 Well good evening everyone. Thank you for coming to this the second in our smart women's smart power series here at CSIS I'm Kathleen Hicks. I run the international security program and in the Henry Henry Kissinger chair here at CSIS We are here on an ash Wednesday, so I have not misapplied my makeup So thank you for for that in advance And thank you also for braving the cold weather we've had here in Washington more cold is gonna come I think while we're here, but I hope you will be warmed by the great conversation that we've put together for you tonight. I Want to thank in particular city who provides sponsorship for this series and without whom we could not put on this event this evening We have put up for you for smart women's smart power our Twitter handle Which is that smart women and of course we are broadcasting this live via webcast and tonight It's my pleasure most importantly to introduce our two Speakers most importantly the first lady of Afghanistan Rula Ghani here for the first time at CSIS as a native of Lebanon she met her husband the president of Afghanistan when they were students together the American University in Beirut she is Quite accomplished as a having earned our master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York and of course She's worked extensively on women's and children's issues in Afghanistan And I'm sure she'll be sharing those experiences with us here tonight Providing the moderation for this evening is as always Nina Easton who helps us host this smart women's smart power series Nina is a senior associate here at CSIS And she's also a columnist and chair of fortune's most powerful women international summit So please join me in introducing and thanking our speakers for tonight. So thank you all for coming and thank you For that terrific introduction I just wanted to give one shout out to one other piece of smart women's smart power We do which is a weekly podcast you can find it on Apple iTunes. It's right on your smartphone And it's a great way to hear women talk about pressing foreign policy matters of the day Well, thank you so much for being here, Mrs. Ghani It is just it's truly an honor And it was delightful to get to know you a little bit over the course of the couple a couple of these days It's interesting because Your predecessor the previous first lady. She was a doctor You know professional woman but never seen in public you've become you've come in and last many months and become quite visible and Have been accused of making waves, which we like to hear Let's start with that what is your vision for how you want to be first lady Okay First I'd like to say that I'm very glad to be with all of you tonight. I hope that I will not disappoint And I would like to say a word about Mrs. Karzai doctors you not Karzai She's indeed a doctor and she's an accomplished professional person She happened to be In her child bearing and child rearing years during the time her husband was president And I remember when I was in my child rearing and child bearing years I didn't have time for anything else. So if she chose not to have a public life, I Think it was her choice and I don't think she should be blamed for that anyway coming back to me Once I moved to the palace I Found that if I stayed at home, I would be just waiting for my husband to come back at night and You may know that my husband is a workaholic workaholic and that he will not come back till maybe quite late and I very quickly got bored so With his encouragement, I Decided to have an office and Slowly this office has grown We now are seven women Young and old. I'm the old one and We We decided to have an open-door policy. So basically I see my role more as a Listener and as a facilitator I Don't have a budget people don't come to me to get money But they come to me to talk To share their concerns to Sometimes the voice their complaints Sometimes just to let me know what they're doing and it's really wonderful because I've had women and men mostly women though and a lot of young people come and See me Maybe it was a novelty. They wanted to see who was that person who was had become the first lady Might be the reason why there are so many of you around here tonight Anyway, but also to have a chance to talk about what Is worrying him or what is interesting them their hopes Their misgivings so In the first phase, this is what my office does it's just kind of welcome people They sing to them and in the cases where we can help where it's an easy way of helping like for example picking up the phone and Obtaining an appointment for them in some government agency We do it and we have helped quite a few quite a few people Not too many but still we've made And what have you learned about the country and the state of the country in this listening tour that you're doing I'm you and I talked about the the widening gap between the provinces and the urban centers for example Yes, the first thing I discovered is that there are a lot of very strong women who are determined to better their lives that is You know, it is something that does not come in the press because the press For some reason It's like a you know a broken record that keeps saying you know poor of one women and it's true They if they are facing very difficult situations but they are facing them with a lot of resilience with a lot of strength and With a lot of resourcefulness Through their talks as you mentioned yes, I realized that there is a widening gap Between the urban areas and the provinces especially the far-flung provinces Women will come to me and say you have forgotten us Nobody comes and help us. We don't have access to Medical services. We don't have access to education Let alone legal services or other