 Good morning, everybody. Great to see you all. Welcome to the US Institute of Peace. My name is Nancy Lindborg. I'm the president of USIP and for those of you who are new to USIP, we were founded just a little more than 30 years ago by Congress dedicated to the proposition that peace is possible, peace is practical, and that it is essential for the United States and global security. And we pursue this mission of a world without violent conflict by working with partners around the world in conflict areas. And our Afghanistan program represents USIP's largest program. It's our largest in the world, and we work there with many wonderful civil society partners as well as closely with the government. So I'm delighted today to welcome Mrs. Rulagani. This is her first visit. As First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Institute, in fact, your first visit ever to USIP, so we're delighted to welcome you. And I'd like also to offer a special word of welcome and thanks to Ms. Leil Moeb and to Ms. Ila Alam from the Afghan Embassy. We always appreciate the partnership and thank you for your support in organizing today's event. And today's event comes at a very important time, a critical moment for Afghanistan, and at a time unfortunately when too many institutions are starting to draw down and reduce their engagement in Afghanistan. We remain committed to supporting government, civil society organizations, universities, in dispute resolution, good governance, and addressing the root causes of extremism, of violent extremism. And our goal is in fact to increase our work in us in Afghanistan as well as to help inform policy makers and practitioners here in the US through events like this about key issues related to peace and conflict in Afghanistan. Which is why we're here today and which brings me to the privilege of introducing us you to today's distinguished guests. Many of you have had a chance to meet or encounter or hear our guest today, First Lady Rula Ghani was born and raised in Lebanon. She holds degrees from the Institute Détude Politique de Paris, the American University of Beirut as well as Columbia University. She has long been an advocate for expanding the rights and opportunities for women in Afghanistan. When she returned to Afghanistan with her husband, now President Ghani, in 2002 she not only was one of the few spouses who was there, but she also quickly became a champion and a leader for supporting thousands of Afghanistan's poorest children through the Ashiana Foundation, which operates schools and social programs for orphans, street children, and young people from disadvantaged families. She's become a passionate advocate for rule of law and for advancing ways in which everybody in Afghanistan can be a participant in the country's future. In 2015, quite appropriately, Rula Ghani was named to the Time 100, which is a list of the world's most influential people. After her remarks, she will be joined on stage by Andrew Wilder, our vice president of Asia, who is a long time, very knowledgeable expert on Afghanistan in the region. And now please join me in welcoming the First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Mrs. Rula Ghani. Thank you for this wonderful and thorough introduction. I've decided to call my talk today from the reign of violence to the rule of law and as I speak you'll find out why I chose that title. In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, distinguished members of the audience, I come to you in peace. Assalamu alaikum. It is befitting that I should be addressing the lingering effects of war, at any institution that champions peace. At the end of a long life, which scheduled two centuries, my mother used to reflect that war had always accompanied her. Born at the onset of the First World War, she married just before the Second World War, that were and lived through 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, short bursts of war in the Middle East that were followed in Lebanon by 17 years of civil war, from 1975 to 1992, punctuated by two invasions, one in 1982 and the more recent in 2006. My mother passed away in 2014 as the war was still raging in neighboring countries. Threatening to spill over in Lebanon. Today, it seems that war is everywhere. It is not always conventional warfare or confrontation between states. It can also be an insurgency, guerrilla operations, increasingly terrorist attacks or a mixture of all of the above. But in all cases, it definitely is increasingly powerful and destructive and its effects on the civilian population are much more long-lasting. War and conflicts tear apart a society, breaking down its institutions, its traditions, its order. In time of war, anything goes. In its worst manifestation today, long-time friends become enemies, communities that coexisted peacefully for centuries, suddenly are at each other's throats, government, whether traditional or progressive, lose control locally and nationally, almost disappearing as warlords and charismatic outlaws emerge, bringing with them the reign of terror and violence. And indeed, as elsewhere, several decades of armed conflict in Afghanistan translated into a culture of violence and into what I like to call the survival mode. When you live on the edge of despair, when you are never certain what the next day will bring, when you have suffered unspeakable losses and have no idea how to control your destiny, when everything around you has fallen apart, you become focused on your own survival, you lose your sense of right and wrong, you are surrounded with unspeakable absurdity, where killing, maiming and destroying is the norm. How can you hold on to your moral compass? Your survival is the only thing that matters and you will use any means at your disposal to survive. Violence becomes the norm. Always rushed to be the first to break a story, journalists have had little time or inclination to delve into historical Afghanistan. In their accounts, this was a land still living in the stone ages, with competing warlords ready to slaughter each other at the slightest provocation. I have the privilege of having known pre-war Afghanistan as a young bride in the mid-1970s. We lived as a couple within the tightly knit embrace of the extended family. At the time, my husband was a budding anthropologist and a scholar of Afghan history. We used to go on week-long excursions to the remotest part of the country. Shirnan, Bakhtia, Nuristan, Bamiyan, Konduz, Mazar-e-Sharif, Tashkorgan, Faisabad, Pulekhumri, Ghazni, Andarau, Barikot. Wherever