WASHINGTON -- 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.

Another example of the administration's failure to match action to words is the 2002 Afghan Freedom Support Act. The bill, passed with overwhelming support by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Bush in December, called for significant increases in funding for Afghanistan's reconstruction, to enhance democracy, political and economic stability, and security for women in the country. However, only a small portion of the funding has come through, according to Smeal, and the President did not include a request for full funding in his initial budget request for this year.

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.

The jury is still out on Bush administration policies toward the women of Iraq, said June Zeitlin, executive director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), which helped to compile the scorecards, together with FMF and the Center for Health and Gender Equity.

Noting that the Iraqi constitutional commission is made up entirely of men, the constitutional experts provided to Iraq by the Bush administration are all men, and 22 out of 25 members of the Iraqi governing council are men, Zeitlin said that it is still unclear whether democratic institutions will take hold in Iraq and if they do, whether they will include and protect women.

Zeitlin gave the administration a "C" for its rhetoric on women in Iraq, and an incomplete grade on its actions.

"Women here in the United States and around the world have heard the rhetoric. It gave them hope that this administration would stand and deliver for women's rights. Women around the world and here are waiting for that reality--to see that this administration can deliver for women's rights," Zeitlin said.

Evidence of the Bush record for rhetoric and action is clearer in Afghanistan, more than a year into the period of post-war reconstruction.

Now, 25 percent of girls in Afghanistan can attend school, according to what Smeal called "an optimistic estimate." While this is touted by some as an improvement over girls' exclusion from school under the Taliban, fear and intimidation still keeps most girls out of the classroom, out of work, and under the veil of the burqa, Smeal explained.

Last week, a school 30 miles south of Kabul was razed by arsonists, bringing to 14 the number of girls' schools burned down or bombed over the past year by extremist Islamic groups opposed to girls' education.

The Afghan transitional government, headed by Hamid Karzai, as well as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and a host of humanitarian and non-governmental organizations have called for the expansion of the territory patrolled by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)--the international troops charged with maintaining order and security while the country's fledgling police and military units are trained--but the Bush administration has so far refused to support an expansion of ISAF's mandate.

Another example of the administration's failure to match action to words is the 2002 Afghan Freedom Support Act. The bill, passed with overwhelming support by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Bush in December, called for significant increases in funding for Afghanistan's reconstruction, to enhance democracy, political and economic stability, and security for women in the country. However, only a small portion of the funding has come through, according to Smeal, and the President did not include a request for full funding in his initial budget request for this year.

Recent reports that the administration intends to double reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan to $1.8 billion are heartening, said Smeal, and could begin to turn around the administration's failing grade on Afghan women's issues, but only if the funds are appropriated and utilized in a timely manner to build infrastructure, bring jobs and security to the people of Afghanistan.

Copyright 2003 OneWorld.net

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