Todays conversation comes at a very crucial time for afghanistan, afghanistan sits at a very key Inflection Point with peace negotiations currently ongoing between the taliban and the afghan government, though these talks give hope for an inch of decades of war in afghanistan, they also do raise certain concerns, it is truly vital that we remain vigilant in protecting the goals and gains that have been made on behalf of women and girls rights in afghanistan as well as those marginalized voices more generally, and the last two decades particularly as the negotiations have been underway the peace talks represent a major opportunity to really ensure that these gains are cemented. Id like to mention that back in september when these talks began and got underway, at the time initiated by former secretary of state madeleine albright, the Atlantic Council of the advisory board, she initiated a statement, over 100 former heads of states, prime ministers, Foreign Ministers among many others issued a statement on the role of women in the Peace Process, i would like to share with you a few words from that statement. It went on to say that we call upon all relevant national, regional and International Actors to pursue a peaceful stable afghanistan by ensuring womens full participation in the Peace Process, after 40 years of conflict they may finally be an opportunity for peace. The International Community has an obligation to assist with ensuring that the peace is durable and theres an opportunity that this opportunity is not squandered. Very significantly the statement goes on to say with the Peace Process underway that also the International Community to prioritize womens meaningful inclusion in order to help the longterm security goals that we have been working towards for decades. We have already seen meaningful progress in afghanistan since the women began to be inaugurated and integrated into society as equal citizens. You know very significantly, the statement says that given the key roles of women and ensuring a durable peace that the following measures are absolutely necessary that women need to be part of the negotiation and not just an issue to be discussed, that women must be involved throughout every step of this process and also the perspective of women and youth must be reflected in any agreement. And that this is a key issue that has to be part of this process going forward. Clearly the discussions that we will hold today are key, you will be hearing very soon. But they represent only the beginning of a long road which we must support afghans as drivers of their own future, the war may indeed involve and has many actors engaged in it but the future of afghanistan is undoubtedly afghan. I am delighted to be able to introduce our very own first former first lady of the United States mrs. Laura bush. First Lady Laura Bush has long championed the cause of women and girls rights in afghanistan. You know through her very longstanding and involvement and dedication in the u. S. Afghan Womens Council of which he is an Honorary Council member and also through her dedication and involvement and leadership in the george w. Bush president ial center, mrs. Bush has worked to provide access to education and health for afghan women, if you remember she also delivered a remarkable at time when she was first lady a remarkable radio interview in which she called attention to all americans about because of the years of war already ca women were windows. They didnt have someone to be about to leave their house from. And it could not be educated. They couldnt go to school. The very idea of a country that leaves half the population out is a failed country. That is what afghanistan was. You as first lady new that you could use that platform to really be an advocate for them as well. Mrs. Bush i made trips to afghanistan and i met a lot of the women. I brought some of the women who like oneicularly who started a school in the same province where the talent that have blown up those sixcentury who does that were six century buddhas that were a World Heritage site. The other first ladies from other countries could meet her as well. There were a lot of countries that went together to support the people of afghanistan, not just the United States. Host so you went as first lady three times to afghanistan. Took about some of your memories of those trips . Mrs. Bush i remember particularly that she had started a school there for girls and i told her i would come and actually go there and see her. I saw the remnants of the big sixcentury buddhas lying in rumble on the ground in the district where she was. I became very good friends with mrs. Ghani troops, goy see our to Bagram Air Force base. I usually had been with them or something before i flew home. Host one of the things you did when you traveled there is you signed the mou to establish the university. Talk about that . Mrs. Bush the u. S. Has a history of founding american universities. We have one in beirut, and several others around the world. We were able to establish the American University in afghanistan, which continues today their recent relative dorian was a woman, which i think is really terrific this recent valedictorian was a woman, which i think was terrific. That is the role america has played in recent years and that is funding these universities. About University Takes women and men. In fact i think there are more women in the university of afghanistan right now than there notmen, in a country where long ago, women were not allowed to be educated at all. Host in the context, it 2006, there were 50 students. Now there are over 200 students and more than half are women. Mrs. Bush isnt that terrific . Host over 100 fulbright scholars and many of them are women. In 20 years, that is a markable. Mrs. Bush that is remarkable. It really is. It shows how hungry afghani women are to be educated. Afghanistan was uneducated