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Ärende: Press Release (0505221) for Sun, 2005 May 22
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Remarks by the First Lady at the World Economic Forum
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 22, 2005

Remarks by the First Lady at the World Economic Forum



REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM WEF Conference Center
The Dead Sea, Jordan

10:39 A.M. (Local)

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, and thank you very much, Professor Schwab, for your
very kind introduction. And thanks to you for putting this great team
together for the World Economic Forum. I want to express my very deep
thanks to His Majesty King Abdullah II and to Her Majesty Queen Rania
Abdullah for welcoming me here to Jordan.

Your country is one of rich history and culture. Since ancient times,
people have marveled at the Dead Sea, and we're privileged to experience it
today. This region is the birthplace of three of the world's great
religions. In the United States, we respect the traditions of all faiths.
On this trip, I will visit Muslim, Jewish, and Christian holy sites. And
most of all, I'm eager to meet some of the people who call the Middle East
their home.

Tomorrow I'll visit a Discovery School with Queen Rania and talk with the
young people who are the future of Jordan. A hopeful and peaceful future
for all children is a priority of the King and Queen -- and for President
Bush and me. Queen Rania has spoken eloquently about the "hope gap." Too
many children in my own country experience it. I'm working on an initiative
to prevent young boys and girls from joining gangs or choosing a life of
crime and drugs.

Almost everywhere I go, people who work with children tell me they've
identified three crucial things that all children need to achieve their
full potential: They need caring adults to love and support them and help
them make good decisions, they need a good education, and they need to gain
the skills required in today's workplace so that they can find jobs. The
prospect of finding a good job is vital to self-confidence, pride, and hope
for a better future.

President Bush and I want a future of peace and opportunity for our own
daughters and for all the world's children.

Mothers and fathers the world over are united in the desire for a hopeful
and bright future for their children.

Today we are meeting at a historic moment, a time of unprecedented
opportunity. Throughout the world and here in the Middle East, we're
witnessing the advance of freedom.

President Bush and I recently visited Eastern Europe, where nations set
free after the fall of communism are embracing democracy. They are an
example to citizens in other nations who are taking responsibility for
their own futures.

Now we're seeing a springtime of hope across the Middle East. Brave men and
women are writing a new chapter in the story of self-government. They're
going to the polls in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in the Palestinian
Territories.

In Lebanon, men and women raised their voices in Martyr's Square. They
called for an end to occupation and an opportunity to vote freely. Just
this week, we were all delighted to hear that after twenty years of
courageous advocacy, and at the urging of the Amir, Kuwait's parliament
granted full political rights to the women of Kuwait. (Applause.)

Earlier this week, the wife of Kuwait's Foreign Minister spoke at a
luncheon at the Kuwaiti Ambassador's residence in Washington. She looks
forward to the day when men stand with their wives, their mothers, their
sisters and their daughters to cast votes and serve in parliament.

Women who have not yet won these rights are watching. They are calling on
the conscience of their countrymen, making it clear that if the right to
vote is to have any meaning, it cannot be limited only to men.

In my country, women didn't secure the right to vote until more than a
century after our nation's founding. But now we know that a nation can only
achieve its best future and its brightest potential when all of its
citizens, men and women, participate in the government and in
decision-making.

I'm reminded of what Vaclav Havel, the former President of the Czech
Republic, once told me. Vaclav Havel -- playwright, intellectual, freedom
fighter, political prisoner, then President of the Czech Republic -- said
to me, "Laura, you know, democracy is hard because it requires the
participation of all the people."

All people -- men and women -- want to contribute to the success of their
country. And all people -- men and women -- must have the opportunity to do
so. The question that faces emerging democracies is how to foster
participation by all citizens. This morning, I'll discuss two key ways.

