FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2001
CONTACT: Lisette Mondello
SENATE PASSES HUTCHISON-MIKULSKI BILL
TO AID AFGHAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Measure Sponsored by All 13 Women Senators
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate on Thursday unanimously approved legislation introduced by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and sponsored by all the women of the Senate to provide educational and health care assistance to the women and children of Afghanistan.
"The repression that women and children in Afghanistan suffer under the Taliban is horrific," Senator Hutchison said. "We cannot turn our backs on such indecent, inhumane and beastly behavior. That is why the 13 women of the Senate are standing together to say that when U.S. aid is made available, women in Afghanistan will be able to get health care and education, and be allowed to support themselves in a respected way."
"The women of the Senate see this crisis in Afghanistan as an opportunity to raise the women and children out of the oppression they suffer under the Taliban regime," said Senator Mikulski. "Under the guise of customs and religion, using a distorted view of the Koran, the Taliban has brutally subjugated women as a political tool to achieve and consolidate power. As America leads the international coalition against al-Qaeda, we need to help the suffering women and children living in Afghanistan and in refugee camps throughout the region."
"The health statistics in Afghanistan are stunning," Senator Hutchison said. The country has one of the highest infant (165 of 1,000) and child (257 of 1,000) mortality rates in the world; only 5 percent of rural and 39 percent of urban Afghans have access to safe drinking water; 42 percent of all deaths are attributed to contaminated food and water.
Senator Hutchison said thousands of Afghan women and girls are routinely denied health care. Women are also denied education. Before the Taliban took control of Kabul, schools were coeducational, and women accounted for 70 percent of the teaching force, 50 percent of the civil service corps and 40 percent of the city's physicians. Today the Taliban prohibits women from working as teachers, doctors or in any other occupation.
The "Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001" (S. 1573) directs the president to ensure U.S. assistance protects human rights of women and children as well as men. The bill authorizes the president to provide educational health care and assistance to women and children living in Afghanistan and as refugees in neighboring countries; allows the funds to be used by nongovernmental organizations; and requires the secretary of state to submit a report to Congress describing the condition and status of women and children in Afghanistan. A companion bill will soon be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio).
Senator Hutchison is also working with the White House on efforts to highlight the plight of women and children in Afghanistan.
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