Women and the Democratization of the Middle East

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First Lady Laura Bush is just back from her good-will tour of the Middle East. Along with touting education in her speeches in Jordan, Israel and Egypt, she emphasized the importance of women's roles in any democracy. In Afghanistan, women comprised 40% of the voters in the most recent elections. Just last week, women in Kuwait were granted the right to vote. Yet while many women in the Middle East are starting their own businesses, millions of others are seriously disadvantaged in education, healthcare and the justice system. Life is an often violent hardship. Guest host Diana Nyad speaks with social anthropologists, women's advocates, activists, and a State Department coordinator who accompanied Mrs. Bush on her recent trip about democratization of the Middle East and the daily struggle for women there. Making News: Giant Caspian Oil Pipeline Opens Centuries ago, merchants traveled the famous Silk Road that linked Asia to Europe. Turkey, the center-point for those ancient caravans, again finds itself in a strategic position with the inauguration of the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline. The BTC Pipeline will deliver oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. From Baku, Azerbaijan, Simon Ostrovsky of Agence France-Presse has more on the pipeline's impact. Reporter's Notebook: Amnesty International Faults US for Human Rights Failure Amnesty International released its annual report today, citing the failure of the international community to take action against the slaughter in Sudan's Darfur region, and human rights violations in Haiti, China and Zimbabwe. The US gets particularly low marks for its treatment of prisoners in detention camps, most notably Guant-namo Bay in Cuba, which AI calls "the gulag of our time." Vienna Colucci is with Amnesty International in the US.
First Lady Laura Bush is just back from her good-will tour of the Middle East. Along with touting education in her speeches in Jordan, Israel and Egypt, she emphasized the importance of women's roles in any democracy. In Afghanistan, women comprised 40% of the voters in the most recent elections. Just last week, women in Kuwait were granted the right to vote. Yet while many women in the Middle East are starting their own businesses, millions of others are seriously disadvantaged in education, healthcare and the justice system. Life is an often violent hardship. Guest host Diana Nyad speaks with social anthropologists, women's advocates, activists, and a State Department coordinator who accompanied Mrs. Bush on her recent trip about democratization of the Middle East and the daily struggle for women there.
  • Making News: Giant Caspian Oil Pipeline Opens
    Centuries ago, merchants traveled the famous Silk Road that linked Asia to Europe. Turkey, the center-point for those ancient caravans, again finds itself in a strategic position with the inauguration of the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline. The BTC Pipeline will deliver oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. From Baku, Azerbaijan, Simon Ostrovsky of Agence France-Presse has more on the pipeline's impact.
  • Reporter's Notebook: Amnesty International Faults US for Human Rights Failure
    Amnesty International released its annual report today, citing the failure of the international community to take action against the slaughter in Sudan's Darfur region, and human rights violations in Haiti, China and Zimbabwe. The US gets particularly low marks for its treatment of prisoners in detention camps, most notably Guant-namo Bay in Cuba, which AI calls "the gulag of our time." Vienna Colucci is with Amnesty International in the US.
Guest host Diana Nyad, who was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2002 as the world record-holder for the longest swim without the aid of a cage -- from Bimini to Florida, 102.5 miles! -- is a business sports columnist for Marketplace, has served as senior sports correspondent for Fox News, and has hosted her own show on CNBC. She's also the author of three books, Other Shores, Basic Training and The Keyshawn Johnson Story.

Amnesty International's 2005 Human Rights Report

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Warren Olney