First, education helps freedom thrive. Citizens who are educated can choose
for themselves, make up their own minds, and assume their responsibilities
as citizens. And second, we must ensure that women acquire the political
and economic access to become full participants in society. I'm inspired by
the words of Farahnaz Nazir, founder of the Afghanistan Women's
Association. She said, "Society is like a bird. It has two wings. And a
bird cannot fly if one wing is broken." Let me begin with education. As the
information technology revolution sweeps around the world, education is
becoming even more important to building free and prosperous societies. But
the impact of education reaches much deeper.

Education can help children see beyond a world of hate and hopelessness to
one of unlimited opportunity. Education helps free the mind from ignorance
and bigotry. Education unleashes the creative contributions of every
citizen, to improve their own lives and to build the common good. Education
benefits all, and education should be available to all.

In the United States, we make schools a national priority. We educate boys
and girls, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and people of all different faiths,
children of different races and cultures -- all children, whether their
families are wealthy or poor. Yet in many parts of the world, school is a
luxury, unavailable to many children or only offered to a select few. And
too often, girls are kept from school by custom, lack of resources and
oppression.

The result is that far too many people cannot read and cannot seize the
opportunities that come with education. According to UNESCO -- the United
Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- 800 million
people worldwide cannot read or write. Two-thirds of them are women, and,
of course, many are mothers. Across the broader Middle East and North
Africa, more than 75 million women and more than 45 million men are
illiterate.

These collective numbers are staggering, but we must remember that there is
a human life behind each one -- a person whose opportunity and options are
limited because he or she doesn't have basic skills. Each of these lives
matter greatly to us, and each matters.

As the Honorary Ambassador for the United Nations Decade of Literacy, I'm
asking all nations to help people acquire literacy skills. A mother's
ability to read and write is especially important. Our mothers are our
first teachers, and children's success is linked closely to theirs.
Children who are read to from a very early age are more likely to begin
reading early themselves. They're more likely to excel in school, to
graduate from secondary school, and to go to a university. They're more
likely to love learning and to value education.

President Bush and I believe that education is vital to every mother and
every child. The United States is working with our G8 partners and with
regional ministers to broaden literacy, to expand education -- especially
for women and girls -- and to promote training that will prepare people for
the 21st century workplace. Ministers have set a goal of helping 20 million
people gain literacy skills by 2015. In a few days, they'll meet here in
Jordan to discuss their progress and to see how we can move closer to
achieving the goal.

His Majesty the King has demonstrated his commitment to education. His
nation's literacy rate has reached 90 percent. Jordan is working to reach
gender parity in the schools. Through innovative partnerships with
Jordanian and American technology firms, Jordan is ensuring that all
children will have the skills they need to be part of the IT revolution and
to find jobs in the marketplace.

The United States is pleased to support Jordan's effort to expand early
education by making kindergarten programs available to all children in
public school. Together, we're working to rehabilitate more than 120
classrooms so that children in some of the most remote and poorest parts of
Jordan can attend kindergarten. And we're helping to train teachers with
the most effective methods.

Through President Bush's Middle East Partnership Initiative, we're working
with partners in Jordan, Lebanon, and Bahrain to distribute translated
children's books to elementary schools. This year, we'll be providing more
than two million books to children across the region. The goal of this
program, called "My Arabic Library," is to put books in the classrooms, and
to encourage school principals, teachers, parents and community leaders to
emphasize the importance of early read! ing.

Books designed to help children read can also help mothers improve their
own reading skills. When we work with children and mothers in literacy
programs, we can help two generations at once.

We also recognize that young people who have English-language skills, in
addition to Arabic, have more opportunities to find work and to improve
their lives. This year, the United States will greatly expand its English
language scholarship program to reach more than 13,000 young people.

Jordanian publisher Dina Zorba understands the benefits of literacy. Dina
has started four magazines highlighting issues important to youth and
women. One of her magazines, "Sharqiyat," was one of Jordan's first
publications to tackle difficult issues, such as violence against women.

As freedom becomes a fact of life for rising generations in the Middle
East, young people need to grow up with a full understanding of freedom's
rights and responsibilities: The right to discuss any issue in the public
sphere, and the responsibility to respect other people and their opinions.
People who can read a magazine or a newspaper or a textbook can gain the
knowledge and skills to help shape their countries, and their own futures.

