Author: Kelly Wallace
Publication: CNN Washington
Date: November 15, 2001
The White House will kick-off a
campaign Friday to highlight the Taliban's treatment of women, CNN has
learned, including a radio address Saturday by Laura Bush -- the first
time a first lady has delivered the entire weekly presidential radio address.
Her address, to be taped from the
first family's Crawford, Texas, ranch, will stress that "brutal oppression"
of women represents the Taliban's and al Qaeda's "vision of government
for the world," said a senior administration official.
The first lady is also expected
to point out that other Muslim countries condemn the Taliban's degradation
of women and give women important freedoms, the official said.
Mrs. Bush believes in the "importance
of educating the American public about the lives these women have had to
lead," said another senior official close to the first lady. It is an "issue
that resonates with the first lady, especially as the mother of two daughters."
White House officials say that even
though the Taliban appear to be on the run, they believe it is "more important
than ever" to get the message out about the regime's treatment of women
to influence a post-Taliban Afghanistan.
"Afghan women had important freedoms
before the Taliban," said Jim Wilkinson, White House deputy communications
director. "The Taliban took these freedoms away, and by highlighting the
oppression of the Afghan women now it makes it more likely that these women
will win important freedoms under the new government."
The campaign begins Friday when
Mary Matalin, counselor to Vice President Cheney, and Paula Dobriansky,
Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, will take part in a conference
call with bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers and the female members
of Bush's cabinet, a senior official said. The public campaign gets under
way Saturday with the first lady's radio address and the release of a new
State Department report documenting the rights and freedoms Afghan women
had before the Taliban took power, and how these rights and freedoms were
"systemically removed" once the Taliban took control, a senior official
said.
The president, the vice president
and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are also expected to participate
in events, and Cherie Blair, wife of the British prime minister, is expected
to deliver a speech in London next week. The administration is also reaching
out to Mavis Leno, wife of comedian Jay Leno, who, for the past several
years has been trying to focus the world's attention on the plight of Afghan
women.
President Bush gave a preview of
what his message will be during a question-and-answer session with high
school students at Crawford High School in Texas Thursday, his final public
U.S. appearance with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When asked how he thinks the fall
of the Taliban government will affect women's rights, the president said,
"There's no question the Taliban is the most repressive, backward group
of people we have seen on the face of the Earth in a long period of time,
including ... how they treat women."
On Monday, Secretary of State Colin
Powell will drop by briefings delivered by Dobriansky to male and female
Muslim leaders and foreign policy experts. Also Monday, Torie Clark, Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, will brief women serving as chief
executive officers of the country's leading corporations. Tuesday, Dobriansky
and Karen Hughes, the president's counselor, will participate in a conference
call with women editors and publishers.
The administration's 24-hour war
room, called the "Coalition Information Center," which is linked to offices
in London and Islamabad, is overseeing the campaign. Cheney dropped by
a strategic meeting about the campaign Thursday, a senior official said.
The center also sent a cable to all U.S. embassies in central Asia urging
them to "communicate the message about the Taliban's oppression," said
the official.
In the days ahead, the administration
is also expected to focus on the Taliban's and al Qaeda's involvement in
drug trafficking.
"I don't know if you know this or
not," Bush said during his high school appearance," but the Taliban government
and al Qaeda ... use heroin trafficking in order to fund their murder,"
he told the students. "And one of our objectives is to make sure that Afghanistan
is never used for that purpose again."
