On November 18, 2001, Laura Bush gave her first radio address urging worldwide condemnation of the treatment of women in Afghanistan. She stated that the 鈥渇ight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women鈥.
The plight of women and children in Afghanistan, the then-US First Lady said, was 鈥渁 matter of deliberate human cruelty, carried out by those who seek to intimidate and control鈥.