Independent Women's Forum - Research Areas > Speeches

Celebrate International Women's Day!

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:02:00 EST

On March 5, 2008, Halima Karzai was invited to a luncheon at DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute to celebrate International Women's Day. She addressed an audience of 70 students to celebrate women's global achievements and accomplishments, as well as discussing some of the challenges women in the 21^st century still continue to face.

View the video and pictures from IWF event "Securing Afghanistan: The Role of Women."

Remarks of Halima Karzai

Prepared for Delivery

DePaul University's

International Human Rights Law Institute

March 5, 2008

Good afternoon. I am honored to be here with you today and I thank DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute and President Cherif Bassiouni for inviting me to celebrate with you International Women's Day, by reflecting on women's global achievements and contributions and also to examine some of the global challenges women continue to face in the 21^st century . While my work at the Independent Women's Forum is focused on international women's issues, where we believe all issues are women's issues and that human rights ARE women's rights, I will explore issues which I speak of regularly and issues that have been of particular concern to IWF.

Historically women have always been an essential to their families, their societies, and to their nations since the beginning of time. However today, now more than ever, women are being recognized on a local and global level for their achievements. Their contributions are invaluable in both the public and private spheres in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago. Women are and have been contributing from the sciences to the arts, from politics to business, and as mothers and heads of state. They are their nation's reformers. They stand for justice and for the overall empowerment of women and girls, even at the expense of their own personal security. They are the human rights defenders of their nations.

Through my work, travels, and interactions with people of different cultures, faiths, and ethnicities, I have learned how important it is to always listen to different views.

This includes listening to various news outlets, and not only ones that have breaking news is about Britney Spears' latest mental breakdown.

As humans, we may tend to have a view instilled in our mind which will always exclude thoughts contrary to our belief, so when I speak to you about issues today, it's not with the intention to change your mind, but just to have you simply think outside the box and to think creatively about solutions.

A few months ago, an Afghan women from Kandahar province, the most violent province in Afghanistan, was determined to organize a gathering where women took to the streets to hold a prayer for peace. Women not only participated in the peace prayer in Kandahar, but in 6 other provinces in the country. On March 8^th, on International Women's day, let us remember the women of Afghanistan, who will yet again put their lives at risk to stand for peace not only for themselves, but for the men in their lives. They believe only Afghans can stop the violence against other Afghans. They took as their model two ordinary women in Ireland who, in the 1970s, grew angry because Irish were killing Irish. They hope that because their Irish sisters were able to go door to door and convince women to march for peace, their cries for peace can also be heard. Of course we can see this as a significant achievement for Afghan women.

Iraqi women were absent in key decision making roles for over 30 years. In spite of challenges they continue to face, they remain to be more resilient than ever in working for a society that will treat them with equality. Among many other accomplishments, they are making arduous strives to improve their economy, to achieve peace, and towards gaining AND retaining their basic human rights.

Iranian women will again take to the streets on International Women's Day, to peacefully protest the degrading treatment they have been subject to by the Iranian regime. And as they did last year, they will put themselves at the risk of being arrested and brutally beaten to have their voices heard. The regime, who is prosecuting those campaigning for women's rights claims in no other country are women treated better than in Iran. I'm sure this claim falls in line with the fact that there are no homosexuals in Iran. In spite of the threats and backlash Iranian women are facing, they are still advocating to end discriminatory practices against women in Iran.

Although it may be true that we don't hear as much about women's international achievements as we should, I stand before you today to say, we certainly don't hear about the challenges they are silently and continuously facing.

"In this century where man has reached Mars, Afghan women are still striving to establish ourselves as human beings." These are words from a young human rights activist living in Afghanistan, yearning for the international community to hear her pleas not to abandon the women of Afghanistan.

How often do we hear similar pleas from women of other developing nations? Unless they are for politicized reasons, how often do we read or hear about the unnecessary ordeals and hardships women face? Although I can't go into detail about all these challenges, because they are so egregious I will summarize some of the most daunting atrocities women and girls face in the world today.

Women and children are used as weapons to murder themselves and innocent civilians because they are told this is what's right and a path to freedom without even asking "freedom for whom?". In many cases, for example in Afghanistan, handicapped or mentally incapacitated men, women, and children are used as suicide bombers.

In the developing world, domestic violence harms and kills more people than cancer or car accidents. A recent study reported that violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or even war.

Women in developing countries who are involved in peace processes continue to face obstacles and challenges as a result of violence against women, poverty, limited access to education, devastated economies, lack of social structures, and other various forms of discrimination and injustices. Just recently, we were witness to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, whose calls for democracy and change were violently silenced.

Over 130 million women and girls have had their genitalia mutilated. They are convinced it is part of their culture and religion. Female genital mutilation, also called female circumcision is a practice commonly carried out in African countries and parts of Asia and the Middle East. The highest maternal and infant mortality rates are in areas practicing the procedure. In areas where antibiotics are not available, for example in Sudan, 1/3 of the girls undergoing the practice will die. FGM is continued on the basis that it is a "good tradition", a religious requirement, and a necessary rite of passage to womanhood. We have yet to gain knowledge about what our sisters across the world are facing.

