WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- As talks were being held in Bonn, Germany, among four Afghan factions on a future Afghan government, the Bush administration has undertaken a public relations campaign seeking the fair treatment and political participation of women in the war-torn country, using American feminist groups to help draw support.
Eleanor Smeal, the outspoken activist and president of the Feminist Majority, three weeks ago received a telephone call from aides to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and later from Presidential Counselor Karen Hughes, seeking a meeting with Smeal. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell also attended the Nov. 16 meeting.
"They were obviously pushing for restoring the rights of women. They were hoping we would continue our campaign for the long haul," Smeal said. "In other words, I think they want to make sure the American groups understand this is going to be a long haul thing, and it wouldn't be over even though the war was not going very well (at the time of the meeting). We had to hang in there and make sure peace was won. Of course we've been hanging in there for five years, so they were preaching to the choir on that one."
Smeal said that what she envisions is a "mini" Marshall Plan, a U.S. proposal made in 1947 to rebuild the devastated economies of Europe in the wake of World War II.
Next month, Smeal said her organization plans to sponsor a meeting of Afghan women in Brussels. She said it was her hope that Afghan women are part of the Cabinet, part of the parliament, and that an independent judiciary is set up where women can be judges.
Smeal also said she hoped that women's organizations in the country received funding directly.
"We hope more women become involved in the negotiations. Right now there are five women in Bonn in the various factions. Two from the (former) king, two from Northern Alliance, one from the Peshawar Group," said Smeal. "But we hope this is only the beginning of a process that is going to take some time. We would like more women added to the delegation."
But Smeal's vision may be more ambitious than that of the administration or of the Northern Alliance, some elements of which are no fans of gender equality. The White House has been reserved in its desire for women to be included, stopping short of demanding their presence at the negotiation table.
"The American position has been made abundantly clear," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said late last week, "and that is that the government of Afghanistan should be a multiethnic government that represents all the people -- the Pashtuns, as well as the others in Afghanistan -- and it must include a role for women. But, fundamentally, it is a matter that the Afghani people have to decide."
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said the United States has an obligation to ensure women are included in the negotiations and the final government. She pointed out that before the Soviet invasion, Afghanistan had a constitutional democracy that guaranteed equal rights for women. At least three women served in the parliament.
"I would have liked to hear a call for the inclusion of these women in the rebuilding of their country," Gandy said, "so that they will not continue to be subject to the whims of whatever group of warlords the U.S. brings together and calls a government. That is where we seem to be headed with this."
Conditions for the women there deteriorated after the fundamentalist Taliban regime assumed power, forbidding females to work, attend school, or even speak in public. They were required to cover themselves in head-to-toe "burkas" which provided only a thin mesh screen for their eyes.
Dispatches from the region reported women being summarily beaten for often-minor infractions of Islamic doctrines such as wearing makeup, or executed for more serious charges of talking to a man who was not a relation, or adultery.
Some women's advocates were skeptical of the administration's sudden support for the women in the region, saying apathy over the issue reached back to the previous administration.
"There has been no attention from this administration and very little attention from the past administration to the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban," Gandy said. "They can argue that the treatment of women is one more reason for the war on the Taliban. It's quite clear to me but for Sept. 11, the Taliban would have gone right on enslaving women and it would have drawn no notice at all by the U.S. government."
When the Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan, the United States was seeking to build pipelines through Afghanistan to link Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves to Central and South Asia. It would have meant millions of dollars annually for the Taliban, Gandy said.
During the Clinton administration, the Feminist Majority, along with other groups like NOW, first launched the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan aimed at restoring the human rights of Afghan women and girls. Mavis Leno, wife of comedian Jay Leno, chaired the project. A year later -- in 1998 -- President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno joined United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan during an International Women's Day event in refusing to recognize the Taliban as a government and citing the maltreatment of women.
"We then wanted them to put pressure on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates so they would withdraw their support for the Taliban," Smeal said. "And we pushed that the Taliban be designated a terrorist organization, and we pushed that there be more humanitarian aid." She said her group lost on the first two points but was able to secure additional funds for critical humanitarian relief.
"It wasn't enough, but it was over $100 million," Smeal said of the Clinton administration effort.
But it wasn't until after Sept. 11 that Bush approved an additional $320 million in humanitarian aid for medical supplies and medication to help the Afghan people and refugees displaced during the war. The United States Agency for International Development said U.S. military airdrops of supplies were aimed at reducing the high death rate among women and children.