we went, the same rules of hospitality, the same social conventions applied. People were securing their traditions in their religion and regardless of the various ethnicities, they adhered to the same code of behavior. People treated each other with respect and dignity. I keep such fond memories of that Afghanistan. To bring it back, we need to re-establish social order. Violence as a preferred means of social interaction needs to be replaced with a fundamental respect for human dignity. A human dignity that is secured by the rule of law. In 2004, a constitutional loyjurga, loyjurga being a traditional assembly of elders, which most of you know, that loyjurga produced a kanun asasi, literally fundamental law or constitution. In it, respect for the independence of the judiciary is enshrined in the structural role, responsibilities, and qualification requirements of those appointed to the Supreme Court and other judiciary organs are clarified. Previous administration did not pay much attention to the judicial system and allowed it to become riddled with graft and corruption. One of the priority commitments of the Afghan unity government as stated at the December 2014 London Conference has been to re-establish the rule of law. This is how it treats. The judiciary must become the means to internalize and interpret the rule of law so that trust in rules gets established. The executive branch then has to become the embodiment of rule-based behavior. Our legislative branch needs to pass legislation about rules that can be implemented and internalized, not abstractly driven agendas that breed cynicism rather than meet needs. Representation and voice must be channeled fairly and transparently through the political system rather than outside of it, and citizens' aspiration turned into programs that invest in people's welfare. In that spirit, recommendation for the reform of the justice system included an eye paraphrase. One, restoring the confidence of the people in justice institution. Two, reviewing the qualifications of all legal professionals, improving the transparency of case management systems, providing legal aid and better coordination between justice institutions. Immediately reviewing the cases of all detainees illegally held in pretrial detention. You know the difference between detention and imprisonment. Detention is when somebody is arrested, but you're not sure that this person has a case against them or not. Prison is once it has been decided that you have been tried and found guilty. But in detention there is, we have had in Afghanistan unfortunately, detentions that went for much too long. People would be put in detention centers and forgotten there. And actually the law says that they shouldn't be in detention more than 72 hours if you cannot bring a case against them. So this is why immediately reviewing the case of all detainees illegally held in pretrial detention. Strengthening measures for protecting women against violence and implementing the evil law, the elimination of violence against women law. Reforming police training and oversight, reforming the prison system and the processing of prisoners. 18 months later, quite a few recommendations have already been achieved. One of the first steps has been to bring reform to the Supreme Court. A new Chief Justice was appointed, Sayed Yusuf Halim. 402 judicial officials were transferred, fired or replaced. Among them 135 new judges were appointed in Kabul and the provinces, of which 16 are women. Within a couple of days of his taking charge, the Chief Justice abrogated two roles that were the source of great corruption and you'll see why. The first rule used to allow the Chief Justice to overrule any judgment reached by the Supreme Court, effectively undermining the whole justice system. The second used to allow the Chief Justice to overturn any court ruling that specified a financial sanction or punishment. No wonder money used to change hands so much. One of the first steps that has been, oh sorry, the administrative structure of the Supreme Court was also overhauled with a redistribution of the various D1, which is approximately a department. And the creation of a special D1 for women headed by one of the Supreme Court Justice. This particular D1 is expected to help expedite the rulings on cases involving women, as they used to notoriously take several years to be tried, sometimes eight to nine years. Establishment of special courts in, oh, the Attorney General Office also underwent changes. A new Attorney General, Farid Hamid, was recently appointed. Some of you might know that for many years, he had served as a human rights commissioner at the Independent Human Rights Commission and is a well-known human rights activist. A reform of the whole directorate of the Attorney General is also underway. In the previous administration, there used to be offices of the Attorney General only in eight provinces. Today, they exist in all 34 provinces. And women are heading those offices in seven provinces, Herat, Tachar, Jawsjan, Mazari Sharif, Badakhshan, Paktika and Bamyan. In his first 100-day speech, President Ghani noted that according to the observation of judges, and here I quote, over 600 prosecutors have only a high school education and cannot do elementary submission of cases. End of quote. To the point that 60 to 90 percent of submissions by prosecutors didn't meet the requirement of the law. The new Attorney General has been asked and tasked with bringing changes to the situation. Within the Attorney General Office, a special directorate for the implementation of the EVOLO, EVO being again the Elimination of Violence Against Women, is led by a female prosecutor who has a team of 23 prosecutors and nine administrative staff of which 13 are women. This special directorate has registered to date 9,752 cases in the capital and the provinces, and was able to pass judgment on 5,603 cases. As for the reform of prisons and detention centers, the overall priority of the new administration has been to emphasize the rehabilitation process. An extensive assessment of the detention centers was conducted by the unity government as well as by civil society organization who previously had been prevented to undertake this kind of research. Based on those combined efforts, the government has made several interventions. And here you'll have to excuse me, but I'm more familiar with the changes that were brought