Political Quotes

“I really appreciate all that the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) is doing with the Women's Caucus, and she has done a great job bringing these women's issues out and how important they are to all of us. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk a little bit first about the Afghan women, because I had an opportunity to work with them. It was before some of our women Members were even here, it was in 2002, when there were a group of women, first of all starting out with women lawyers from Afghanistan, came over to meet with the Women's Caucus and have a discussion. Later on, Habiba Sorabi, Afghanistan's minister for women's affairs, came over to meet with us and discuss what the mission was all about. And she talked about that the mission for women was to restore and improve the rights of Afghan women and to strengthen their legal, their economic, political, and social status throughout the country. At that time the Members of the Women's Caucus here came away convinced that the work of their women's ministry was absolutely critical to the rebuilding of a peaceful and democratic Afghanistan in which the women and girls would have full rights. And one of the things that we did was to establish and to find funding for women's centers over in Afghanistan. As you see the picture there with the Afghan elections, wearing the burkas and the veils, and still how they go around covered.…”