kind of more sophisticated services You see a lot of the teachers in the provinces are men and In many of these provinces many families will not send their daughters to a classroom that's led by a man The solution is very easy is to train local women to become teachers First elementary teachers and middle then upper, you know higher school We don't need to think about University yet, but There is a need to Concentrate on these women and I worry because if ever the gap increases Will be two countries will not be one country And you find you found some incredibly incredible stories of resilience among some of those women in the Provinces where security is an issue where the Taliban is an issue. Can you relate that what I call the the tea party story? Yes, this is a really inspiring story It was reported to me by a woman who came to see me from Kandahar I don't know exactly where it took place, but she told me the story of this widow who had to leave her village and go to Kabul to be able to make a living for herself and her children and On one of her visits back to the village She goes to visit a cousin who also is a widow and finds out that the cousin has been that just dislodged from her home and her little piece of land around the home very modest home Both she and her cousin are illiterate don't know how to read and write and She finds out that she's been dislodged by the newly arrived Taliban so She says, okay. I'm going to deal with it. She takes three glasses You know we drink tea in glasses in the provinces. She glasses fills a teapot a with hot hot tea and goes there enters the room and Grates the people What's the three Glasses in front of the three people I think the head was in the middle and two people were there and starts pouring tea for them and Then she sits down and she starts talking with them, you know first. It's just You know the usual Talk of how are you? Are you fine? How are your children? Your family's fine? Yes, my family's fine All this and then she starts telling them very nicely that you know, this is the house of my cousin She's a widow. Do you know she has seven children? And you know her husband has died seven years before You know, she really relies on this piece of land around the house for Having some food, you know, she she plants she cultivates it and has some and It went on one hour two hours at the third hour She kept repeating and kept saying you know at third hour without even talking to her The commander the Taliban commander takes the Kalashnikov. He had between his knees Stands up and tells his guys. Let's go. We're going to another house so Very calmly and very quietly she negotiated the Taliban getting out of the house of her cousin and Had her cousin reinstated in her house That shows you women are strong. They have their own way of doing things. They don't come barging They don't go and say oh, what is this? Who do you think you are and where did you come from and what are your know? but they are persistent and they Keep pushing and pushing and pushing until their voices heard and in this case it was heard Love that story. Well, you know And what what what about though a more formal role for women in peace negotiations? I mean, of course that when the Taliban came in and Forced women to wear burkas and not leave the house without a man wouldn't ban girls from schools And now you've got a 40% of students in Afghanistan are girls. There's been tremendous progress and There's pressure from a lot of organizations of Afghan women's network to to a put women at the peace table and Be talk about women's issues or women's rights as part of that process. What's your perspective on that? I think it's not yet the time for it. I Think we don't really have negotiation yet so whether or not there are women in the In the negotiating team is really a moot question Yes, there has been There has been a lot of meetings and there has been a lot of going come back and forth and going to Qatar and going to Saudi Arabia and I don't know what and I don't know what but all of this has resulted in nothing I think women have their role where they are living if They have Taliban families there to interact with those families and Often they do because you know when you coexist with other people You have issues together. Maybe there is a question of water that needs to be divided Maybe there is a question of a school that needs a teacher. Maybe there is a question. I don't know Common things when people live together. They have they share concerns and problems I don't think it's time for the women to sit at the table because there is no table yet. Okay, and the The status of women there you talked about we had this conversation about the sort of entrepreneurial spirit You're seeing of women that there's there's really a Misperception about women in Afghanistan in the media. We talked about your beautiful coat Design of that and can you talk about what kinds of companies you're seeing women get involved in? Well, I've been very surprised. I've had delegation of business women coming to me And these are not small businesses. I've had factory owners. I've had women who own Don't own who actually lease big tracks of land and Try to cultivate vegetables on it. I've had the owner women who trade in Dried nuts in carpets of course, there's also the women who trade in How Magdouzi and all this all the embroidery things Women are very savvy They just need a little bit of push. They need just a little bit of support They need a little bit of encouragement, but once they are given the space They perform They get result they get things done. I mean, I see there is maybe Half of the audiences women tonight and women know that when they put their mind to it They