been many instances in the world where people have started from scratch
with democracy. Germany is one; Japan is one. The U.S. was very influential in helping those countries in establishing
democracy, and I hope it will do the same for us.
The fact is that there is a precedent for such a transformation inside Iraq itself. Here is a recent observation by
Isobel Coleman, director of the Council on Foreign Relations project on U.S. Foreign Policy and Women: In northern Iraq,
she writes, 3.6 million Kurds have carved out an economic and political system under the protection of the U.S. and
British no-fly zone. Kurdish women travel there freely, hold high-level economic and political positions and have been
critical to the region s revival. Several Kurdish women serve as judges, and two regional government ministers are
women. Hotels and restaurants there have flourished, patronized in large part by Iranians who cross the border to enjoy
the freer, no-veil-required environment for women.
These examples of women s participation in the democratic, political, and economic structures of northern Iraq indicate
what is possible for women -- and for men -- in the rest of the country, including other Iraqi men and women who fled
Saddam s terror over the past three decades. More will return to rebuild their country, prepared to take on leadership
roles. President Bush put it very succinctly this week. Squelching any rumors that our victorious coalition might seek
to impose a new leader on Iraq, the President simply said: Forget it From day one, we have said the Iraqi people are
capable of running their own country. And that s precisely what is going to happen.
As events in Iraq unfold, we will continue our efforts to work with Iraqi women and men to ensure their participation
in a free and open Iraq. And there is plenty of work to be done, in every area where we typically support women s
issues: from human rights, to political participation, to economic opportunity, to education. Unfortunately, some people
still believe that totalitarian regimes like Saddam s offer progress on women s rights under a dictator s thumb. To be
sure, most Iraqi women have not been secluded at home, as were women under the rule of the Taliban and some other
backward regimes. Yet in reality, Iraqi women have not fared well at all by world standards, whether in education,
employment, or health care, under the brutal Ba ath regime. Nor, for that matter, of course, have Iraqi men. Iraq was
once a seat of great learning and social progress. But now, according to UNESCO figures, only one-quarter of Iraqi women
can read and write; even the World Bank s figure, while substantially higher, is nevertheless under half. Iraqi men have
fared somewhat better in this respect, but still only a bare majority are literate. Just one out of every five Iraqi
women has found paid employment of any kind.
The children of Iraq have also suffered greatly from Saddam s misrule. Many of their fathers have been needlessly
sacrificed in lawless military adventures, and their entire families have been hostage to the most vicious suppression
of all political or religious freedom. Child mortality rates have been staggeringly high -- as high as 13% by one
recently published estimate -- all because of the perverted priorities of Saddam. He built palaces and poison factories,
while hospitals and other health services languished for lack of attention. We can now help the Iraqi people to change
this inhuman agenda, one that was foisted upon them by an utterly unscrupulous ruling clique.
In contrast, our own abiding concern for the welfare of the Iraqi people has been a key feature of our policy during
this crisis. We have supported contingency planning for the humanitarian needs of innocent civilians trapped by or
fleeing from Saddam s forces. We have helped the UN and other international organizations, like the Red Cross,
preposition staff, food, tents, and emergency supplies. We have helped Iraq s neighbors prepare for a possible influx of
refugees. Even as we were compelled to engage in combat against Saddam s ruthless dictatorship, we have conducted
demining and other operations so that humanitarian assistance can reach the people of Iraq. And we have taken
extraordinary measures to minimize the effects of war on Iraqi civilians and infrastructure. Where unavoidable damage or
human tragedy has occurred, we will do everything humanly possible to heal the wounded and to get essential facilities
and services back into operation as quickly as these emergency circumstances allow.
Today, we are already well into the planning and initial implementation of Iraq s reconstruction. And I don t mean just
bridges and buildings -- I also mean the human needs of education and employment, for Iraqi girls and women as well as
boys and men. For example, we will support Iraqi efforts to prepare school materials that will help teach the country s
youth about tolerance and individual freedoms, rather than the belligerent, totalitarian content that has been standard
in Saddam s textbooks for an entire generation. On the economic front, we are also thinking about how to help Iraqi
women overcome the legacy of dependence on government rations and handouts. To cite just one instance, we hope to invite
a representative group of aspiring Iraqi businesswomen to an NGO-sponsored Arab Women s Summit, planned for Morocco this
coming June. And the Iraqi women I have met lately have shown their gratitude for our support. As one of them, Esra
Naama, put it to the press a few weeks ago, We want to thank President Bush and the troops that are there in the desert
Thank you for helping my people and for going to liberate my country.