country. Women and men were educated and then suddenly after the taliban came in, they pretty much destroyed afghanistan. Host we have talked about education. There have been so many other areas of progress for women. The people of afghanistan stand to lose if those gains are reversed . Mrs. Bush everything. I am not that happy about the idea of negotiating with the taliban. We should be negotiating with a legitimate government, elected government of afghanistan. We forget that america gives people a certain prestige. If we negotiate with the taliban. We are in some ways saying that they are important, more important than the elected government. Do we want peace . Absolutely. Would we like our troops to come home . Of course. But we still have troops in berlin many years after world war ii. We have kept troops in various places in the world. Not suggesting we have to do theyin afghanistan, but are very fragile democracy and there are a lot of people, metallic them, the taliban, that would rather take over and have it be like it was before, a field country. They have made a lot of progress. So i hope we will continue to support the legitimate government of afghanistan. Host weve also seen gains for women in access to health care, we have seen more women be entrepreneurs in afghanistan and grow the economy. You got to meet some of those entrepreneurs and support them overtime. We talked a bit about why it is so important to have women be educated. What does it mean for the leadership and decisionmaking of the country when you have women involved . Mrs. Bush if you have half the population left out, like i said before, you are a field country. It is very important to have both men and women you know been being able to contribute and work in the economy. Being able to contribute to the government. All those things. My mother was born two years before women achieved to the right to vote in the United States, which is Pretty Amazing . She lived almost 100 years old. The idea that even we were not that many generations ago that women were not allowed to vote. I think it is important for us to use what we know in building a democracy. What is important in building a democracy. We are now in the midst of talking about that again with black lives matter with all the other marginalized communities that may have been left out. In our long history, even though our declaration, which was all people are created equal i actually think it was all men are created equal. [laughter] , we know from our own history how important it is to have everyone of every race, men and women, included in the democracy. That is what a democracy is. It is made up of all people with all different viewpoints. Host and studies have shown that having women involved in Leadership Levels brings more peace and stability to the country. There is actually more research to show. Mrs. Bush how important it is to have women involved. Host right. Know, so Many Americans are skeptical as to why we are still involved and why they should still support the people of afghanistan and especially the women of afghanistan. What would you say to them about why this matters . Mrs. Bush i would say we have a moral obligation really to continue to support the people of afghanistan. We went in early on to support them after september 11 and they made great, great strides. Sadly, the taliban has had an opportunity to come back in some ways. But i think, i just feel like its a really moral obligation to continue to support them. Afghanistan was a thriving country at one time, and we know what happened to it after the taliban came in. And we dont want that to happen again. I think that is why its a moral obligation to continue to support the people there. And there are many, many people who do. The afghan Womens Council and all the american women who looked at afghanistan after september 11 and were shocked at the way women were treated there and figured out ways to help. I think of connie duckworth, who immediately started helping women become entrepreneurs and make money, and all the other Great Projects but american women have founded there in afghanistan. I think american women would say lets keep supporting them. ,host yes. What message do you have for policymakers in the u. S. About what they can and should still be doing to support afghan women . Mrs. Bush i think they should still be doing what we do already, which is give some Financial Support, a lot of Financial Support actually to , the government, not to the taliban. They are dependent on that as they build their economy. But they have been able to build an economy. They have been able to build an economy because everyone can participate in it now, not just men. We have given aid to countries for many, many years. Our moral is in interest. I also think it is in our security interest to continue to try to fund or send money to afghanistan for a legitimate government and legitimate projects that are going on their there. Host right. And we really have the ability to condition that a. Representation by the women in the government and society in afghanistan, and that is important. Any word for the women of afghanistan . Because this is going to be livestreamed. You may have women in afghanistan paying attention to what you are saying. Mrs. Bush i think the women of afghanistan know that i am standing with them and i have been for all these years. I know, would, also say that he is standing with you all, and we hope for the very best for you. And i also want you to know i how much i admire the women of afghanistan, they way they have been able to step out and secure their rights and be real, full contributing members to their economy and to their society in every way. Host mrs. Bush. Thanks for your leadership. Mrs. Bush thank you for hosting mrs. Ghani. Host thank you. We send it back to the ambassador. Thank you so much, holly, for a great interview. Mrs. Bush, thank