really get it done no matter what it is whether it's something at home or something at work if they put their mind at it they really get it done and I've been really very pleasantly surprised to see their savviness And to see what they would ask for example, they would say as Women we are not getting good Teals at the banks, you know when we go for a loan the banks will not give us Loans without us putting as collateral our whole house and You know we ask for a small loan and here they want the whole house Why don't they take for example our car as a collateral? And which is really a very reasonable thing that car is still valuable and might be the value of the loan So they are I find them usually that they will talk to me about their problems But they will tell me what is the solution so I find it much easier to help them Because if ever it's talking to a certain agency My colleagues do that and we have helped a couple of women's like that it's It's also very encouraging to see how How determined they are to make it and to make it for their daughters and for their children and and for the country a very patriotic So you gave a speech in Oslo not long ago and you said Afghan women need to reclaim their past in an Islamic tradition And you cited a number of powerful women. Can you talk about a couple of those? Yes, I Maybe it's it's kind of a The luck of the fact that I left Afghanistan just before the civil war So I left it during its heyday. I had lived four years there I lived within the family of my husband So I've lived with my in-laws with the extended family and I saw what the situation was and what of one culture really was It's a culture. That's very harmonious. Of course, there were problems like there are in any society but people lived in In harmony with each other. They knew what their place was. They knew what was expected from them There was no gap for example with the Between city and province Members of the family that lived in the province would come and stay for extended Times sometimes two weeks three weeks With us we would go back and stay with them There was a back-and-forth all the time we would spend our weekends in the closest province This is This is what I call a fun culture in which women were respected My mother-in-law my husband's grandmother Were powerful women and yet they were women that stayed at home It was not because they worked outside There were other members of the family that worked outside and they were also quite respected and I Never heard somebody say oh, she's working outside. She's you know, who is she? No on the contrary. We had one who got a PhD in history and became member of the Academy of Science another one was when the Hospital the Jumruyat Hospital Shafakhani Jumruyat was open. She got the job the procedure job of Managing she got she became the manager of the hospital. So From my little microcosm of this family I could tell that women had their place in society and their role was respected and appreciated and This is something that I would like to this is why I'm saying I want to revive a fun culture now I also saying we have to go back to our Islamic roots because in Islam women were very important especially in that in those First few decades in the 1920s. No, I'm talking. I'm talking about the Prophet's time Much longer the Queen no no no we'll talk about the Queen later. Yeah, anyway, but in Islam the you know The Prophet married one of the most important traders of Saudi Arabia and she was a woman You know this woman had caravans that were going all the way to the Mediterranean and all the way to the Persian Gulf his his daughter married Ali against She had lots of suitors, but she preferred to marry for love. So that's again in other interesting Notion that marriage for love You know there were the The sister of Hassan and Hussein They were the one who did You know kind of fought they were warriors and they really fought so What I'm trying to say is that it's the Islam the place of women is an important place the the kind of Islam that is now Taking places is being kind of Presented to all the young generation. It's no longer that it's it's it's actually not Islam. It's just a I don't know a I wouldn't say it's a variation because it's not variation. It's totally it's something else. I was I was making a speech one day for a an event that was about midwives and OBGYN doctors and Do you know that in Islam it says very in the Holy Quran? It says very clearly that there should be 30 months between children between The birth of children it says it very clearly For the health of the child and for the health of the mother So for for Christ's sake, I mean This this distortion of Islam we should not accept them we should really kind of get back to The basis to what really it is go back to the text study them and understand them Now you mentioned Queen Suraya Queen Suraya was in The wife of Abdul Rahman King Abdul Rahman in the at the beginning of the 20th century in the 1920s She was an educated woman and She became the minister of education she held a cabinet position and It seems to me it's my guess that she really is the person who built the foundation For a very strong Educational system that existed in Afghanistan before the Civil War the education system which gave gave Birth I know I mean who which allowed people like my husband to arrive for his University studies my husband and his cohort when they came to the American University of Beirut They had no problem adjusting They knew as much as the others and actually sometimes they had covered in things like physics and chemistry They had covered the subjects that there were were being told told to freshmen We had a wonderful Educational system thanks to