2007 SPEECHES

The reason for today’s reception is straightforward:  The U.S. Embassy seeks to strengthen its outreach to women of accomplishment. Our goal is to advocate for the full participation of Lebanese women in all fields, to provide assistance to enable Lebanon to benefit from the skills and abilities of its women and to help remove barriers to women’s achievement. 

I’ve always been extremely impressed by the dynamic Lebanese women I meet:  They are well educated, multi-lingual, gracious and full of energy.  And yet given their talents, I am surprised that Lebanese women are not represented more frequently in business or politics. Women are one of Lebanon’s most valuable and untapped resources. 

As a component of our support for a sovereign, democratic Lebanon, we want to do more than just offer platitudes.  We want to provide Lebanese women with opportunities to benefit from education and exchanges, training and networking, to enable them to compete in the job market and in the workplace.  We work to ensure that women are represented in all our exchange programs and are targeted in our outreach.

The Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) has made women’s empowerment one of its four pillars of action.  A number of you here today are MEPI alumnae—you represented Lebanon at the Women’s Business Leaders Summit in Jordan or you participated in the Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET) or the Businesswomen’s Internship Program in the United States.  You’ll find information about MEPI and other U.S. Government-funded programs in the package we’ve prepared for each of you.

Each one of you here today is truly a “woman of accomplishment.”  And we invited you because of your demonstrated commitment to success in your field.  We hope that the color-coded name tags will help you identify others in your field.  Whether you are in business, government, politics, NGOs, the arts or academia—you can identify others with similar interests by the color on your name tags.  We’ve tried to make networking easy for you—but by the sound of the room, I don’t think we needed to worry.

This year, for the first time, the Department of State presented the Secretary of State’s Award for International Women of Courage.  Women from Afghanistan and Iraq and from each of six regions were chosen as 2007 winners.  From Saudi Arabia, Dr. Samia al-Amoudi was honored as a Woman of Courage from the Near East region for her work raising awareness about breast cancer.

From Lebanon, our embassy nominated a committed activist who has worked to end violence against women and to prevent trafficking in women and child sexual abuse.  As the director of KAFA Violence and Exploitation, Ms. Zoya Rouhana advocated on behalf of women and children who have been victimized to ensure the social service infrastructure meets their needs.  Her efforts have resulted in the establishment of hot lines, counseling centers and training for the Women’s Unit in the Ministry of Social Affairs.  It’s my pleasure today to present Ms. Rouhana with a certificate as the Lebanese national winner as a Woman of Courage.

Every one of you here is a “woman of accomplishment and courage.”  As Secretary Rice noted, “women of courage are standing up for freedom and human dignity, and the United States stands with them.  We must not forget that the advance of women’s rights and the advance of human liberty go hand in hand.”

Thank you all for being here—now get busy networking!