Afghan women, as a group, I think their suffering has been equaled by very few other groups in recent world history.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I mean, honestly, we have to be clear that the life for many Afghan women is not that much different than it was a hundred years ago, 200 years ago. The country has lived with so much violence and conflict that many people, men and women, just want it to be over.
The people suffering most from the Taliban were Afghans.
I think the emancipation of women in Afghanistan has to come from inside, through Afghans themselves, gradually, over time.
The Western media has depicted the Afghan woman as a helpless, weak individual. I have said it before, and I shall repeat it: The Afghan woman is strong. The Afghan woman is resourceful. The Afghan woman is resilient.
In all the debate about Afghanistan, we don't hear much about our obligation to the wretched lives of Afghan women. They are being treated as collateral damage as the big boys discuss geopolitical goals.
Why don't we focus on what Afghan women can do? They can cook, bear children and pray. As I recall, that was fine for our grandmothers.
As the president of Afghanistan I look at the suffering of our people as a whole.
I am now concerned with women's issues in a different way: women from Afghanistan, from Cambodia.
When we look around the world today, when we see in Afghanistan that 10 million people have registered to vote in their upcoming elections, including 40 percent of those people are women, that's just unbelievable.
In Afghanistan, we have had a history of very strong women, and we need to reclaim that history and talk about it.