Because of poverty, and in many cases tradition and family pressure, children are being married off to men 30 to 40 years their senior. Children are shifted from one life of misery to another and in some countries, half of all girls are married by the age of 18.

If young girls are even given the opportunity to attend school, they tend to be pulled out to soon enter a life of matrimony. They are deprived of their basic rights to education, and because they are so young and married, they face premature pregnancy and run the risk numerous complications, including death. In many developing countries, pregnancy is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls. And those who are fortunate to survive are still vulnerable to HIV, sexual violence and physical exploitation.

In Nicaragua, 16% of girls are married by age 15, and 50% by 18. In the autonomous North Atlantic region, 67% are married by 18. In the Dominican Republic, 11% are married by 15 and 38% by 18.

Such cultural norms lead to a lack of full economic opportunities for women, because they are seen as an unworthy investment and they are devalued.

A 12 year old child bride in Afghanistan, Lila, poured petrol over herself and set herself on fire five months after being married. Luckily she survived. From her hospital bed she whispered that she wanted to kill herself because her 17-year-old husband had constantly beat her.

Self immolation often stems from forced marriages, abusive husbands or in-laws, poverty, shame, ignorance, and little education. Women and girls who immolate themselves are not aware of their rights and feel the only way out of the torture, abuse and unhappiness is through committing suicide through actions like setting fire to themselves or by digesting poison.

According to Medica Mondiale, an international women's rights group, about 85 percent of women who die as a result of their burns perish because they either are not taken to the hospital, or have not been taken fast enough, out of shame. Those who do survive face social exclusion by their communities.

Can you imagine anything worse happening to a woman after she has been subjected to the torture of having her genitalia removed, becoming a bride who hasn't even hit the age of puberty, and then because she is so mentally and physically underdeveloped, she sets herself on fire only to be a disfigured member of a judgmental and unsupportive society who sees her as nothing but an outcast that has brought shame to her family?

Well many women and girls cannot only imagine, but actually become a victim once again -to something worse- this time to an honor killing. Honor killings take place because people think the woman has brought shame to her family by actions she may or may not have taken.

They are called honor killings, but it is no different from a dowry death or a crime of passion all of which have the same dynamic where the woman is killed by a male relative. This crime is carried out by people of all different cultures and religions.

Sadly, it is females in the family-mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters, and cousins- who commonly support the attacks.

Even when laws are created, like for instance in Turkey where honor killings are outlawed, the crime still continues to be carried out. These cultural traditions are deeply imbedded in societies where it will take time and a lot of grassroots work to transform the mentality that it is okay to murder to preserve your honor.

Respected guests, we may feel that these challenges women are facing are far from home, but we are mistaken. The fact of the matter is we may be witness to these crimes against humanity and not even be aware of it. Today, there are more slaves in the world than during any other time in history. Human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery, affects every region of the world. Today, there are over 27 million slaves globally.

I want to share with you a couple of a stories outlined by a student organization at Georgetown University called Students Stopping the Trafficking of People. These stories highlight the extent to which human trafficking occurs, from forced prostitution to forced labor, and to children overpowered to become soldiers.

Sex Trafficking
"Neary grew up in rural Cambodia. Her parents died when she was a child. In an effort to give her a better life, her sister married her off when she was 17. Three months later, her and her husband went to visit a fishing village. Her husband rented a room in what Neary thought was a guest house. But when she woke the next morning, her husband was gone. The owner of the house told her she had been sold by her husband for $300 and that she was in a brothel. For five years, Neary was raped by five to seven men every day. In addition to brutal physical abuse, Neary was infected with HIV and contracted AIDS. The brothel threw her out when she became sick, and she eventually found her way to a local shelter. She died of HIV/AIDS at the age of 23."

Forced Labor
"Serena arrived from the Philippines to work as a housemaid in Saudi Arabia. Upon her arrival, her employer confiscated her passport and, with his wife, began to beat and verbally abuse her. On one occasion, her female employer pushed her down the stairs; another time, her male employer choked her until she passed out. She was not allowed to leave the house. As her passport had been confiscated, she could not flee. Serena was driven to attempt suicide. Once at the hospital, she was able to escape from her captors. She has sought redress through the Saudi court system and is waiting for justice in a shelter."

Child Soldiers
"Michael was 15 when he was kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to serve as a combatant in the Ugandan insurgent force. During his forced service in the LRA, he was made to kill a boy who had tried to escape. He also watched another boy being hacked to death because he did not alert the guards when his friend successfully escaped"

Although human trafficking is not something we hear of often, victims are trafficked right here - to the United States. I would like to echo a powerful story Laura Leederer from the State Department once shared with Massachusetts legislatures, in an effort to pass a state law to end this form of modern day slavery.

So this is the story of Rosa, who was trafficked from Mexico to the United States. She was 13 and waiting tables in a restaurant in a small village near Vera Cruz, Mexico. She was approached by an acquaintance of her family who told her, "You know you can make ten times more money in the U.S. doing what you're doing here. I know someone who can find you a job in Texas-you can send money home to your family, you can have your own life. If you don't like the job we'll get you a new one. If you're homesick, we'll bring you back across the border. You can't lose."