to women prisoners, so I shall concentrate on those. Those interventions include approval by the cabinet of a draft policy submitted by the Ministry of Women's Affairs and addressing issues of female inmates and their children before and after imprisonment. Establishment of a special committee of legal experts to review women cases in detention centers in all provinces, which I had mentioned earlier. Establishment of special courts in 34 provinces to expedite women cases in detention centers. Thorough review of all staff at detention centers and replacement of those not fulfilling their duties according to the rule of law. And finally, sexual harassment case involving staff are directly scrutinized by the special investigators of the president's office. Because unfortunately, the situation in women's prison was such a mess, I would say, that a lot of illicit behavior was ongoing and a lot of abuse. As for women detained in prisons, a special commission headed by Justice Anissa Rasouli, the woman judge who almost made it to the Supreme Court, but missed ratification from the parliament by only six votes. That special commission is revising the files of every woman prisoner. By the time I had left Kabul three days ago, by the time I had left Kabul three days, they had completed the review of all female prisoners in Kabul. And their efforts had, as a result, over 100 women be released and an equal number see their sentences reduced. Hopefully, gone are the days when women languished in prison helpless and hopeless. It is to be noted that women are increasingly taking part in the reform of the justice system. Recently, at the third anniversary of the Association of Women Judges, I found out that Afghanistan boasts now 282 judges that are women and 484 women that are defense lawyers. In conclusion, I would like to state that this is only a snapshot of the ongoing reform of the justice system in Afghanistan. There probably are other important changes underway, but if I was able to gather in a few days that much information, I don't see why journalists and analysts that pose as specialists of Afghan affairs cannot do the same. The present unity government and the people of Afghanistan are hard at work establishing strong foundations on which to rebuild their country. And I'm very hopeful of their success, notwithstanding the repeated pronouncement of the prophets of gloom and doom. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Let me add my welcome to Nancy. It's great to have you here. We enjoyed the opportunity to host your husband and President Ghani just over a year ago here at USIP and thrilled to welcome you here as well. I'd like to also welcome all of you in the audience for taking time to join us today, as well as those who have joined us virtually as this event is being webcast. And just to emphasize this record, this is on the record and being webcast. We also would welcome, if anyone wants to submit questions via Twitter to send it to the hashtag Ghani USIP. So that's hashtag Ghani USIP if you want to submit any questions via Twitter. I was struck at a recent event where you also spoke in Washington. A young man in the audience stood up and he said, this is my, he was very honored to be there, to hear you speak. He said, you are the first Afghan First Lady he's seen, let alone heard from. And I think that's probably true of just about all Afghans. I think you could argue you're probably the most visible First Lady since Queen Saraya in the 1920s. And I guess in that, with that background, as you took on this role, which is new to you but also to most Afghans, I was wondering if you could say a little bit about how you thought through what you saw as your role, what your key objectives would be in that role and how you'd sort of go about achieving those objectives. Okay, I never expected to be a First Lady. Let's start with that. So when my husband was elected, I had no agenda. I didn't know what I was going to do. And I decided to take it slowly and to try and see what would be developing around me. After two weeks of staying at home, I decided I needed to do something else than watching TV and reading books. And with the encouragement of my husband, I opened a small office with just one secretary who used to be the secretary of Mrs. Karzai, the former First Lady. And decided to open my doors and welcome whoever would want to come. And I thought I'd have maybe a couple of people coming and drinking tea with me. You know, a very easy situation. Maybe it was the novelty of somebody who was opening her doors, in my case, opening her doors within the palace because people were not allowed in the palace before. Maybe it was the novelty of having a person that did not grow up in Afghanistan but married enough on and decided to work for the country. I don't know, they came. And they came delegation after delegation. They came from all over the country. They came from very distant provinces, from very close ones, from Kabul. And at first, it might have been curiosity, but I enjoy being with people. I enjoy talking. This is why I do so many talks. But they felt comfortable with me. And we started exchanging ideas, exchanging comments, concerns, complaints. Sometimes I scold them if ever they ask for something and I think, you know, come on. Why are you asking for this? But it is a very relaxed atmosphere and I think people maybe needed to have somebody who was somewhat their elder and somewhat has the time to sit with them and to listen to them and to take down notes and to kind of help them figure out what the solutions are. So, my role grew somewhat organically. I did not decide that this is what I'm going to do. I never thought I would be sought by so many people. And basically it carries on to be like that. The flow of people continues. It's not as rushed as in the early days, but I still get people who want to come and tell me about what they're doing. Sometimes they need help. They are stuck in some governmental procedure and I can make a phone call. But I'm very clear. I don't have a budget, an operational budget. I cannot give money. My post is not an official one. I'm neither elected nor selected. I just happen to be the wife of the president. So, I don't think I have that much power, but I can always pick up the phone or have one of my advisor pick up the phone and call somebody, for example, at RSI, the Department of Land. And when I had some women who had come from Herat and wanted to rent some land to be