Queen Suraya who sent a lot of people on scholarship But insisted that they should study Education they wanted to become doctors Engineers lawyers what have you know they had to study education They came back and they were they had master and had master's of the schools They were the professors in the new University and they did a great job Educating generations of Afghans and this is why the older generation of Afghans are all very well read very well Educated know what they're talking about know their history and all their geography and all their science And thanks to this one woman So I think of one woman already when they they put their their mind to it. They're really quite formidable and let's talk about you speaking of Someone who seems almost like a role model, but you were raised Lebanese Christian In a pretty illustrious family talk about what your father did My father My father came from modest Background, but had his scholarship and went and studied agriculture in in Lebanon in France at the time I'm French educated by the way, but When he came back he proceeded to To really put together the agriculture of the country he introduced Various varieties of fruits varieties of new varieties of vegetables He introduced fertilizers insecticides pesticides Eventually he got into water treatment into food industries He was really quite a pioneer and even at one point he was Approach to become the head of the FAO But my mother said no, I'm not leaving Lebanon And so he stayed at home. So you study you left though you studied in Paris You talked about 1968 and the uprisings having an impact on your thinking well, I I was there and the Pension the family in which I left Was in the middle of all the events. So I was a in first lines to see what was happening. I did not take part Because at the time I was still very young and that didn't really understand what was happening But it's certainly what stayed with me is that you can be an agent of change By seeing what was happening in May 68 seeing all these Students trying to change the curriculum change the way Teaching was done in in France at the time. It was done in a very Hierarchical way nothing like the American system You attended large classes probably larger than this the number of students and Down there would be the teacher who'd do his lecture and that would be it Then you had to study on your own and nothing like and so they they wanted to change that system and I think they did Change it in some ways like all revolutions some things stuck some things did not didn't and then you You worked as a journalist for a time. You were studied at Columbia Journalism at Columbia and how did that affect? Your thinking and how you look at things. I Love gathering information That's how it has affected me. I mean Very unconsciously I hear a piece of information here a piece of information here I like to put them together and understand things. I am very I'm eager to understand the environment in which I am Sounds like how you're approaching your yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is this is the way I function. I like to know Who are the people around me? What are the problems and it happened in All places where I've lived when I was here in Washington my husband was at the World Bank and I joined Something that's called World Bank family network which welcomes new families families of new stuff and help them adapt to Washington DC and help them understand So we would see what their needs were and for example at one point They needed English classes and we come okay, we made we organized English classes some other point They needed some financial education, you know Some of them would come and didn't know how to do a budget because they always lived in big family and everybody taking care of them. So we had Financial classes with budget first and then it went all the gamut till we had an investment club, too Which is still functioning. I saw them the other day I I do like to Solve problems So maybe it's this combination of trying to get the information and then solving the problems So being raised Lebanese Christian you and you started down a professional path, but you had small children and you Ended up in Afghanistan with your husband was was there a cultural Any kind of cultural Barriers to you there or did you fit right in you did not convert to Islam? No, I did not Afghanistan is I I I spent four years in Afghanistan as a as a young bride then we went to the States and We came here for my husband's PhD and ended up staying 30 years because of the civil war and actually It was advised My husband was advised not to go back because most of his family was put in prison at the time. So we stayed but The four years when I came to Afghanistan were very easy to me Lebanese culture and Afghan culture are not very different We eat the same food We have the same respect for elders. We We have the same way of being welcoming to guests of you know, it's I remember once I Had just I don't know if I was already married or because I went to first as a my my father came to me as a fiancee and then we got married in Lebanon and Went back to Kabul, but I remember there is this couple that came and they were young Maybe two or three years they had been married, but he was Afhan and she was German and they had a little boy and She was surprised that I was so relaxed and She was she had come they had come to visit us and she was with her mother-in-law And I must say her mother-in-law was a little bit formidable, but anyway, but she said, you know How how can you manage I said what is there to manage and she says well when we sit at the table My mother-in-law is always saying here take eat. Why don't you eat from that? Why