Rosa was young and hopeful. She asked her parents if she could go but they forbid her. But she wanted a better life than what she had, and so, against her parents and friends' warnings, she accepted the offer. She was told to go to the main hotel in town on Friday evening.

When she got there, a car was waiting, with several other young girls in it from other neighboring villages. They drove into the desert as far as they could toward the U.S. border. There, they met up dozens more young women and girls from other towns in Mexico.

On the ground were backpacks and water bottles. They were told to put the backpacks on their backs, and then they began to walk. They walked four days and four nights - through the desert, across the Rio Grande, and into Brownsville, Texas, where they were picked up by a white van and driven across Texas, across Louisiana, and into rural Florida. They were dropped off in a rural town, in front a series of trailers. They were ordered out and the van drove away.

A big, burly looking man came out and told them, "I've just purchased you. Now you work for me." A little later an older woman took them to one of the trailers. She told Rosa that she was in a brothel and that she would have to buy her freedom by sexually servicing men.

Rosa was young. She was a virgin. She was Catholic. She knew what the woman was telling her was bad-a sin. She began to cry and begged to be taken to a restaurant to work. But she was told, "There are no restaurant jobs-only this." When she refused to do what they said, the burly man brought out three other men who took her into one of the trailers and gang-raped her to induct her into the "business." Then they locked her in the trailer without food and water until she succumbed.

For the next six months she was a prisoner. She was forced to service 10 or more men a day. On the weekends it was as many as 20-30 men. The men bought a ticket, which was a condom, for $20. But they often didn't use it.

Twice Rosa was impregnated and twice forced to have an abortion. And twice forced back into the brothel the next day. She was beaten if she refused a customer's demands. She was guarded twenty-four hours a day, even when she went to the bathroom. She was passed around at private parties that the trafficking ring held in the evenings and on weekends.

Once she and several others tried to escape. They were caught and pistol-whipped around the head and face in front of the other girls-to deter them all from trying that. Shortly after the second abortion and this beating, Rosa became sick and felt crazy. In order to keep her functioning in the brothel, the traffickers gave her drugs and alcohol to numb her pain.

She was only "rescued" when one of the young women jumped out of a second story window at one of the private parties and ran to a neighbor's house. The neighbor called the local police. The police called the INS and FBI, and a sting operation was set up. Over 40 young women and girls were rescued and 14 traffickers were arrested.

A medical doctor examined Rosa. She had several STDs; she had broken bones that hadn't healed properly from the beatings; she had pelvic inflammatory disease and scar tissue from the forced abortions. She was addicted to drugs and alcohol, was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, including nightmares, flashbacks, depression, and suicidal tendencies. In short, she was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually broken.

To make matters worse, when Rosa was discovered, the U.S. didn't have a trafficking law. Instead of really rescuing Rosa, the police arrested her and the other young women and children, and locked them up in jail along with the traffickers. We simply didn't have a victim-centered approach to trafficking and did not know how to handle the case.

Later Rosa and the other victims were taken from jail to a battered wives shelter. There they were told not to talk about what had really happened to them, but to pretend they were victims of spousal abuse because that was the shelter's mandate. To make matters worse, Rosa wanted to see a priest, but was instead taken to a psychiatrist because that was the medical model this shelter had for addressing violence against women.

80% of those victims are women and girls who are mostly forced into a sex trade. I can go on and give you hundreds of more stories similar to that of Rosa, Neary, Serena, and Michael. There are stories of everyday all American teenagers who fall victim to trafficking by solicitors in the mall who claim they want to recruit the girls for modeling.

According to a report published by the C.I.A., 45,000-50,000 women and children are brought to the United States as slaves every year and the majority of these victims come from Latin American and Southeast Asia. Keep in mind that these are numbers for those who are accounted for. It's still undetermined how many are trafficked WITHIN national borders annually.

Child predators from the U.S. and around the world can travel to Cambodia and easily have arranged for them a night or even a few days with girls as young as 4 and 5.

So what can we do? If we don't have the means to be on the grounds to help I believe the very least we can do is help in raising awareness about these issues. Write about them, speak about them, and involve your communities so that they can care about them. Everyone would love to live in a world where they don't want to think about the horrible things that go on but what makes us better than those who commit the crimes? If we've got the means to think, learn, listen, teach, and take action, we are just as responsible and should feel compassion to at MINIMUM raise awareness about the challenges women continue to face and to look for solutions.

But women shouldn't be the only ones who feel obligated to help their sisters in desperation. The role of men is also very critical as it is men in most of these cases who subject women to the atrocities they face. They often are just as oblivious on the rights of women as women themselves are.

Some of us may take literacy for granted in a world where 800 million illiterate adults exist. Two thirds of them are women because girls are not seen as worthy to have an education, or have no other way of life other than doing domestic chores. And although women produce half of the world's food, they happen to be 70% of the world's poorest people.

In some of these trials women are facing - it's because they are told this is what their religion mandates. But here is where we must think outside of the box. Is it really what their religion says or are these cruel actions being justified by uncivil as well as civil society, particularly the media, as being a religious practice?

The journey towards obtaining equal rights and equal opportunity has never been an easy one, neither for men or women. But because these challenges continue to exist for the majority of women around the world, we must educate ourselves, raise awareness, and take concrete action to change lives for the better.