you so much, again, not only for being with us today but also for your longstanding dedication to afghan women. It gives me great pleasure, by the way, before we go to our , i would like to mention that here in washington, d. C. , we are very fortunate to have afghanistans ambassador to the United States, roya ramani. She has been a great partner with the Atlantic Council supporting the causes of afghanistan. We are particularly thankful for her today for her making todays discussion with afghanistans first Lady Rula Ghani possible. Thank you so much, ambassador. We are really appreciative of all your efforts. Thanks again for being with us. Were also joined today by one of the councils great partners of afghanistan, and that is steven heights of the rockefeller foundation. Thank you, stephen, for your support. We are very grateful. And also the importance of the afghan task force. We are grateful to be partnering with you and glad you could be with us as well today. Thank you very much. Thank you. I would like now to turn to her excellency, first lady of ghani, who isula director of the enabled childrens initiative, a charity that supports advocates for afghan children with disabilities who have been abandoned or ou orphaned. Since assuming the office of the first lady in 2014, first lady ghani has worked very closely with afghan women to create a more fair and just society. This has been really a core goal and objective of hers. Excellency first lady ghani has been a vocal advocate of ensuring women are represented by the highest levels of the peace talks in doha and continues to ensure that womens rights and participation are preserved and also elevated process. T this we are just thrilled to have you with us today. Your excellency, first lady ghani. With that, i would like to give the flow over to you and to mrs. Moheeb. Thank you for all the things you have said. You have given me much too much credit. I agree with you that women have throughredible strides their own volition answer their own hard work. Have my thanks to the Atlantic Council. Extremelyay that i am grateful that they have given me , again, an opportunity to speak to the members. I would like to also say that i am also very grateful for mrs. To have accepted to and, shehis program, never disappoints. Really cares so well about afghanistan. It comes from the heart, and you can tell. Do you want to ahead . Thank you, mrs. Ghani. Tonk you, paula, thank you the Atlantic Council and all the today. Joining us and thank you, mrs. Ghani for having a very important discussion in important times. I will jump into the first question. Let me first say. , there is something of like to say about the first lady, i consider myself a listener, a facilitator and an advocate. As an oldschool journalist, i like to bear witness to what happens around the world. So i would the glad to speak about the things i know. But also, i would like to say that we have been going through , period of heightened violence but it is really very disturbing, and to the families of the Fallen Soldiers and citizens, i want to assure them so thatill try my best we can get a durable and just peace. They will not have died in vain. Host thank you. I want to come back to the issue of increased violence and the Peace Process. But i want to start by saying for the viewers today, it is difficult to really appreciate what is happening here in afghanistan if you have not been here to live it. The past six years, you have had an open door policy in your office. You have met thousands of women. You have traveled to their issues. When i walked into your office, the corridor was full of people for the meetings from the floor to the ceiling, it was really something to see. Give us your perspective on the progress made by afghan women and girls in the society and in politics. Mrs. Ghani sure. To handars ago, i had in my report to the u. N. On the state of women in the world, and you can see women everywhere, in the streets, in the offices, in the government. That it isadd is also active and effective. Theres not one day that goes by that i dont hear about a new woman that i havent heard from or i need a new person. To my country last week and i picked up for women that i met for the first time last week. Maybe you could show the first picture. , i am going to speak about two young women, they are in their early 30s. This is a picture you see. She had come to my office to give me aanted she had written about breast cancer. Her sister had died of breast cancer. She is the daughter of two doctors. She is in the helmand, one of the districts where violence erupted recently. Still, she thought it was her duty to write this booklet and put it together. To compile it. So that her sisters can be informed of what to look for an when to reach out for help for treatment. Lets have the second picture. The woman you see sitting on the couch, the women are all the Board Members of the afghan cancer foundation, which we found it almost four years ago now. As a facilitator, you can see how i try to facilitate. I ask them to come when the woman came to give me her booklet. They were very interested in meeting her and i think they will be printing her booklet to distribute it all around afghanistan. Next picture. It is tradition that you bring a sho t put it ona the shoulders of the women you are visiting. Shawl to putng a it on the shoulders of the women you are visiting. Maryam, the woman putting the awl on me, she was a teacher and later became a monitor and implementer International Solidarity program , it is a center of program that is close to the charter. Called student charter. Lets go to the next picture so that you can see her. She is the director of women affairs, which means she represents the ministry of foreign affairs. Interestingly enough, she is an ambitious lady. She came to see me to discuss ccede tocould a international position. These tw