Introductory Remarks on Osama

Thank you for that introduction. I would like to thank Senator Clinton and Senator Hutchison for hosting this event. I would like to recognize Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States Said Tayeb Jawad. It is also terrific to see Farida Azizi here, who has personally sacrificed so much for the cause of Afghan women, and whose journey has been long and difficult. Thanks are due to MGM and United Artists and the Motion Picture Association of America for organizing this event as well.

I saw Osama for the first time late last month, when First Lady Laura Bush invited several people, including Shamim Jawad, wife of the Afghan Ambassador, to a screening of the film at the White House. What you are about to see is one of the most moving, gripping, and sobering testaments to the horror of life under the Taliban.

Virtually everyone suffered in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, but some of the most notorious cruelty was meted out to women. Women were prohibited from attending school, working, or making any number of other basic choices in their lives. They lived as chattel, and had little hope, as this movie demonstrates.

Osama does not have a happy ending. As with all too many people who lived under the Taliban, the main character in this film had some very traumatic experiences. But you can take some solace in the fact that the ending in Afghanistan -- which is in fact a new beginning -- is brightening considerably. The culprits identified in this film are gone from power, and our coalition is working with the people of Afghanistan to ensure that egregious human rights violations are never again the norm in their country. Significant progress has been made since the Taliban were deposed: girls are now in school, women are at work in a variety of professions, and change is being institutionalized. As many of you may know, the Loya Jirga established a constitution that ensures that Afghan women have equal legal status to men. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, remarked to the nation that “you have adopted one of the most enlightened constitutions in the Islamic world. You have made history.” With our help and that of others, the citizens of Afghanistan are moving steadily and surely toward establishing the foundations of a free and prosperous nation. This is enormously important to the Afghan people. It is also important to the United States, as it will prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a base for terrorists and will build the basis for enduring partnership between the Afghan and American people.

In another film about life under dictatorship, Dr. Zhivago, a character representing the unbridled power and brutality of the then-nascent Soviet state scolded a man merely for having dreams of a family and a normal life without war and violence. He declared “personal life is dead in Russia -- history killed it.” But in that movie, personal life lived on in the face of tremendous adversity, just as we will see it did in this story. The basic impulses of women and men everywhere -- to live in a prosperous, free, and peaceful society -- can never be fully extinguished by tyranny. In Afghanistan, civil society is making a comeback and is thriving, and we are working with determination not only to ensure that Afghan women leave the shocking oppression of the Taliban regime behind forever, but also to help them become equal partners in their country’s future. Thank you again for inviting me here tonight.