Iraq is obviously a huge effort, but it should not obscure -- and will not obstruct -- work we are doing in other
places. When it comes to women s rights, in particular, I can cite the very different example of Afghanistan. Our
commitment to that cause, and to broad humanitarian and reconstruction assistance there, will not change, despite other
events around the world. President Bush has said we are committed to Afghanistan for the long term. And in January, when
I led a high-level delegation to Kabul, the President sent a personal message to President Karzai and to the Afghan
people reaffirming that commitment.
In Afghanistan -- and elsewhere around the globe -- in addition to providing assistance on a national level, we support
and encourage public-private partnerships in a range of humanitarian and economic development ventures. The U.S.-Afghan
Women s Council, inaugurated by Presidents Bush and Karzai at their very first meeting in January 2002, promotes
private-public partnerships between U.S. and Afghan institutions. The Council has mobilized the private sector in the
U.S. to support Afghan women, including a program of computer education and leadership training for women working in
government ministries.
The delegation I took to Kabul this past January, composed of both government officials and private sector
representatives, was in fact for a meeting of this U.S.-Afghan Women s Council, the first to be held inside Afghanistan.
I was gratified that President Bush asked his adviser, Karen Hughes, to join our delegation, indicating the special
importance he continues to attach to this issue. During the visit, I announced that the U.S. Government (USAID) would
contribute $2.5 million in support of the creation of women s resource centers in 14 provinces of Afghanistan, and that
the Council would issue $1 million in grants to support educational programs at these centers. The Council s work is
just one of the ways that the U.S. Government continues to support the full participation of women in the reconstruction
of Afghanistan -- and not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the country.
The situation has changed considerably in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. As you know, one mark of the
Taliban was their refusal to allow girls to go to school. This year, the new Afghan Ministry of Education estimates that
over 5 million children are in school, and 42% of these students are girls. This means over 2 million schoolgirls --
compared to the previous, pre-Taliban all-time Afghan record of just 350,000. USAID is providing over $60 million in a
3-year package to help Afghan education, including school construction, textbook production, and teacher training.
Our work in Afghanistan is far from finished. But we can take some pride in what we have already accomplished there. I
am also pleased that many NGOs have commented on the great value of our Afghan effort. As a statement issued March 14 by
the International Crisis Group put it, The creation of a Ministry of Women s Affairs, significant donor commitment and
the return of women to universities, schools, and government offices heralded a new day for women in Afghanistan There
is little reason to doubt the commitment of the Karzai administration and its international partners to address
discrimination against women and improve their access to civic life.
Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, we are working in other countries around the world to encourage the participation of women
in transitions to a more democratic way of life. Let me conclude with one brief example of this cooperative approach to
encouraging women s political and economic participation.
Last December, Secretary Powell announced the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). In fact, he delivered his
speech right here at the Heritage Foundation. The initiative will provide a framework and funding for the U.S. to work
together with governments and people in the Arab world to expand economic, political, and educational opportunities for
all. An important focus of the initiative is equality of opportunity for women, whether in education or employment,
civil society or political participation. The projects are still in the early stages. The general idea, however, is to
extend to a new part of the world, with appropriate allowances for local cultures and conditions, some of the work that
we continue to pursue successfully in various Asian, African, and Latin American countries. We intend to do this through
a genuine partnership with governments, people, and non-government organizations, including the private sector.
Partnership will be the hallmark of our approach -- and the best guarantee of achieving real results on the ground that
meet the needs of people and their governments.
This will not happen overnight, nor can the United States bear sole responsibility for this global transition to
democracy. But doing our share is an effort well worth our dedication and our perseverance. Ultimately it promises to
fulfill the President s vision, which I know you and most Americans share, of a world in which humanity s most basic
values are respected, so that free individuals -- men and women alike -- can live in free societies that no longer
threaten each other. As we work to find realistic, practical measures that will help translate this bold vision into
reality, we will welcome your suggestions and your support. Thank you.
[End]
Released on April 11, 2003