Clinton: Afghanistan should preserve women's rights

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that women's rights should not be sacrificed in any settlement between the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Taliban militants.

"We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always," Clinton told three senior female Afghan officials who accompanied Karzai on his four-day trip to the United States, which wraps up today with a visit to U.S. troops in Fort Campbell, Ky.

Clinton said it was "essential that women's rights and women's opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process." Her comments came amid concerns that any political deal with Afghan insurgents could erode the gains women have made since a U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power in 2001.

Karzai came this week in part to persuade the Obama administration to back his plans for ending the war through negotiations. But insurgents and their sympathizers routinely intimidate or attack women who work outside the home, wear Western dress or try to attend school.

Appearing later with Karzai at a Washington think-tank, Clinton made the same point again. Militants who lay down their arms, she said, "must respect women's rights."

Karzai, meanwhile, sought to allay fears that negotiations with the Taliban would turn Afghanistan away from its alliance with the United States and commitment to human rights.

Sitting next to Clinton at the United States Institute of Peace, Karzai called low-level Taliban sympathizers "countryside boys" who are not enemies of the United States or their government. "We must try legitimately to return them," he said.