don't you take that? Why don't you take that? I said, but she's she's taking care of you. She's showing respect She's showing she likes you. Oh, she said I thought but I told her no and once I say no It's no she should not insist So for her it was a clash of culture But for me, I knew that my mother would have done exactly the same thing back home or any Italian mother would do the same You've been you're you are an Afghan citizen, but nevertheless you were criticized by some for not being Islamic During the campaign not being Islamic not being in your Lebanese roots Some people saying we should just country shouldn't have you as first lady did that how did that? How did you deal with that a lot of people say a lot of things? Yeah Okay Yes, you say I'm Christian I was born in a Christian family, but I was an Eastern Christian with meant that we Prayed in Arabic. So Muslims pray in Arabic and when you pray to God, there's that's much vocabulary For praying, you know, so it was pretty much the same So I don't feel uncomfortable for example saying Muslim prayers because they're exactly or pretty much like My Christian prayers. So for me, it's not a difference whether I'm Muslim or Christian and For the people for all the delegation that comes to see me. It hasn't never been an issue They are just happy that I'm there that I'm Opening my doors to them that I'm listening to what they have to say and that maybe I'll be able to help them And it seems like that works well I've been told you you've got a caretaker gene you like to take care of people when you came back to Afghanistan You got involved in the school Asean. Can you describe that? Yes, Asean is a school that was started by Afghans and to take care of the children who work on the streets and I've always liked that organization because The children are the ones that pay the price of civil war Because they find themselves with either with no parents or with parents that have been debilitated or have no Not not able to work and they are the ones who are have to earn a living for the family and So I've tried to help Asean as much as I could Basically whenever there was we had the dinner at home and there were some foreigners I would tell them about Asean and Often some of them would come and visit and would make a donation and little by little we created an Asean foundation here in the States so that American supporters could benefit from the 501c tax deduction and yet to help a institution that they really liked so this is what Asean is and Well, I've heard about it for years I should say from Trish Silverman who is right here and is partly responsible for you being here Yes, thank you Trish and actually Mary Jo Myers the head of the foundation now is Sitting right there to welcome I Love how you are very outspoken about a lot of things and one of them in your speech You made the point that international aid has created a culture of dependency In the country, how would you go about? First, how does that manifest itself and secondly, how would you go about tackling that? Okay, what I mean by that is that humanitarian assistance is wonderful But it's a short-lived and it does not change the situation Bringing food bringing blankets bringing bringing Tents bringing floor covers All that is wonderful for people who really need it But you come back the next year and they're still there and there are even more people that are there I Don't think that humanitarian assistance is the answer And Especially don't send clothes Kabul has a whole market of second-hand clothes Anyway, what I think needs to be done is to get to the roots of the problem Why are these people in camps? Why are they? I mean they're usually internally displaced people They've been displaced maybe because of Civil war where they are they may have been displaced because some warlord decided to take away their land They may have been displaced because there has been a flood or a landslide The problem. I mean the solution to this problem is not to bring them every year that much, you know, they were well-known ration of fries sugar flour Oil cooking oil two blankets and one tarp. It does not solve the problem So basically what I would like from the agencies the international aid People is to stop thinking in term of humanitarian assistance and start thinking in terms of development and develop developing institutions means training people Doesn't it's very easy to come and to help and to say here. I'm going to show you how it's done No, you know, it's like I was at a dinner recently and they were talking about how The Afghans are at the wheel and they're having their hands on the wheel also to help them Stir and I said no take off their your hands from the wheel let them drive as if it was a Driving school car and you have a Emergency brake next to you. You can pull if ever something wrong, but let them drive Let them learn to drive as long as you have the hands off the wheel They will not learn how to drive you will leave and everything will fall apart So basically what I'm trying to say is really train people To lead train people to be in charge Let the main mistakes people learn from their mistakes They're not learning. They're not going to learn by seeing you do things So basically this is how I'm trying to tackle it I'm not really quite sure how I'm going to do it. Are there models that You would cite as that's the way to do it Not that I know of I'm sure there are but I'm sure my husband my husband knows and I'll rely on him to tell me Speaking of training people one of that your other frustrations is that Afghans who go to the West to become educated to go to university and then don't want to come back And you you want to talk about that more you