Cherie Blair condemns Taliban mistreatment of women during rule of Afghanistan

By BETH GARDINER
Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Cherie Blair met with a group of Afghan women Monday and said she was shocked and inspired by their stories of coping with oppression in their native country.

Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, added her voice to that of first lady Laura Bush, who borrowed her husband's weekly radio spot on Saturday to condemn the Taliban's mistreatment of women.

With the Islamic movement – which barred women from holding jobs and girls from going to school – in retreat across Afghanistan, Cherie Blair said it was crucial that a new government respect women's rights.

Her comments were part of a concerted U.S.-British effort to have prominent women call attention to the Taliban's disregard for women's rights.

"I have seen how all communities work more smoothly and productively when women are involved and have a voice," she said after meeting the Afghan women at the Blairs' Downing Street residence.

"The women here today prove that the women of Afghanistan still have a spirit that belies their unfair, downtrodden image," she said. "We need to help them free that spirit and give them their voice back, so they can create the better Afghanistan we all want to see."

Cherie Blair, who uses her husband's last name in her role as the prime minister's wife but practices law under her maiden name, Booth, said the injustices women suffered in Afghanistan were overwhelming.

"We all know that the Taliban is a regime that denies all its citizens even the most basic of human rights, and for women that is particularly acute," she said.

One of the women who met with Blair, a former teacher who gave her name only as Wahida, said Taliban rule destroyed Afghanistan's schools. The women now live in Britain.

"For the reorganization and rebuilding of education, we desperately and urgently need international assistance," Wahida told reporters. "Otherwise, with a lack of internal resources, we can't and won't be able to take a single step for this great good."

Blair said the women described to her what it was like to wear a burqa, the all-enveloping garment mandated by the Taliban, "and how difficult it makes just ordinary, everyday living."

"The women in Afghanistan are entitled, as the women in every country are, to have the same hopes and aspirations for ourselves and for our daughters – a good education, a career outside the home if they want one, the right to health care, and of course, most importantly, the right for their voices to be heard," she said.

Blair was joined by Education Secretary Estelle Morris and International Development Secretary Clare Short.

Short said the Taliban had closed 63 girls' schools in the Afghan capital of Kabul when they came to power in 1996, and forced many boys out of education by banning women from teaching. Ninety percent of Afghan girls and 60 percent of boys are illiterate, she said.

Despite the recent focus on Afghanistan, she said Britain also was concerned about women's rights in other Muslim countries.

"In Saudi Arabia women can't vote," Short said. "I think that is a breach of U.N. conventions and basic human rights. All over the world, women are deprived of their rights."

AP-WS-11-19-01 1333EST