-article excerpt from:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5641165.htmlIn this case the U.S. Embassy asked Ka-Der, which supports women running for office, to assemble the guest list. None of the activists currently receive U.S. funds or had any apparent desire to mince words. Six of the eight women who spoke at the session, held in Ankara, the capital, focused on the Iraq war.
"War makes the rights of women completely erased and poverty comes after war -- and women pay the price," said Fatma Nevin Vargun, a Kurdish women's rights activist. Vargun denounced the arrest of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, in front of the White House this week.
Hughes, who became increasingly subdued during the session, defended the decision to invade Iraq as a difficult and wrenching moment for Bush but necessary to protect the United States.
"You're concerned about war, and no one likes war," she said. But "to preserve the peace, sometimes my country believes war is necessary." She also asserted that women are faring much better in Iraq than under the rule of Saddam Hussein.
"War is not necessary for peace," shot back Feray Salman, a human rights advocate. She said countries should not try to impose democracy through war, adding that "we can never, ever export democracy and freedom from one country to another."
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