We must be aware that women and girls are not suffering from a religion of violence, but a CULTURE of violence.

Even then, what can victims do with laws they don't even know exist, or are not enforced?

Many of you will become attorneys, business executives, politicians, leaders of a non-profit organizations, and members of the media. In an ideal world where rule of law has the potential to positively ensure the human rights of its citizenry, including half of its population - women, you must ensure that these laws not only exist on paper, but they are put into practice. What will your role be to hold those who are accountable for human rights violations and how can you make a difference to the women and girls most in need?

We must not only create solutions to empower women, but we must hold human rights violators accountable, whether they be the village elder who performs a female circumcision, a husband who orders the death of his wife for wanting a divorce, the woman who is selling sex slaves in her home, or the parliamentarian who creates amnesty for war criminals.

How can we expect victims to stand for their rights when their perpetrators roam freely and with impunity?

Enforcing human rights law and putting them into practice is an enormous challenge. However, on a day when there is much information and so many resources at our fingertips, and people like yourselves to fight for such causes, there is no excuse for allowing human rights violations against women and girls to continue as they have on this level. Please remember how hard women themselves all over the world have fought and even died for their rights. Please join them in celebrating their victories.

I hope my being here with you today was successful in helping you to think outside of the box and that you are able to understand how to change rhetoric into action. Thank you.

Remarks of Michelle D. Bernard Before the Independence Institute Luncheon

info@iwf.org (Michelle D. Bernard) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST

Thank you for that generous introduction, Cappy Shopneck, Independence Institute Board of Directors Chairman, and I thank you so much for inviting me here today. I am truly honored to be here. I would also like to thank Debbie Donner for introducing me to the Independence Institute. Finally, I would like to thank Jon Caldara, President of this fine organization, Independence Institute, for inviting me to join you this afternoon.

Dear Ladies and Gentleman: It is a pleasure to be here today with you.

Established upon the "eternal truths" of our nation's Declaration of Independence, one of the greatest and most monumental documents ever written, the Independence Institute is a great organization that is working hard to restore individual freedom in Colorado and throughout the nation.

I AM especially happy to be here with the Independence Institute because we share a common goal, as you can tell from the name of the organization of which I am president: the Independent Women's Forum.

As the Declaration of Independence so poignantly states, at the Independent Women's Forum, we believe that -- all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. At the Independent Women's Forum, we are doing our best to make sure that these rights are, and remain, secure. We are home to the next wave of the most prestigious women scholars committed to these ideals and I hope that each of you will consider joining and becoming a part of the IWF family.

IWF is a non-partisan, non-profit 501 (c) (3) educational institution. We do not advocate or oppose legislation, although we do have members. As an educational institution, we are dedicated to advancing and supporting economic and political freedom at home and abroad. Our mission is to foster a greater respect for limited government, free markets, equality under the law, property rights, strong families, and a powerful and effective national defense and foreign policy. So, you see, we have much in common with the Independence Institute.

At IWF, our mantra is "all issues are women's issues". Frequently, when one hears the phrase women's issues, one immediately thinks about abortion, and the discussion stops there. IWF is the antidote to this phenomenon because we don't discuss abortion- ever. There are lots of other organizations out there that do so. Also, there is no earthly reason whatsoever for women's issues to revolve around our ovaries. Like I said, all issues are women's issues.

We believe that health care, Social Security, education, our culture--or what's left of it, taxes, free trade, terrorism and national security are all women's issues. Frequently, because of the way the media sometimes portrays women's issues, women get left out of the policy discussions that affect our everyday lives. IWF tries to be a part of all of these policy debates because each and every one of them is a "women's issue." When you think about it, it's pretty clear: "Every issue affects women, our freedom, our well-being, and our opportunities."

There are many, many women's organizations today that are a voice for women on a variety of political and policy issues. Some, like the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority, or even the National Council of Women's Organizations, are more advocacy-type organizations than IWF.

If I had to say what differentiates IWF from these organizations, I would say that it is our philosophy of how best to achieve equality among men and women. It is an argument, or philosophical difference in opinion, over feminism. We believe that certain questions are at the crux of the differences between IWF and some of these other organizations.Questions like:

First, what does it mean to be a feminist?

Second, how should we go about achieving equality between the sexes?

Third, what is the proper role of government in our lives?

Are women more free and more sovereign if we limit the role of government in our lives or if we increase the power of government over our lives?

How do we, as a nation, strike the right balance?

The answers to these questions demonstrate the difference between IWF and some of the organizations I mentioned.

At IWF, we believe that, in a perfect society, women would neither be oppressed by nor receive any special privileges under the law simply because we are women. The police and court systems would not treat violence against women any differently from violence against any other human being. The law would not extend economic privileges to women or men just because of their sex. WE DO NOT LIVE IN THAT SOCIETY YET, SO THE QUESTION IS HOW DO WE GET THERE?

At IWF, our brand of feminism holds that women and men are human beings whose commonalities far outweigh our differences. We believe that men and women share the same political interests. We believe that free markets liberate women and that, although technology can be used for harmful purposes, it tends to be beneficial because it empowers us as individuals.

