SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan – First lady Laura Bush Saturday challenged a region dominated by men and strong tradition to allow women into the political process and workplace, saying equal rights are essential for democratic progress in the Middle East.
The first lady, making a high-profile speech at the World Economic Forum, said new freedoms granted to the women of Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Morocco prove equal rights are compatible with Islam and Arab culture.
“Women who have not yet won these rights are watching,” Bush said at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Center on the banks of the Dead Sea. “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.”
The speech drew polite, although unenthusiastic, response.
Bush was making her maiden trip as first lady to the Middle East, which included private meetings with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Queen Rania and Arab youths. Later in the day, she toured Jordan’s sacred Mount Nebo, where God is said to have led Moses to see the promised land across the Jordan River.
On a desert hot day, the first lady stood atop the mountain to survey the Dead Sea and the dusty valley below. The haze clouded what otherwise is a majestic view of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah and Jericho from the mountain’s peak. “It’s a beautiful place to come,” she said.
Bush, on a diplomatic mission to try to improve America’s image in the Arab world, told leaders gathered for the World Economic Summit that education and women’s rights are two pillars of a vibrant democracy. In a 20-minute speech, the first lady said world leaders must allow students, men and women, to study freely in modernized education institutions. “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,” the first lady said.
Bush’s visit highlights changes, however slow, in the Arab world. Kuwait’s parliament recently granted women the right to vote and run in national and local elections. About 40 percent of the 8 million Afghans who voted in the past election were women, while Iraqi women went to the polls for the first time in January. In Morocco, women successfully fought the government of King Mohammed VI to change the century-old Family Code that provided men superior legal rights.
Associated Press
First lady Laura Bush gives a speech Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Southern Shuneh, Jordan.
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