H8554 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE November 28, 2001 Weaver family much health, great hap- Jamila Mujahed has been at her microphone to include women in the delegation has been piness and Godspeed. for some of the city’s most memorable news listened to.’’ events: the toppling of President Najibullah Even if women are present at the Bonn f in 1992 and the march of Islamic holy war- meeting, no one expects the number to come THE FUTURE OF WOMEN LEADERS riors into the capital, and, four years later, close to representing their percentage of the IN AFGHANISTAN the arrival of the Taliban. Afghan population. Because of the large So it seemed only fitting that when the number of men killed in two decades of war, The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taliban fled and the Northern Alliance ar- women make up about 60 percent of Afghani- JEFF MILLER of Florida). Under a pre- rived on Nov. 13, it was Mujahed who brought stan’s 26 million people, according to most vious order of the House, the gentle- Afghans the news on the evening broadcast estimates. woman from California (Ms. of Radio Kabul. ‘‘I think women should have more of a role MILLENDER-MCDONALD) is recognized Now Mujahed has another very public mes- than men,’’ said Faizullah Jalal, a Kabul for 5 minutes. sage, one aimed at U.N. officials and German University professor who has pressed for the diplomats organizing the Afghan political inclusion of academics at the conference. Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Mr. conference scheduled to begin in Germany on ‘‘They have faced a lot of disasters in this Speaker, a number of my colleagues Tuesday: Open the meeting to professional country.’’ rose on the floor to speak to the crit- women like herself, and give women a say in Women have long been treated as second- ical issue of women in Afghanistan and shaping Afghanistan’s future. class citizens in this conservative Muslim their needs during these perilous times. ‘‘This is very unfortunate that they have country, but the Taliban stripped women of As Democratic chair of the Congres- not invited women to join this meeting,’’ she the few rights they did have. After coming to sional Caucus on Women’s Issues, I said. ‘‘No one has experienced such brutality power in 1996, the radical Islamic movement wish to add my voice in support of against women anywhere in the world as prohibited women from working, banned what happened in Afghanistan. I want to go their excellent intervention. girls from attending school and made it ille- and tell everyone the things that happened gal for women to be on the streets without a The Women’s Caucus has been stress- to me and my colleagues these past five male relative and without being covered ing for some time now that, in working years.’’ head-to-toe in the traditional long, flowing out any transitional settlement in Af- The meeting in Bonn is being hailed as a veil known as a burqa. Women caught vio- ghanistan, Afghan women leaders and first step toward ending decades of civil lating the rules—even allowing an ankle to organizations should be at the fore- strife and helping Afghanistan’s warring fac- accidentally show—risked a public lashing front of all discussions. tions form a truly representative and broad- by Taliban guardians of ‘‘vice and virtue.’’ We must recall, in 1977, the women of based government. Representatives of sev- Just before the Taliban took over, 70 per- eral Afghan factions will try to hammer out that country made up 15 percent of the cent of Afghanistan’s teachers, half of its plans for an interim government to replace government workers and 40 percent of its legislators in their legislative body. the Taliban and prevent the country from physicians were women. There were female There is no reason that their represen- descending into anarchy. lawyers, doctors and journalists, and women tation should be less than that today But many Afghans here—not only women, helped staff the foreign relief agencies work- when new and far-reaching decisions on but also professionals, academics and oth- ing here. governance are being made. ers—are chafing at the highly restricted in- Jamila Mujahed, now 36, was among those In light of the fact that so many Af- vitation list. caught up in the Taliban’s reordering of soci- ghan men have been killed over the The Northern Alliance, the armed anti- ety. A journalism graduate of Kabul Univer- Taliban faction that seized control of Kabul past 22 years in war and conflict, Af- sity and a veteran broadcaster, she was and about half the country during the past abruptly told by the Taliban that she could ghan women constitute 60 percent of two weeks, is the only group from inside Af- no longer work because of her sex. the women’s population and should be ghanistan that is attending the Bonn con- ‘‘We were used to being very free women,’’ so represented accordingly. ference. A delegation representing Afghani- she said, describing how she and her col- We must work, therefore, to help re- stan’s former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, leagues in the pre-Taliban world would re- store the women’s level of participa- will be attending from Rome, where he has main at the station until late at night work- tion in the rebirth of Afghanistan. As been in exile since 1973. And two other ing on big stories. ‘‘How do you feel, chang- they strive both inside the country and groups that have held political talks in the ing to a world where you have no freedom? past—the Peshawar Assembly for Peace, outside to contribute toward shaping a These five years caused a lot of psychiatric named after the Pakistani border city, and problems for me.’’ meaningful future, we must dem- the Cyprus group—also will attend. In all, She stayed at home. She wrote poetry. She onstrate our resolve to help those Af- just 30 Afghans will meet to begin mapping said she sometimes took her anger out on ghan women leaders to be involved in out the country’s future. her children, hitting them. When she sought all political and economic negotiations In the view of many left on the outside professional help, she said, doctors told her from the very beginning. looking in, whatever government eventually ‘‘the only medicine they could prescribe was This is why it was distressing to note emerges from the process will be neither rep- going back to your job.’’ the absence of Afghan women’s groups resentative nor broad-based. ‘‘It will be a after facing those hardships, women like less-than-50-percent government,’’ said at the U.N.-sponsored conference held Mjuahed say they deserve a place at the Sariya Parlika, a women’s rights activist. table in forming Afghanistan’s next govern- this past week in Bonn. They should be Excluding female representatives in Bonn, ment. viewed, I believe, as principal actors in she said, ‘‘is a clear human rights violation.’’ Particularly upsetting, to the women and Afghan political negotiations from the ‘‘This is only the gun barrel that is sending others, is that so many Afghan exiles will be outset, not as marginal leaders and representatives,’’ said Said Amin Mujahed, a attending the sessions while so many who players to be brought in to rubber history professor at the Academy of Social stayed in Afghanistan and suffered under stamp decisions. Sciences in Kabul and the husband of Jamila Taliban rule will be excluded. As the Afghan journalist Jamila Mujahed. ‘‘It’s not the scholars or the profes- ‘‘The presence of women from Afghanistan sionals or the other educated people in Af- Mujahed pointed out in an article in is necessary,’’ said Parlika, the activist. ‘‘Af- ghanistan. It’s only the war factions and ghan women from Western countries can just Sunday’s Washington Post, ‘‘This is King Zahir’s people. It can make a govern- tell tales about what a bullet can do. A very unfortunate that they have not ment, but not a broad-based one.’’ woman from inside the country can express invited women to join this meeting. No The United Nations is sensitive to such it with her eyes. She can express it with her one has experienced such brutality criticism but says the makeup of the con- body. She can express with her voice how the against women anywhere in the world ference is for Afghans to decide. war has affected her.’’ as what happened in Afghanistan. I At a recent news conference, U.N. special envoy Francesc Vendrell said, ‘‘This meeting While it was left to the Afghani want to go and tell everyone the things will be as representative as we can make it, groups to decide on participation at that happened to me and my colleagues given the very short notice.’’ When asked the Bonn meeting, the U.N. agreed that these past 5 years.’’ about the participation of women, he said it the women of Afghanistan have a cen- Mr. Speaker, I will submit the entire was up to the invited groups to include tral role to play in putting that coun- article for the RECORD. women as part of their delegations—and not try back together. The future of [From the Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2001] up to the United Nations ‘‘to tell the Af- women in Afghanistan, and ultimately ghans who to invite.’’ N ALKS ON FGHAN UTURE OMEN REN T the stability of any provisional settle- I T A F , W A ’ Today, U.N.