able to cultivate saffron on it. And they were not getting any kind of answer. Unfortunately, it's often the case for Afghan women. When they deal with official institutions, they're often not really maltreated, but they're often ignored. They can sit in the waiting room for three, four hours and nobody will come and talk to them. So, it's really not difficult for me to ask one of my advisor to call. And which he did in that case. And the guy said, oh, yeah, we do have a group of women here. Duh. Anyway. So, and I get back to you. And 20 minutes later, he called and he said, well, we processed their demands. It's okay. It's done. That's wonderful. This is one of the very easy, very rewarding cases that this happened like that. Other cases are common. Other cases I can't help. I really don't know what to do. But I give encouragement. I suggest other people they can go and see. And this is really one big part of my work. Yes. Thank you very much. You touched on a little bit in your closing remarks. I mean, clearly one aspect of your job is also to come to places like USIP and Washington. And I know you were in New York yesterday and raising awareness about the situation in Afghanistan. And also that it's not all doom and gloom. You know, I first worked in the 80s and 90s in Afghanistan. So it's possible to see the tremendous gains and it's important to remind American audiences about those. However, the situation does seem, you know, to be difficult, extremely difficult in some ways getting worse due to their economic situation and security situation. Just as an interesting experiment, I went on to the New York Times website, which I'm sure is your favorite newspaper. And I did a search for Afghanistan and just for the last seven days. And there's about 96 entries. And I did not go through all of them. I went through about the first 20 or 30. And here are the headlines. So May 7, Taliban publicly execute two women in northern Afghanistan. May 8, U.S. role in Afghanistan turns to combat again was a tragic error talking about the Khundu situation. May 9, U.S. warrants a kidnapping threat in Afghanistan. May 10, U.K.'s Cameron Cot calling Nigeria Afghanistan fantastically corrupt. May 11, Afghanistan faces tough battle as Haqqani unify the Taliban. May 12, Gulbadan Hikmater exiled Afghan insurgent. Years have come back. But finally on May 12, I saw a positive one, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And then, you know, I didn't go much further. But just to give a sense of that's the coverage and that's the attitude about the situation. But I don't think it's just the New York Times. I mean, even when I go to Kabul regularly and talking to people there and unfortunately I don't get out of Kabul much anymore. There is this perception of it's a very difficult situation in some Afghans voting with their feet to leave. So I guess I'm wondering in that difficult context what sort of gives you what are your sort of hopes and but also fears for the future of Afghanistan? So what gives you hope? I think you've made my case by listing all these titles of articles. And I don't think I'm really very off the mark when I call most journalists prophets of doom and gloom. It's partly because they are after sensational sensational use will sell newspapers. Partly because they don't really have as much freedom of movement as they used to have and you mentioned that yourself. And then they rely on some fixers and I'd like to know who those fixers are because then they really need to be talked to. This situation in Kabul is not that that extremely bad. I remember once opening the TV and there was a Nick Patton wash of CNN and he was saying Kandahar is about to fall. Well that was like two months ago. Kandahar is still there and the Taliban are still in their hills not able to gain much ground. There is much that's done about gaining 600 meters one side and losing 600 meter on the other side. This is not really battles that really count. Yes, it is a difficult situation. Yes, we have difficulties with our economy. Yes, we have a difficulty with our security. But it was to be predicted. I mean NATO just with true security. I don't know how many troops, hundreds, some thousand troops. So all that economy that was supporting the NATO troops all these people are now without a job. So yes, the economy is not as good as before. And yes, security is not as good as before because there are less troops on the ground. But look at the results of the army, NATO generals will tell you that the army, the Afghan army is performing very well within the limits of their training and within the limits of their equipment. The Taliban tried again to take back Konduz. They were flatly defeated and they lost quite a few of their members. There was recently another battle in Qunar around Raziabad. I don't know exactly the details but I know my husband told me well the victory of Raziabad will go down in history. And I think there too there were maybe a hundred Taliban that were killed. Taliban or Daesh or whatever they are. Because unfortunately now the Taliban are not just Afghan Taliban. We have we seem to have people from all corners of the world. We have Chessians, we have Turks, we have people from other countries. And so it's becoming at first you could say that while the Taliban they are our brothers, they are our cousins we should just kind of sit down and talk and discuss with them. Peace. But right now these are mercenaries. These are people that are fighting not because they're fighting for a cause they're fighting because they get a salary of $400 so there are things that are changing. So basically what I tried to do today by addressing the justice sector I took one sector that I knew enough because of the work that has been undertaken for women in prisons and I realized what kind of reforms were being undertaken. The unity government is busy trying to set up the foundation for a solid state and it is making a lot of progress. There are a lot of people that are not happy not to be in government there are a lot of people who you know would like to go back to the days where they could fill up their pockets very easily because a lot of international aid money would come out of diverting the funds to their own accounts but yeah well if they are not happy I'm sorry actually I think it is progress that they're not happy. If I could just pick up on that the rule of law issue obviously central USIP has focused on that as one of our main pillars since 