Women's Groups Give Bush an 'F' on Iraq, Afghanistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20030826/wl_oneworld/4536667391061942043&cid=655&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 26 (OneWorld) -- The Bush administration deserves a failing grade on ensuring rights and opportunities for women in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S.-based women’s rights advocates charged at a Washington, D.C. press conference Tuesday.

Releasing the first in a series of scorecards evaluating the administration’s performance on global women’s rights, health, and development issues, three prominent women’s groups chastised the administration for failing to follow through on its commitments to a broad range of global women's issues.

Topping the list of issues for which the administration's actions have hurt, not helped, women are AIDS, family planning, and support for women’s equality and security in Afghanistan. As for post-conflict Iraq, it is too soon to tell how women will fare there, the speakers acknowledged, but preliminary signs are not positive.

Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) President Eleanor Smeal strongly criticized the Bush administration's Afghanistan policies, charging that inadequate funding for reconstruction efforts and reluctance to expand peacekeeping and security forces beyond the capital city, Kabul, have resulted in continuing instability and left Afghan women living in fear.

"This could be a totally different picture if in fact we were following through with the reality of what we are saying in words," said Smeal, who gave the Bush administration a "B" grade for its rhetoric and an "F" grade for its actions on Afghan women's issues.

more