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Skriven 2005-05-24 23:33:04 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0505242) for Tue, 2005 May 24
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a Reception for Egyptian Women Leaders
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 24, 2005

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a Reception for Egyptian Women Leaders
Ambassador's Residence
Cairo, Egypt




8:57 A.M (Local)

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, Gordon. Thank you very much. Thanks so much to
Gordon, and thank you all for coming out. I read the guest list, I know how
distinguished this group is, and I'm sort of actually embarrassed to be
giving you a speech. I'm going to just give a few remarks about my trip and
then I hope I have a chance to come out and speak to everyone. I think you
all should be speaking to me, instead of the other way around.

I want to introduce my Chief of Staff, Anita McBride, who also wants to
come out and meet you all. And I know you probably -- many of you know Liz
Cheney from the State Department, who some of you have already talked to
and she wants to also talk to you when we come out.

I also want to pass on President Bush's best regards. Egypt is a very, very
important friend of the United States. We have a longtime friendship, and
Egypt has been a leader in peacemaking. And I appreciate that very much. I
know that President Bush appreciates that, as well. I know that Egypt is!
actively involved in the peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis,
and both the President and I appreciate that.

I'm very happy to be here. This is my second visit to Egypt. I know you
can't come enough or spend long enough to get to see all of the magnificent
sites that your country is blessed with. I came in 1998 with my
mother-in-law on a women's trip. She brought all of her daughters-in-law
and her daughter and we had a wonderful Nile cruise and got to have lunch
with Mrs. Mubarak at the end of the cruise before we went back home.

I've had a very, very nice visit with Mrs. Mubarak. She is really a leader.
She's a role model for women around the world. Yesterday we visited the
Girl Friendly School, which is such a terrific idea. It's an idea that is a
role model, especially for Afghanistan. It's so important in Afghanistan to
be able to educate girls as quickly as they can because girls were left out
for so many years. And also, the idea of a one-room schoolhouse, you can
have a six-year-old who's learning to read and you can have a 14-year-old
who's learning to read in the same building without embarrassing girls who
are 14 and who haven't had the opportunity to learn to read.

So I want to spread this idea to Afghanistan. I think they actually have
already started to try to put these women's centers in every little town
where girls and women can come and mothers and daughters can be educated at
the same time.

Everyone in America knows about your wonderful country. And girls
especially when they first start reading about Cleopatra and all of the
very, very exotic-sounding places -- the Pyramids, the tombs in Egypt --
beccome fascinated with your country. I think girls and boys around the
world do. And in fact, that's what happened to Liz Cheney. When she was 12,
she read a book about Egypt, and she was so fascinated that she made! the
Middle East her career and her lifetime interest. I know you know that, I
mean, I'm sure you hear that from so many people who visit your country,
women and men, about it.

I want to just tell you again how important Egypt and our relationship with
Egypt is, how strong our friendship is and longstanding our friendship is,
and how much we appreciate everything President Mubarak and Egypt does in
promoting peace, and Mrs. Mubarak, in fact, who started the women's peace
movement here that includes a number of countries.

Women in Egypt have always been educated, they've always had a strong role
to play, they've always been role models. But as we look around the world,
we want that for women in other countries. And we were delighted when the
Parliament in Kuwait just a week ago voted, at the urging of the Amir, to
give women's suffrage. Women have only had the right to vote in the United
States for less than a hundred years, even though our Constitutio! n, as
you know, said all men are created equal. That didn't leave women in the
group -- (laughter) -- or slaves. We started with the perfect Constitution
but it took us a very longg time, and of course, we still work on it.

Democracy is a long time coming. You take a few steps forward and a few
steps back, and certainly in our country, we still do that. It requires
vigilance, it requires work on the part of everyone, which is what Vaclav
Havel told me in the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel -- intellectual
playwright, prisoner, political prisoner, and then President of the Czech
Republic -- said to me, he said, "You know, democracy is hard, because it
requires the participation of everyone."

It's easier to just let the government do it sometimes than to step up, for
everyone to step up and take their own responsibility for building their
country. And I know from visiting women around the world, from visiting
with Palestinian women this week and Israeli women this week that women
want to be involved in civil society, that women want to be able to
contribute to their countries, just like men do, and that women want peace.
And I know that from visiting with the Israeli and the Palestinian women
who both told me, both groups said we want peace, we want to live free from
terror, we want to be able to live with each other like they had before at
other times over the -- in the past.

And so I think women are -- bring a very -- especially mothers, bring a
very important idea or contribution to the table when you're talking about
peace, when you're talking about children and the rights of children and
how children should be able to live free from poverty and free from
violence.

And that's what we all want. And I just want to finish so I can come out
and visit with all of you and speak to each one of you, and I know that Liz
and Anita also want to meet you and talk to you. So thank you so much for
your hospitality while we're in your beautiful country. We appreciate it
very, very much. Thanks a lot. (Applause.) I see the two men on the front
row and so I had to have some gender equality and say thank you all also
for being here. (Laughter.)

END 9:04 A.M. (Local)
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