Modern feminism actually has roots in a historic movement for individual rights. In the 1830s, the abolitionists, then considered a radical anti-slavery movement, declared that every human being had a natural right over his or her person that no one may violate. It declared that all human beings had a natural, inalienable right to be free. It is my opinion that abolitionism provided the context from which American feminism originally emerged. Abolitionism was a movement for human rights, NOT male rights.

Women were encouraged to speak to mixed audiences of women and men. However, not all anti-slavery advocates embraced women's rights, and women felt it. Organized feminism was born when women started to ask whether they were only advocating for the rights of male slaves.

In 1840, during the World Anti-Slavery Conference held in London, British abolitionists protested the inclusion of American women as delegates to the convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others were refused seats at the convention and had to sit apart from the proceedings. When they came home, Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Stanton began planning the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention specifically to discuss the promotion of women's rights.

This first wave of feminism supported the values of respect, dignity, and opportunity for the individual.

The 1920s saw women like Suzanne LaFollette, whose book Concerning Women defended free markets and laissez-faire capitalism and opposed state intrusion into women's lives through mechanisms like the minimum wage and protective labor laws.� She championed the liberating force of technology and argued that the industrial revolution had done more than anything else to allow women to enjoy new freedoms.

The second wave of feminism, the feminism of the '60s and '70s, lost the vision of that free-market path to equality and sought the promise of protection in government paternalism. Second-wave feminism made the mistake of relying on the power of government instead of on the power of the individual.

Another failure of second-wave feminism was its refusal to recognize that there are in fact differences between men and women. These differences do not in any way mean that women are unequal to men. It's simply a biological fact--we are different. The failure to recognize this is what is hurting our relationships, our children, and our jobs.

IWF represents the third wave of feminism, the feminism of the 21st century, the feminism that recognizes that men and women are equal, but not the same, the feminism that recognizes that the free market is the playing field that fosters opportunity for everyone.

Women have made tremendous progress since the days when we were, ironically, rejected at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. Next month, IWF is releasing a book titled Women's Progress, How Women are Wealthier, Healthier, and More Independent Than Ever Before. It tells the tale of an increasingly educated pool of women entering the workforce and succeeding in their chosen professions. Women today enjoy new work options, making it easier for them to balance their desires both to have fulfilling careers and to provide hands-on care to family members.

At the Independent Women's Forum, we believe that economic freedom, not paternalistic government, is the key to this progress and success.

That's why every issue is a women's issue. At the heart of every political issue lies the question: Do we expand or limit government control?

The free market, with minimal government control, is the best economic system for fostering prosperity and well-being. Because the free market keeps wages high and prices low, workers can purchase more goods and services and better provide for their families. The free market also drives the creation of new technology that reduces the amount of time required for domestic chores, changes the types of jobs that are available, and allows for greater flexibility in work arrangements. And the free market allows workers and employers room to negotiate work arrangements that suit the needs of both.

Well-being cannot be measured simply in terms of the goods and services we can purchase. It is also measured in how much time people have available to do the things they love, with the people they love. In other words, hours not spent on the job are important to quality of life. The prosperity of the free market gives workers the opportunity to earn enough to provide for themselves and their families, and it also allows them the flexibility to enjoy leisure time with their loved ones. It's the win-win of the free market: financial prosperity and the family time to enjoy it.

To be most effective in creating opportunity and prosperity, market freedom must be worldwide. Without the freedom to trade around the globe, the market is not truly free. The growth that comes from a free economy is stunted by economic isolationism.

Let's talk about some specific examples. One of the few specific items in the Democrats' agenda for 2007 is a minimum wage increase. Like most Americans who don't look closely at this policy, many women see it as economic common sense. The reality, as with all market interventions, is that a higher mandated wage comes with hidden costs like unemployment and higher consumer prices. Employers forced to increase wages must find compensating ways to cut costs or to increase revenue. This may mean reducing other salaries, laying off employees, hiring fewer workers, or raising prices on consumers. The minimum wage doesn't promote prosperity; the free market does.

Another area where well-meaning but misguided people seek to replace the power of the market with the power of government is health care. As everyone knows, our health care system is in need of reform. This is especially important for women, who live and rely on medical treatment longer. But government control of health care invariably means lower quality and less patient choice. The system must be reformed in a way that restores--not further diminishes--the power of the free market to nurture the development and delivery of high-quality, affordable treatments.

Social Security is another example of the harm of government intervention. If a woman is married, stays at home, and takes care of her kids, and, nine years later, her husband leaves her for a woman he met on a business trip, she has put nothing into the Social Security system during those nine years when she was a stay-at-home mom; if her ex-husband passes away, she is not entitled to a portion of his benefits because they were not married for 10 years. Women rely on Social Security income more than men do for retirement income. In the next 75 years, Social Security will face a $4 trillion shortfall. Women will be disproportionately affected by this shortfall. That's why Social Security reform that expands individual freedom to save for the future is so important for women.

Taxes represent one of the biggest financial burdens on families. And that means that taxes have a major impact on the choices that women can make, whether to work outside the home, either full- or part-time, whether to start a home-based business, or whether to focus exclusively on child-rearing.

