peace but it is first my distinct pleasure to uh uh pass the floor to Mary Street to introduce it Mar Street poop oh well hello can you hear me I hope you can hear me sorry okay thank you foreign minister of Indonesia thank you um excellencies esteemed leaders and friends from all around the world and I want to give heartfelt greetings especially to our sisters in Afghanistan uh and all of those who have had to leave their country we are all gathered here today to express our solidarity with you and to encourage the world Community
especially those who continue to do business with Afghanistan to intervene on your behalf in 1971 I graduated from college here in New York and that year women in Switzerland were granted the right to vote women in Afghanistan of course had enjoyed that right already for half a century women in Afghanistan received the vote in 1919 before for 30 years before the women in France no 20 my math is bad and well before women in the United States received the right to vote the way that this culture and this Society has been upended is a cautionary
tale for the rest of the world in the 70s most of the civil servants were women over half the teachers doctors there were women jurists lawyers in every profession and then the world upended and today in Cabo a female cat has more freedoms than a woman a cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face she may chase a squirrel into the park a squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban a bird may
sing in Cabo but a girl may not and a woman may not in public this is extraordinary this is a suppression of the natural law this is odd I feel that the Taliban since they've issued over 100 edicts in Afghanistan stripping women and girls of their education and employment their freedom of of expression and movement they have effectively incarcerated half half their population and the International Community I I believe because the Taliban call themselves I believe Sunni yes the Sunni Community has a special responsibility to in some way intervene on behalf of their women and
girls I I I feel that the International Community as a whole if they came together could affect change in Afghanistan and stop the slow Suffocation of an entire half the population were incarcerated we're about to watch a very short version of a documentary film called the sharp edge of Peace it's directed by Roa Sadat and it's produced by Leslie Thomas and it gives us a glimpse of the incredible courage and the tireless commitment of four Afghan women leaders the only women who sat face to face with the Taliban during peace talks in 2020 it's one
of my the greatest honor honors of my life to have the privilege to be here with these extraordinary women they encourage us and they remind us that a distorted fundamentalist fear of the future can upend a civilization from the from the inside and now I hope you enjoy a sharp edge of Peace thank you so