told me yes. Yes There have been quite a few young people who have had scholarship to come and study I know that in the United States there are about 300 of them This year all together. So it gives you an idea. It has started several years back. So there have been quite a few There is a tendency For them not to want to come back to Afghanistan and here I would like to say I Don't know if there are some here in the audience, but please Remember this money was given to you Not because of your beautiful eyes It was given to you because you are going to go back to your country and help rebuild your country So at least you spend two years here go spend two years back in Kabul Then you want to come back to the States well and good I have no problems, but you have at least to repay all this money that has been spent on you now somebody Mentioned that I should say You know the amount that was spent on you. This is the amount yet You should repay if you want to stay in the state. I think this might be a little too harsh, but still If ever it comes to that that's what our advice to do People should have should feel that they have to come back and help their country how is this country going to grow if the people that we train and We send to the best universities here decide. Oh, well, I'd rather stay here. I tell you So I'm gonna ask one more question and we're gonna open this up to audience questions I Want to remind you it needs to be a short question. It has to end with a question mark and not and not be Getting on a soapbox But let me ask you you've got a room full of people. I've heard you say a number of times You've got cameras. I've heard you say a number of times that you're frustrated with the coverage of Afghanistan and the the image that's portrayed in the the Western media tell us What is the real Afghanistan that we're missing? Okay? You have to understand Foreign NGOs foreign agencies need to justify why they are working in Afghanistan So they need to say That the sky is falling, you know, they need to say oh the situation is terrible. It's horrible Because otherwise they will not be able to raise the funds. They need to function there. Okay, so somehow this has kind of Gotten to the Journalists and I think it's laziness on the part of the journalist because they just need to go around and see for themselves and I've read somewhere that all of Afghanistan is the worst country for a girl to be born in How gosh, it's not true There there are difficult situations. There are difficult Challenges But still you can have a good life in Afghanistan We need to work for it. We need to improve it There is a lot of room for improvement, but it's a beautiful country and it's a beautiful people so basically what I resist is When I see an article that tries that oh everything is going wrong in Afghanistan or the the economy is going Is falling apart? Oh You know security. There is no security in Afghanistan 34 million people live in Afghanistan and you know Maybe I don't know the number of people that are being killed and it's really too much every every life counts But it's probably less than the number of people that get killed on the on the roads here in the United States so Let's keep a Relative view. Let's be a little more upbeat about the country it's Also now there is a change. It's a new administration. There are real hopes that Certain things that the press has criticized at length like corruption and like Like of governance so nepotism and all this Maybe these things are going to be tackled a little better So let's be hopeful. Let's be positive. I Think Afghanistan is going to be a beautiful country, and I hope all of you will be able one day to come and visit Right here on the front My name is Marzia and I came to the United States through the initiative to educate Afghan women program I'm very happy and it's a historical time for me today to be here to listen to my role model And I will first lady. I will never forget today And the first thing I would like to say We're gonna ask a question. We are very short period of time. Okay. Just a comment the students who don't go to Afghanistan They are working here. They are working for their country for their people and for their women And we would love to go back and we will go back But we want the security to be to protect us. You need protection and security Do you want to respond? Yeah? Yeah Yeah, I know situation is probably not ideal for girls who want to work in Afghanistan But it's getting much better and if you want to change the situation you have to be part of it That's how I think but thank you for trying to do something from here. Anyway, and I've been talking with people at the embassy and maybe by the end of the academic year We'll try to have like a job fair For you to know what kind of jobs are available in Afghanistan and to kind of connect People with qualification with jobs that would be appropriate Other questions right here Hi, my name is Margaret Rogers and I'm proud to be on the board of the Ashana Foundation I've also worked in Afghanistan. My question is about the Taliban You started out rule of saying that there was not much progress with regard to the peace talks But as somebody who has lived there in a Taliban dominated province Are there prospects for a more peaceful country given the strength of the Taliban? I don't think I see something that you don't know, but the first priority of my husband is to bring security to Afghanistan and I Have a lot of confidence in him. I think he knows how to think outside the box and how to Figure out how to solve problems. He's a problem solver too. So I hope that eventually the situation will get much better any specifics Moving forward, do you want to