(17 Dec 2001) STORY
In her first U-S press conference, Afghanistan's new interim Minister for Women's Affairs said she is pushing the United States to include women in any peace keeping troops sent to her country, and to name a woman as the new U-S Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Dr Sima Samar, who found out two weeks ago that she had been named as one of five deputies in Afghanistan's 30-member interim cabinet, has been given responsibility to enhance women's rights in the war torn country.
Speaking in Washington on Monday, Dr Samar acknowledged that her new ministry would be fighting an uphill battle.
The country is devastated by conflict, there is little food or water, no highways, and as the Ministry of Women's Affairs is newly created it doesn't even have a plot of land in Kabul to call its own.
In addition, she says some of the members of the Interim Cabinet do not have a very good track record when it comes to protecting the rights of women.
A doctor who has been running medical clinics and schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, Dr Samar has won numerous international awards for her work in promoting the rights of Afghan women and children.
Dr Samar is pushing for the U-S to carry the lion's share of the cost of rebuilding her country.
She said in discussions at the State Department she asked for the United States to bear 75 per cent of the reconstruction costs.
At the very least she says the amount of U-S aid should be equal to the cost of the bombs that have been dropped on Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban and Al Qaida, a figure running to many millions of U-S dollars.
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