2002 very much under the belief that you really can't have peace if you don't have some semblance of rule of law so real priority to rebuild that and you touched on that very eloquently in your remarks about a lot of the measures that have been taken. I was wondering if you could maybe even just maybe summarize a little bit more what you think might be the most effective way to address, promote the rule of law in terms of reforms and maybe in particular on the issue of corruption because that's what we do hear a lot about it does have not you know many years in Afghanistan has been I think a major play to roll generating dissection of the government perhaps creating some encouragement to try to delegitimize the government and so what you think could be done in particular from a rule of law angle and you touched on some of them today but what would you highlight as some of the most important in this regard? I think that the unity government really started with a bank and they reopened the Kabul Bank case and put some of the perpetrators in prison and are asking for the money to be paid back because this was money that you know basically it was a case where some important people were able to get these humongous loans which actually came from the deposits of small regular people, their savings so restitution of the funds is one of the thing but I think what I pointed out about the two measures that the Chief Justice took as soon as he got in in position the fact that we used to have a justice system but it was a joke because you could follow a case for several years through the first court through the appellate court and then through the supreme court and get at all three levels get a decision in your favor and then by just a signature the Chief Justice could revoke everything so you know that is exactly a systemic door to corruption the other one was that if ever you had a case in the court and you were fined a certain amount again the Chief Justice could by stroke of the pen say it's okay you don't need to pay anything probably the money went into his pocket so this was these two measures already have reduced a lot the possibility of corruption the Attorney General I understand that I'm not really quite sure whether it has been done or not but it's being considered the Attorney General is not supposed prosecutors are not supposed to get into private dispute, dispute with two private parties they are supposed to be in disputes that involve the government but they used to get involved and get paid by both sides and side with the side that gives them most money or whatever so this is also being removed I'm not sure whether it's happened or not so these are kind of measures I am not really a specialist of law I'm not a jurist I'm not a lawyer but for me it's just common sense you put laws that are applied applicable to everyone very fairly you really diminish the need for corruption if it's fair in square if you win your case because you are on the side of the law then nobody's going to have to bribe their way I hope that it's going to carry on like this I'm kind of cautiously optimistic that you have to change mentality of people at the same time but when they find out that they cannot do certain things anymore maybe they'll decide that they need to follow the law I have many more questions I want to ask but I shouldn't be selfish I want to open it up but maybe before I'll ask what we got one question by Twitter just before we began and I'll ask that question to you audience questions Heather McLeod of NAFSA asks how do you empower those with no voice to make their voices heard everybody has a voice they just don't know it you just have to encourage them I don't know I mean that's what I do day in day out they're citizens of the country they have the right to speak and they should ok questions from the audience right here if you could please introduce yourself but also try to keep your questions or comments very short so we have a time for everyone I'm Seema and I have a comment everybody wants to know about Mrs. Ghani today in the paper when I went back to Afghanistan when she was the wife of the finance minister there was other ministers who had 14-15 cars with a guard at their front door Mrs. Ghani got an old used Toyota Corolla painted it gray had a driver and she had to teach him from the backseat how to drive a stick shift she had a black scarf she helped Arshiana she helped all the there was a lot of orphanage and she went street to street door to door to help those children and today we are talking about all the bad news in Afghanistan we hear about it turn on the 4 o'clock news here in Washington what do you hear shooting killing all of the bad news and hopefully all the journalists will see the good and we are hoping that there should be something from the embassy or some journalist will go to Afghanistan and give us the report of all the good things and good luck Afghanistan is certainly not the only country where good news is no news another question gentleman on the back my name is Sam Farzane and my question is about the situation I have two questions one of them is about the situation for women you talk about the changes in the judiciary system but there are other things that is not related to judiciary system like people who choose to suicide kill themselves by burning in her out especially what do you do for them I think this is a common a common mistake to expect that I should do something I'm just one person and I have four advisors with just five women to help people I hope that the atmosphere that I'm trying to create becomes a positive atmosphere that makes the people do not feel anymore that they are in desperate situation and that they have places where they can go and ask for help or ask for a change of their situation that's what I'm trying to do I cannot help case by case I'm going to take another Twitter question Megan Stone, the president of the Malala Fund asks what about your time as a young student and activist does that inform your work today for the rights of girls and women as a first lady the thing of women's rights I am all for women's rights but I never talk about women's rights because women are part of society, look at you there are women, there are men this is what society is we are all living together and families cannot happen unless there is a woman and a man together so I like to think that what you need to push for is respect mutual respect of each other whether you're a woman