reveal? No, I don't know. No, I we don't live in each other's pockets. So I don't know what he's doing Back here Thank you, Rahim Rashidi from Kurdistan TV. Thank you for your time What is your opinion of Kurdish female freedom fighter? Thank you Kurdish female I am very proud of them. I think they're taking part They're taking part in defending their country and I think they're doing very well and we do have Females in the Afron army. I met the ones that are at the academy. There are all 36 of them and They're bright young women. They made me feel very proud to have them with me and I hope that They'll be able one day to defend their country too Where are the mics are the mics nearby here? Oh, I'm sorry right next to you. Yeah, right here in Hello, my name is Elise Hampton. I want to thank you for taking the time to come out this evening and speak with us My question is very simple Can you speak a little louder? Sure if there were three things and you could prioritize them in order that Afghanistan needs, what would they be? That Afghanistan needs, what would they be? I think the first thing is security the second thing is Greater order in the way the country is being managed so better management of the country and The third thing I Don't know I really feel once once there will be security and once The country is The mechanism of governing the country are really in place people will find Each person will find something that they will want to do and they will take part in in building their own country I Don't think Afghans need to be To be told that they should be proud of their country that they should serve their country. They have it It's innate in them, but it's just the circumstances were not provided Thank you, ma'am. My name is Major Mike Marron. I'm with the United States Army And I'll be deploying to Afghanistan in June for a program called AFPAC hands. What advice would you give to me? As an advisor, I'll be working with counterparts more likely with either the Ministry of Interior or Ministry of Defense I'd like to know what kind of advice would you give me when I'm Advising an Afghan. Thank you ma'am Well, thank you for your service But What I would like to say so you'll be either in the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of Defense. Is that what you're saying? Okay Try to help bring order in those ministries And if you see corruption don't look the other way Unfortunately, I think often foreign advisors See corruption and are worried to step on people's toes and Particularly in those two ministries If you can enforce the respect of women because unfortunately it does not exist in those two ministries And we didn't touch on that much corruption. I mean, do you see that getting better? I think people are a little more Wary of engaging in corruption I'll tell you in anecdote. I don't know whether it's true or not, but I heard it when My husband became president There was a whole list of people maybe 60 names of people who wish to become ministers The minute they found out my husband was going to be president They withdrew So I think It doesn't mean that there is no corruption anymore No, there is it's systemic and I think what my husband is trying to do is to Deal with it by building systems that will make it less possible For people to be corrupt. Yes. We have time for one more Hey there, I'm Hannah and I just wanted to ask this question on behalf of all the Afghans in the West Can you talk slower and louder? Oh, sure I can I just wanted to ask this question on behalf of all the Afghans in the West the youth and I wanted to ask you What can we do to help rebelled Afghans on what do you personally believe that what areas should we focus on? Hey Let's say she wants to come back. So yes. Yes. Yes. I think it will be good at first to come for a short trip for you to see Maybe we can we had talked about organizing activities in the summer for young people who want to come back and try and help and Because you know, I don't know how much It's it's it's a personal choice and I don't want to impose on anyone to decide to stay here or to decide for them that to to go to Afghanistan come and see and We probably will be this is something we've been thinking in our I'm I'm looking at my chief of staff here and We've been talking about creating programs for young people in the summer so they would come and Get reacquainted with what and I tell you from the same family You'll have one child who just falls in love with Kabul and the other one says oh, I can't wait to go back So it it will not reflect on badly on anyone if ever they don't want to stay But if if you come and you just love it then you'll find you'll find other sectors though that really need that young talent like teaching for example or Engineering, I mean are there things that stand out in your mind. Well, there certainly must be I don't know I don't know myself, but because my children are Older, so I I don't Move in circles of very young people But I think there might be things that they can do that shana for example or they can do it organization that take care of young children or Even if ever they have a specific thing that they like For example, they like art we can get them with artists budding artists in Afghanistan or they like photography. We have photographers Associations or if they want to go in the provinces like we can find maybe some midwife to shadow Oh Something I mean, I think the possibilities are immense, but I at this point I don't know I've only been a first lady for four months So please bear with me. Well you have your work cut out for you And I just want to thank you for being not only so insightful, but frankly I think so inspirational for a lot of the people in this