Democrats have derided the Bush tax cuts as solely rewarding the rich. But if the Bush tax cuts are reversed, middle-class families will learn how much these tax laws have benefited them. In four years, the child tax credit will be cut in half; the marriage penalty will soar, and the bottom income tax bracket will increase by half from 10 percent to 15 percent. Middle-class families may be surprised to discover that the Democrats' consider them rich when their taxes skyrocket.

The availability of quality education for our children is another factor that affects women and the choices we can make, and, as usual, the best solution is the one that expands freedom and consumer choice. If their taxes are not supporting satisfactory public schools, families have a few choices: They can move to communities that offer better educational opportunities; they can put their kids in private school; they can home school. All these decisions affect mothers' lives. Moving might mean greater distance from supportive extended family; private school might mean that the mother has to work for wages; on the other hand, home schooling probably means that she can't work outside the home.

That's one reason why school choice is so important for women and their families. School choice affords families more flexibility and expands consumer power in education. School choice programs improve student outcomes and increase parental satisfaction with their children's education. Too many middle-class families struggle to make ends meet while providing solid education, consistent with their values, for their children. School choice is part of the solution to this problem.

Women are poorly served in higher education as well. Students who make the mistake of enrolling in women's studies classes are conditioned to reject "traditional forms of inquiry, concepts, and explanatory systems" in favor of "contracts of self-grading, diaries and journals, even meditation or ritual." By teaching women to reject the rigors of critical thinking, women's studies classes weaken their ability to succeed. Radical feminist ideas, presented not just in women's studies classes but even in core requirements like mandatory English classes, and reinforced by campus "resource centers" for women and other liberal student organizations, give students a distorted perspective. Many young women leave college with an unhealthy view of marriage and misguided ideas about what it takes to succeed in the workplace. Freshman sitting through days of orientation are presented with grossly inaccurate rape statistics--a scare tactic employed by radical feminists to present men as the enemy and women as their victims.

Still other students find their favorite male sports teams missing-falling victim to the well-meaning but misinterpreted Title IX, which too often is used to take opportunities away from men instead of providing new opportunities for women.

Universities are the fertile fields where the damaging seeds of political correctness are sown. Teaching PC attitudes threatens the values that support republican government�respect for the individual, personal freedom and responsibility�and that are the foundation for success and well-being for both men and women.

It's ironic that American values are so denigrated on college campuses at a time when those values have done so much to liberate women around the world.� In addition to the vital domestic issues I�ve been talking about, the Independent Women�s Forum is significantly involved in national security and terrorism. That's because these crucial issues have a profound impact around the globe on women and their rights.

Women often suffer the first and the hardest from war, conflict, and economic upheaval. They suffered tremendously under the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Despite years of degradation under these regimes, both Afghan and Iraqi women have emerged as participants in civil and public life as their countries embarked on the path to democratization. This wouldn't have happened without the influence of the American values of individual freedom and the dignity of the human person.

But much more work remains for these women. Despite their sizeable representation in government, Iraqi and Afghan women still face considerable challenges. Political instability, lack of security, and discriminatory social and religious mores continue to prevent women from being full participants in the political process. But the future is on their side. Education and employment opportunities for women will ensure that future generations of qualified women assume leadership positions in the private and public sectors.

These gains by Middle Eastern women, following the light of republican principles and aided by the generosity of the United States and our allies, reflect the worldwide reality that women are soaring. There have been female heads of state in Liberia (Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf), Jamaica (Portia Simpson Miller), Chile (Michelle Bachelet), India (Indira Gandhi), Great Britain (Margaret Thatcher), Dominca, Iceland, Norway, Pakistan (Benazir Bhutto)--the list goes on and on.

But, at the same time, women and girls remain the most vulnerable in many parts of the world. While we struggle for a more free market in the United States and elsewhere, women and girls are the commodities traded on the black market in some of the poorest places in the world. Human trafficking and forced labor leaves millions enslaved in brothels, dead from HIV, or trapped in debt bondage.Trafficking in human beings is the contemporary slave trade. The U.S. government estimates that more than 800,000 people are trafficked annually. 80 percent of these human beings are female, and 50 percent are children. The women's movement was born of the movement to abolish slavery in the United States; today women are still enslaved in other parts of the world. It is the belief in the dignity of the individual that sparked the abolition movement in the United States and led to the women's rights movement, and it is that belief that will eventually liberate the women and girls who even today are held in the worst kind of human bondage.

Foreign policy is a women's issue. And the solution for these women is the same as the solution for women in the United States: economic and political freedom and respect for individual rights.

The future has never looked brighter for women at home or abroad. But reaching the promise of that future will continue to require hard work and commitment to the principles that the Independence Institute and the Independent Women's Forum stand for, the principles that the first wave of feminism stood for, the principles that the third wave of feminism is recovering.

The way to help women around the globe is the same as the way to help women here in the United States: "expand individual liberty and economic freedom." History has shown, time and again, that personal and economic freedom pave the path to prosperity and well-being.

These are the things that the Independence Institute stands for, and that's why it's such a pleasure to work with you and to be here with you today. Thank you.