whether you're a child whether you're an old person I think respecting the human dignity of every human being is extremely important and that's usually how I couch my my activities I never was a political activist I just always had very strong feelings and always worked according to my feelings and according to my convictions I hope it answers the question another hand in the back the woman, yes Marzia Faraz National Democratic Institute my question is on informal rule of law and dispute resolution in Afghanistan it's very common to resolve disputes through the traditional dispute resolution mechanisms and means such as Shoras Jurgas, women are not present at these discussions even if they are a party to dispute decisions made through these means and mechanisms are discriminatory and biased against women the executions that Mr Wilder mentioned they have been said that these are carried out by Taliban but they could easily be carried out by community leaders, tribal elders based on the decisions made at the Shoras or Jurgas so what's your take on this the government level between the Ministry of Women Affairs and Ministry of Justice to address this issue thank you you assert your information with a lot of firmness it shows your age I came to Afghanistan 40 years ago 41 years ago and yes there were traditions yes there were Shoras yes there were decisions that were made but women did have a way of being part of the decisions and the the climate of violence and of outright disrespect to women was not there and this is why because I've seen that this is why I feel comfortable in saying we can re-establish the in-atmosphere mentality of humanity in Afghanistan because it is part of Afghan culture what we're seeing, what you have described now is the culture of war this is the violence this is the violence I was talking about when you are pushed so far that you can only deal with situation by being violent and you get violent and these also are the weakest and women unfortunately are usually in weaker positions I'm really hopeful that we will be able to revive true Afhan Ananat and I hope that we'll be able to change the mentality of people people don't like violence people were horrified when Farhunda was lynched people were really very upset and when I say people I mean women and men people woke up and said how can we accept to have so much violence how can we accept this violence in our street but it takes time to change mentality it doesn't happen very quickly you have to talk a lot you have to create situations to explain to people you have to have public announcements you have to have dramas culture, art I mean there are so many ways of trying to change mentalities and I hope and it's not the work of one person I hope all the Afhans will join to change the mentality the gentleman on the row here I am Rana Atasham Robani from Pakistan you admitted that you are not selected or elected and you have no power but no power you have being a good wife you can influence your husband so I will suggest you to give more stress and attention towards education of women especially the girls so maybe some Sakina and other women sitting here they are produced and they are they play their roles for changing the mind of their men thank you because the comment will go one room front you don't want me to answer sorry you are very welcome I saw more of the comment but over to you no I wanted to thank him for his comment and I am sure we are working in that direction to what extent is there an effort I am Meryl Steiner nobody to what extent is there an effort to bring this concept of rule of law into the schools to teach young people the concept as well as what can be done and what is being done to help them feel more secure and bring it home to the dinner table you are absolutely right and I have discovered that the curriculum used to have when my husband used to be in school a subject that was called Hobbil Watan which is love of country which is civic studies unfortunately it is not being taught anymore and I am trying to have it reinstated I think it is really very important my office organized a program last year with 12 schools in Kabul grade 9 to 12 we called it the week of Afghanistan after Afghanistan and during that week we just got all the directors headmistresses and headmasters it was 6 schools for girls and 6 schools for boys and we we helped them set up a program for 6 days each day was a different activity some was the folklore, some was the culture some was more the environment some was the history so I mean they really they really loved it the children loved it they were so happy to do something and we produced a 35 minute movie on the activities I think the children are thirsty for something like that the gentleman back there to see thank you very welcome to the United States to your first country actually and nobody better than you in this room understand what means the war and peace because Lebanon and Kabul both your homes is in the war I I'm Farmer I'm working for the State Department we just left a couple of weeks ago with my wife my question goes to that article of New York Times of May 12 actually about the Gulbadan Hickam and I make a little difficult question for you not expecting 100% the answer but I hope that you can thank all of us think ten years ago we started the consolation process with the Taliban today every of us accepting that the Taliban have to come and the government into the society and return back to home but there's also a few people like Gulbadan Hickam there's a red line for generation of mine there's a lot of Afghans here sitting it's just like you go to the New York City and ask them people do you want Mr. Bin Laden come back and join us this is how it works for Afghanistan for the most Afghans I know we hope that we actually always I'm thinking we had was supposed to have you Mr. Kani 13 years, 15 years ago in Afghanistan and Karzai let's say but I hope that we think about that let me answer you I understand what you're saying and in war you really develop very strong feelings of hate towards other people but making peace you don't make peace with your friends you make peace with your enemies unfortunately it's hard it's not easy and you can be sure that my husband is not giving away any kind of privilege or concession on people's rights but this person is also enough on and he has a right to be in his country under certain condition under his respect for the constitution and his respect for