Every person should have the ability to read -- and even more than that,
the freedom to read what they wish, to form their own opinions, and to
speak their minds without fear.

Freedom, especially freedom for women, is more than the absence of
oppression. It's the right to speak and vote and worship freely. Human
rights require the rights of women. And human rights are empty promises
without human liberty.

In the last few years, women have made extraordinary progress in the
broader Middle East, especially in Afghanistan. We must never forget -- and
we must always repudiate -- the cruel and inhumane treatment of women by
the Taliban that left Afghan women suffering in silence. By refusing to
allow girls to go to school and by forbidding women to work and support
themselves and their families, the Taliban were trying to prevent women
from participation in life. That is a terrible injustice, and it's
unacceptable in any society.

Today, Afghan women are relishing their new freedom. More than two million
little girls are back in school. Women are heading back to the classrooms
themselves, and as teachers. And with new business training, Afghan women
are turning ancient crafts like rug-making into income-producing ventures.

Afghan women are also participating in political life. Eight million people
voted in Afghanistan in the October elections, and forty percent of them
were women.

The new Afghan constitution is one of the most progressive documents on
women's rights in the Muslim world. Women now serve as government
ministers. And for the first time ever, a woman was appointed a provincial
governor.

People in other countries are also exercising their rights. In January,
Iraqi citizens overcame intimidation and hardship to cast their votes. A
recent college graduate from Baghdad described the debates about voting in
her household.

The young woman had four sisters and their father wanted them to stay home
because he thought it was too dangerous. But all five sisters insisted on
going to the polls, and they took their father with them.

In Morocco, courageous women called for changes to the century-old Family
Code, the Moudawana, to ensure that women have equal legal rights in
marriage and other family matters. More than one million Moroccans
petitioned their government to reform the Family Code.

Today, through the leadership of King Mohammed VI, the new law is in place.
And it demonstrates to the world that Islamic values are consistent with
the universal rights -- principles of human rights.

Americans are inspired by the courage and the determination of women
throughout the Middle East, and we want to be partners in helping them move
forward. Next week, more than 200 women from 17 Middle Eastern and North
African countries will come together in Tunis for a Business Women's
Summit. The Summit will provide leadership training and give women a global
business network that can help them start and expand businesses.

We hope this will result in many more women becoming successful
entrepreneurs, women like Muna Hamdan.

Fifteen years ago, Muna started her business by selling homemade pickles
and jams at a vegetable market. Now she's expanded into real estate, and
she helped her sons start their own business. Muna was helped by loans from
the Jordan Micro Credit Company, which is funded by the USAID. But she did
the hard work herself.

Muna was given the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2002. She is a
wonderful example of how the partnership between America and Jordan can
directly benefit people's lives, not only by extending credit, but also by
spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship that allows people to build better
lives for themselves and for their families.

Our challenge is to help more women gain the confidence and the credit to
start their own businesses. When women have the resources to participate in
the markets, they can make wise decisions for themselves and their
families, and they can contribute to civil society.

Many of you are actively involved in these and other partnerships and I
appreciate your leadership. The United States will continue to support
education and freedom for all people in all countries. As President Bush
said in his inaugural address in January, "Our goal is to help others find
their own voice, attain their own freedoms, and make their own way."

We believe that the world is witnessing a new era of expanding liberty and
growing opportunity for women and men worldwide. And they are discovering a
great truth: Life is improved by liberty. The spread of democracy
encourages the values of democracy: respect for human life, love of peace,
the freedom to worship as you choose, and tolerance for others.

The pace of this improvement will vary from country to country. But we see
hopeful signs in many places. And we believe that one day, every family
will know the dignity of freedom.

Thank you very much for your commitment to improving lives in the Middle
East and around the world. And thank you for inviting me here today.

END 10:59 A.M. (Local)
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