The Independence Institute is established upon the eternal truths of the Declaration of Independence. Founded in 1985, the Independence Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit public policy research organization dedicated to providing timely information to concerned citizens, government officials, and public opinion leaders.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepts IWF's Woman of Valor Award

Sun, 14 May 2006 00:00:00 EDT

On May 10, 2006, Secretary of State, Dr.Condoleezza Rice accepted the IWF 2006 Woman of Valor Award. Below are her remarks:

SECRETARY RICE:Well, thank you very much. I cannot thank you enough for this tremendous honor. I want to thank all involved with it and all of you for coming. That was quite an extraordinary little film. I have to get that and show it to my family. They'll like it. (Laughter.)

I want to thank Ted Olson for that kind introduction as well as Jean Johnson Phillips, my good friend who was so involved in putting this together. I know what a force Jean is and I can see that Jean did a terrific job. Thank you for that.

The Independent Women's Forum is stronger than ever today and much of its success is due to the inspired leadership of my dinner partners, Heather Higgins and Michelle Bernard. I can't believe that Michelle just had kids. Thanks so much for coming and thanks so much for your leadership of this great organization.

This is an organization that is promoting individual responsibility and economic liberty and democracy and it's making a true difference in the lives of women around the world, especially the women in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. And I want to acknowledge the work that this organization has done on Iraq, where the Iraqi Women's Educational Institute, founded just two years ago, has grown into a hopeful force for women's inclusion in the new Iraq. I thank you all for this important work in these exciting times.

There are members of Congress here and distinguished guests and good friends, many familiar faces, thank you for joining us tonight. I'm deeply honored to receive this year's Woman of Valor Award and this honor is all the more meaningful to me personally because it carries with it the name and the memory of Barbara Olson, who was a beloved friend to so many of us: Barbara's loss was not only felt personally by Ted, though of course it was felt most expressly by Ted, but widely by those who knew her charm and her intelligence and her grace.

The attacks of September 11th robbed us of much more than just our sense of security, they robbed us of many of our fellow citizes, people who were contributing to this country, people who were the very definition of patriot, people like Barbara who were making a valuable contribution to our society.

America has honored those who were lost by moving forward with purpose and with valor. From a day of terror, I think that this country has indeed summoned a vision of hope and President Bush has forged a foreign policy that rejects the false dichotomy of ideals and interests and recognizes that security is only achieved when people, especially those on the margins of society, gain freedom and justice and opportunity within their countries and when democracy is on the march.

We understand, of course, that different peoples will build democracies that reflect their own cultures, of course they will. They'll build democracies that reflect their own traditions and their own experiences, just as we in America did. America is not trying to impose democracy. Indeed, you don't have to impose democracy; you have to impose tyranny. Democracy lives and breathes, liberty lives and breathes, in the heart of every human being. (Applause.)

President Bush has called these aspirations the non-negotiable demands of human dignity and he has defined them as the rule of law and limits on state power, free speech and tolerance of difference, freedom of worship, equal justice and property rights and finally, but not last, respect for women. It is that last point that I'd like to speak to tonight here in the presence of this great organization that is doing so much to promote the rights of women.

When we talk about respect for women, we are referring to a moral truth. Women are free by nature, equal in dignity and entitled the same rights, the same protections and the same opportunities as men. This is a standard that, quite frankly, we in the United States have fallen short of in our history. It took our country 130 years before we interpreted the phrase "All men are created equal," flexibly enough to let ladies vote.

We Americans are, to be sure, an imperfect people, but we are fortunate to be guided by ideals that summon us to become even nobler and indeed to pursue our perfect union. Those same ideals lead America into the world to combat the dehumanization of women in all its forums, especially the international evil of human trafficking, a modern form of slavery for millions of women.

I know it sounds impossible, slavery in the 21st century, but it's very real. And the stories of young girls preyed upon and smuggled as freight, beaten and bought and sold for sex are stories that are tragic enough to break even the hardest of hearts. And under President Bush's leadership, the United States is leading a new abolitionist movement to eradicate human trafficking worldwide. (Applause.)

In a few weeks, I'm going to release our annual Department of State Report on Human Trafficking and that report probes even the darkest places, calling to account any country, friend or foe, that is not doing enough to combat human trafficking. Though many complain, the power of shame has stirred many to action and sparked unprecedented reforms. Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling and we will never subjugate it to the narrow demands of the day.

This call of conscience also leads us to help the survivors of the genocide in Darfur, many of whom are women. I have visited Darfur. I have spoken with the women in the Abu Shouk refugee camp. They've told me their personal stories of rape, of beatings and of other unspeakable horrors that no human being should have to endure. Many of these women are widows charged with raising their children by themselves, and it is the fate of Darfur's children that moves us most because no boy or girl should live a life in a refugee camp.

The United States is doing more than any nation to help the mothers of Darfur build lives of hope for their children. We provide nearly all the food that now sustains the people of Darfur and we are offering care and counseling to many women who have survived violence and rape. The signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement last week now offers a hope for peace.

Yesterday in New York -- I think it was yesterday -- (laughter) -- I addressed the Security Council and urged them to get UN peacekeepers into Darfur to help implement this agreement. We have a momentous opportunity to bring real peace to the men and women of Darfur and we will not let this pass.

Whether it is assistance to women in Darfur or the fight against human trafficking, the United States champions respect for women because it is morally right. But we also recognize that respect for women is a prerequisite for success of countries in the modern world. In the dynamic 21st century no society can expect to flourish with half its people sitting on the sidelines, with no opportunity to develop their talents, to contribute to their economy or to play an equal part in the lives of their nations.