the rules of the country so it's a hard one to swallow, I agree I've had this same kind of reaction towards people in Lebanon we need to move on and this is why I have a lot of hope in the generation that is 25 to 30 because they come without that baggage they don't have to deal with that they don't know who Golbo deal with and they don't care even who he is so if ever he comes and he goes and finds a house somewhere and lives peacefully that's fine, it's not a problem I hope you'll be able to find that peace in you sticking to the theme of conflict resolution we have a twitter question from Doug Brooks the board member of the afghan-american chamber of commerce who asks could informal interactions among first spouses in the region be a method to reduce political tensions now we've worked on peace for many years in Afghanistan and I have to say this is an innovative idea I haven't heard before so over to you it's a good suggestion I'm ready to explore it but it has not happened yet I could go to the very backed woman and give a chance to a journalist thank you so much I'm Karimi correspondent for Ariana TV from Afghanistan first of all I got information that you received the day before yesterday could you please tell us something about that one the second question do you have any comment about yesterday's incident in London somebody interrupted President Ghani's meeting and also as a wife you're not worried about Ghani's safety and security lots of questions London's dangerous everywhere in the world is becoming dangerous yesterday the lotus circle of the Asia foundation honored me with an award for the work I'm doing in Afghanistan it was very kind of them to recognize my work I think I started my speech by telling them that I was accepting the award not for me but in the name of all Afghan women who are working very hard day in day out to make a good life for themselves and their families regarding the incident in London I only heard it very briefly I've spoken to my husband this morning he didn't seem to be at all affected a heckler is a heckler you just take it on the right yes my second question is about the younger generation that you and President Ghani encouraging them to stay in the country and you just told us about it to build the country and some people criticize you in saying that your own children are abroad what do you say about that criticism is always very easy first of all we need to set the record straight according to the media it's like millions of Afghans have left Afghanistan as far as I understand I've seen two figures one is 140,000 the other one is 180,000 for a country of 32 million people it doesn't seem like everybody is packing and leaving this is just common sense if you find other figures please let me know the criticism about our children our children were born here they went to school here they worked here they live here they are in their 30s we never thought we were going back to Afghanistan so why should they uproot themselves and go back there they do come often they really are both in two very different fields and in their own fields they have given quite a few workshops to help the young people in those fields I think they are doing their bit but I don't see why they should go back their life is here it so happens it's destiny so we left Afghanistan and we were ready to go back this person who is sitting here knows it better than anyone else we were ready to go back all the family members of my family were put in prison did you want him to go back would you go back to Iran if your family were in prison so, you know my name is Samia Aldaf I am an international development specialist those of us who have been working in this area know how difficult it is to bring about institutional change in developing countries so our hopes and prayers go with the unity government and the long suffering people of Afghanistan my specific question to Mrs. Ghani is that you have a very critical platform and in your own gentle way you use it very well I bring to you an appeal from all the international public health specialists please put your weight behind the issue of polio eradication in our two countries Afghanistan and Pakistan because as you well know there is ample research that says that unless this is handled collaboratively it will not happen so thank you very much for your time I agree totally with you it needs to be done regionally the woman back here in the black Salam alaikum my name is Marjan you probably don't remember but I was one of those few people who came to the palace and met with you those early days the reforms that you mentioned look forward to the cases that already exist or will come and that's very exciting every little step counts I'm just wondering about major cases that happened in the past particularly you mentioned Farhunda and at least here in the west I had already left Afghanistan we really felt like justice was not reached in that case do you have any hope that major cases like that may be reviewed again under the new regulations and reforms that you mentioned thank you the Farhunda case is under review has been now maybe a month and a half six weeks, eight weeks they have because it was obvious that the kind of judgement that was reached was not correct in a day where with the phone you can see everything there have been so many accounts of this incident and so many different phones that we know exactly who are the perpetrators but again it takes time to change mentalities and some of them have very powerful protectors running short on time we'll take a couple more questions but please keep them brief the woman in the blue in the very back row hi Mrs. Rani my name is Arzo Wardak with the Alliance in support of the Alliance I have a great deal of respect for you and the work that you've done I'm part of the Afghan diaspora community here in the United States and many members of our community including myself traveled to Greece a couple months ago I spent nearly a month working in a refugee camp and on our first day we came across 7,000 refugees 60% of them were Afghan women and many of them Afghan women and children and what we observed were visible signs of violence on their bodies and the numbers kept increasing as we would receive 1,000 refugees a day by the boats now with the new Turkey EU deal that recently took place a lot of the Afghan refugees are facing deportation my fear is for the Afghan women that may be forced back to Afghanistan are there any have you