The U.S. and France: Working Together

Thank you, Christine, for that gracious introduction. I’m delighted to be here with all of you today. France holds a very special place in the life of my country and the life of my own family. As you probably know, France was an emerging America’s first ally – but you probably don’t know that France was my family’s first home. My parents moved here as a young just-married couple–and while many people associate me with Texas because of my long work for President Bush there–I was actually born and lived the first two years of my life in France. My father was one of the young Americans who landed on Omaha Beach on D-day, and one of the greatest thrills of my life was bringing him back and walking with him along that same beach on the 60^th anniversary a couple of years ago.

I am honored to be back today with this group of outstanding women. Texas is known for its strong women and so is France–from the stunning fashions of Coco Chanel to the incredible achievements of Claudie Haignere.

Though the headlines frequently focus on differences between our countries, in fact, America and France work closely and effectively together to uphold and extend the many values we share in common–including liberty, equality, and justice. Almost everywhere you look around the world, you will find America and France working together to address some of the great challenges of our time: in Africa, fighting HIV/AIDS, in Darfur working to strengthen peacekeeping and stop the terrible violence.

In the Middle East, where America has much to learn from France–from your long history and close ties there–we are working to prevent a nuclear armed Iran, to realize a vision of two states, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace, to support a truly sovereign Lebanon, to support the new democracy in Afghanistan. Although we disagreed on our decision to go into Iraq, France has since provided substantial debt relief and is helping train Iraqi police forces as we work toward a stable, unified and free Iraq and America is grateful for that help.

France is an important global power and leader for stability and peace in the world.

And France continues to be a vital voice in empowering women around the world. One of the things I have focused on as Under Secretary is women’s empowerment, because as I have traveled the world, I have come to realize it is increasingly women who are arbiters of peace and reconciliation, advocates for education and health, and agents of economic and political change.

Earlier this year, Secretary Rice and I attended the inauguration of Michelle Bachelet, the new president of Chile. She is the daughter of a general who was imprisoned and tortured after a government coup; he died in prison. She and her mother were also imprisoned. She says, “Violence entered my life, destroying what I loved. Because I was a victim of hate, I have dedicated my life to turning that hate into understanding, into tolerance, and why not say it, into love.”

Her example, one woman’s ability to overcome hate and violence with hope and love, is exactly what the world needs more of right now. I’ll never forget looking up into the gallery as she took the oath of office–and seeing so many little girls – whose parents had brought them to witness that important day.

In Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is now the president and has begun the task of healing that troubled country. In Rwanda–which not so long ago was a killing field with more than 800,000 victims–women are leading reconciliation efforts between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples. Women now fill a large block of the Parliament seats and make up 40% of the cabinet.

As women become leaders of their countries, they are increasingly vocal advocates for education and health.

The need for education is great–in the broader Middle East, of the estimated 70 million people who are illiterate, two-thirds are female. I’ll never forget meeting with women at one of our literacy programs in Morocco–they told me of their pride in being able to go to the market and post office, read for themselves, and for the first time, help their children with homework. Literate women can read about their government, faith, and political issues and decide for themselves, rather than have someone else dictate what they should believe.

It’s clear that when 50% of a society’s population and the mothers of the next generation are excluded, the full potential of that society can never be reached. All the statistics show when you educate and empower women, you improve almost every other aspect of a society. Women share–when you educate a woman, she teaches her whole family, and her neighbors and her community. Give a woman a micro-grant so she can start a small business, and she will buy shoes, milk, and books for her children–and hire other women as her business grows.

As educated women engage in the economic development of their countries, they are increasingly agents of political change.

Today, the course of history around the world is being changed by women who are insisting on their right to be full participants in their societies. In Kuwait, a brave woman named Roula al-Dashti spoke out to the men leading her country with a compelling message: "Half a democracy is not a democracy." She recruited student leaders from Kuwait University to join her cause and helped women gain the right to vote and run for office in Kuwait.

We in France and America who have fought and won so many of these same rights have a responsibility, an obligation to speak up for those who cannot. And we have an important role in helping women who have recently found their voices use them effectively and powerfully for change.

Just this summer, the government of France brought 30 Afghan women parliamentarians to Paris. This was the first time these women had ever left their country. They met with their French and EU counterparts to learn from you about parliamentary procedures in democracies.

We saw the tragic consequences when the voices of those same women were silenced in Afghanistan under the Taliban. We saw the type of society the extremists we face in our battle against terrorism envision. Little girls were not allowed to go to school and the literacy rate in some areas dropped to a stunning 1 percent. Women weren’t allowed to work to support themselves, even if their husbands had been killed. Buildings where women lived had to have their windows blacked out, so women were even denied the light. Music was banned, books were burned, cultural icons were destroyed, an entire society was being suffocated from the inside out.

I remember visiting a reading program in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and meeting a young girl who said she hoped to write a book someday. I told her I would put something in my book on her behalf. She told me, "Women should be free to go to school and work and chose their own husbands." She was 13 years old. As I was leaving, the translator came after me. "She wants to tell you something else. Please don’t forget them. Please help them live in freedom." The eyes of that young girl followed me home and still follow me today. A substantial part of my work is to help her and others like her live in freedom.

Together, we must continue to address the conditions that violent extremists so often exploit–poverty, illiteracy, and religious intolerance. We must work for greater understanding and respect for one another around the world. Here again, women–and what they teach their children–can be a powerful prescription for peace.

Five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, one essential ingredient is still lacking in our international response to terrorism: the concerted moral outrage of everyday citizens of every faith and country.

I know the people of France are concerned about terrorism, just as the people of America–and most people across our world are–and I believe every one of us can make a difference. I hope all of us can join together in speaking up–to say that no grievance, no matter how legitimate, can ever justify the killing of oneself or others. In America, mothers united against drunk driving and cultivated a strong sense of outrage against it, which changed laws and, ultimately, people's behavior. In France, victims of terrorism formed active associations to speak out against it–together, the women at this conference can be the leaders of a similar effort–encouraging the women and mothers of the world to speak up and teach our children that life is precious, diversity should be celebrated and hope can conquer hate.

I thank you for convening this conference so we can speak up for the many women who cannot be here. And I thank you for including me today.