Last year a group of Kuwaiti suffragettes sent me a T-shirt and it makes that point very well. It says, "Half a democracy is not a democracy." That was the slogan that the women of Kuwait used to demand and to win their right to vote. (Applause.)

In all my travels as Secretary, I've had the opportunity to meet women around the world who are leading in fields of human endeavor. Two that I've met recently are literally leading their nations, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the new President of Liberia, the first woman head of state in African history. I was honored to attend both of their inaugurations this year. They are empowering their countries, not just the women of their countries.

And tonight, I would like to talk about some names that perhaps you do not know as well, who are also empowering their countries. In Mexico, I met with women entrepreneurs who are transforming their businesses with U.S.-backed loans. One of these women is a seamstress, named Maria Theresa Rojas.

In years, Maria Theresa could not find a bank to loan her money. She wanted to do more than stitch school uniforms. All that recently changed. As a part of a U.S.-led effort to triple the amount of credit available to small and medium-size businesses, Maria Theresa finally got the loan she needed. And she's investing in new technology and expanding her business and making nicer clothing for profit. This will create jobs in the Mexican economy and make life better for Maria and her family and her village.

In Afghanistan, I met the young players of a girls' soccer team. It was quite a striking contrast from the Afghanistan that just four years ago -- in which four years ago the Taliban turned soccer stadiums given to them by the international community into killing fields and condemned women to death for learning to read.

You know, when they want to suppress people, they always go after the right to read. Slaves were not allowed to read, because if you can read, you know what your horizons are. And so that women in Afghanistan are now being taught to read openly and supported by their government is an amazing fact and shows that Afghanistan is progressing. (Applause.)

Finally, in Iraq, I had the opportunity at the end of last year to meet women political leaders who are active in a group called Ahd al-Iraq, or fittingly, Iraq's future. These women have seized freedom's opportunities and created the first issue-based organization in Iraqi history. They are working to ensure equal rights and equal opportunity for all Iraqis, men and women. The Iraqi people understand the role that women can and must play in their country's future. Iraq's democratic constitution which Iraqis freely wrote and ratified last year, accords women respect and equal rights. The challenge now for the Iraqi people is to build institutions that can protect those rights and make their new democracy effective. At this crucial time in Iraq's history, it is important that there are also courageous Iraqi women who raise their voices for tolerance and for moderation. And I want to thank the Independent Women's Forum for helping them do that. (Applause.)

When I meet women like Maria Theresa or Afghan soccer girls or the women of Ahd al-Iraq, or for that matter when I see Kuwaiti women gain the right to vote or when a country like Morocco sets an example for its entire region by passing landmark reforms of family law, as it did recently, granting women basic legal rights like the ability to divorce and inherit property.

When I see these kinds of events and meet these kinds of women, I believe we are witnessing something very extraordinary indeed: the unfolding of moral progress. We must not be reluctant to speak of moral progress. I would do so in this way. Progress is humankind's ability to view more and more of our differences, whether of race or religion or ethnicity or agenda, not as a license to kill or as a cause for repression, but as a source of strength. Progress never unfolds in a determined way or on its own accord. It requires human agency, always and everywhere dedicated individuals who are committed to helping others, men and women alike, to secure the basic human rights that define our common human nature.

And it requires something else. It requires optimism and it requires a sense of historical perspective. I know that there are times when we view on our television screens the violence in Iraq or in Afghanistan, or when we read the reports of the trafficking in women or of the camps in Darfur, that it must seem that this world is making no progress at all. But when I have those moments, I think back on other historical times when it must have seemed quite impossible to imagine human progress.

I spent my summer reading the biographies of America's Founding Fathers. They, of course, were quite fortunate, most of them, to have founding mothers alongside them, but of course the biographies have been written mostly of Jefferson and Adams and Hamilton and Washington. And when you read those biographies, you think that there was no earthly reason that the United States of America should ever have come into being. From Washington's failure after failure after failure as a military commander; to the tremendous rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton that led Jefferson, thinking Washington too influenced by Hamilton, to spread rumors that Washington was indeed senile -- (laughter); to the fact that our Founding Fathers, trying to create a perfect union for We the People, couldn't quite find a way to deal with slavery. And so instead, they left my ancestors to be three-fifths of a man.

But some hundred plus years later, I stand before you as a descendent of those people who were three-fifths of a man and I ask, "Would anybody have thought it possible?" (Applause.) Now, perhaps in some number of years, we will think it just inevitable. Time and time again, historical events -- our own Civil War, World War II, the end of Communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the freedom of Eastern Europe -- seemed like impossible dreams. A day when France and Germany would never fight again seemed like an impossible dream. A democratic Japan, a democratic Korea, seemed like impossible dreams. And now, we take them for granted; we think of them as inevitable.

I do believe that with enough moral courage, with enough optimism and with enough human agency by people like those who make up the Independent Women's Forum that there will come a day when we will look back on Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and troubled spots of the world, and we will ask, "Who could have ever doubted that liberal democracy would take hold there?" Indeed, what sometimes today might seem impossible will seem quite inevitable. Thank you very much. (Applause.)