dedicated any efforts towards essentially helping these women readjust back to Afghanistan so that they're not coming back to nothing or far more worse than they left off thank you first of all I want to thank you for feeling the need to go and help I think I mentioned it in my Facebook I have a Facebook that cannot be found because it's under office of the first lady of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan it's a mouthful but anyway if you still remember your Pashto or your Dari you can follow what I do there and I had thanked and celebrated your work there in Greece yes the situation is really very delicate these people there are people who have already come back who have lost their children in the sea they're totally desperate they're not feeling good you're worried about the women because and this is something you find everywhere in the world when your people live in poor conditions wife battering and abuse is much more prevalent we do have we have a very new and young Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Refugees Dr. Alema who is trying to organize a welcoming welcoming team at the airport to receive the refugees to kind of take care of them to attend to their needs be they psychological or financial to kind of give them some kind of welcoming and especially the children because the children must be terribly affected more can be done I'm sure but there is already an effort in the right direction we'll take two final questions one here one there and then go back to you for responses to those questions my name is Farah Dunzaki I'm a former US Embassy staff member living in Maryland now thank you very much for the information you give us regarding your limitations as the first lady and regarding your intentions for what you as the first lady first and as an individual second you would like to do for the country including all the political upheavals we have in the country the presidents of jihadi leaders the intention for the reconciliation with Gulbuddin Hikmatiar if we look at the big picture and do not forget the influences of all the opposition leaders including the jihadi leaders have and the power sharing between the government the presence of the executive office do you see any light at the end of the tunnel as an individual first and as a first lady of Afghanistan second just if you think you are positive and you think yes there is light at the end of the tunnel give us two indications that will make us more than happy at least thank you how long has it been since you left Afghanistan 16 months 8 days I am counting 16 months 8 days yes I want you to remember the age of all these people the mujahideen, the Gulbuddin Hikmatiar and all these these are now old people they are ending their lives if they want to come to Afghanistan and finish their lives where they were born I think it's only the human way to say ok you come and put some conditions you don't do this, you don't do that whatever the conversation is no longer with these people these people actually are being very vocal in the media because they find themselves very marginalized they are no longer part of the decision makers ok so have heart there are some very good young people who are starting to grow into their roles who are taking part in the administration it's still not an ideal situation but there are a lot of young people who maybe there are some of those who lived abroad in neighboring countries or even in far away countries and feel that they want to live in their own country and they rather have difficulties in their own country than live in a country where there always be foreigners so there is a hard core of very young people who are going to make it and this is why I'm very very very hopeful it's not going to happen today it's not going to happen tomorrow but it is in the process of happening that's what I will tell you I'm afraid you've run out of time but I had promised the woman in the second row here the final word final question but please keep it very very brief, thanks Hi my name is Tamana and I work for women, for Afghan women I thank you for the work you are doing supporting education in Afghanistan and we know the first step that you support establishing only women university in Kabul my question is born in Afghanistan and being raised in Afghanistan we were reading a lot about war and bullets and all these things and conflict and everything in our textbooks do you have any advice for the minister of education to insert some more text about human rights respecting women rights, peace and these kind of topics and subjects and the books or what do you think I think you're totally right thank you the curriculum needs to be totally overhauled we should not have one Kalashnikov plus one Kalashnikov at least that was the textbook that was being used several years ago I don't know if they still have it I don't know what they use now unfortunately the minister the ministry of education was in very bad shape we inherited a ministry of education that is a bloated there are too many riyazat I think there are 127 of them whereas other ministries have like 20 or 25 it was like each time the minister wanted to recompense somebody he said okay I'll create a riyazat for you and they don't know what they're doing so they don't interact with each other so it's a real total mess so among other things we need to do the curriculum and I think you're totally right what every orphan can do is you have ideas of books for children of stories of plays of things you can contribute you can contribute this is a time to send even if you don't want to come to afghanistan but you can send your ideas say this is what the curriculum should be like or this and if you don't have anyone to send it to you can send it to my office and I'll make sure that it gets wherever it should okay thank you and if I could just also add this is one of the priority areas for the US Institute of Peace in Afghanistan curriculum reform and we have some very good partnerships on working at higher education institutions they come up with new curriculum for conflict resolution peace building so that's an area we're hoping to do more moving forward but unfortunately we have run out of time I'd like to thank all of you for coming I want to thank again those who joined us virtually I would ask if you could all remain seated as the first lady in her delegation leave please in conclusion join me in thanking the first lady for joining us today thank you very much