
As President Obama sends signals that he's open to talking to the Taliban, one Afghan woman is in Washington this week warning that the hard won gains in women's rights in that nation are threatened by the reemergence of the country's former rulers. "It makes me scared and everybody has the fear that one day (the Taliban) will be back again," says Afghan women's rights advocate Suraya Pakzad.
Pakzad, a mother of six, founded a secret organization in 1988 to teach Afghan women how to read, and provide shelter from domestic violence. When the Taliban were driven from power her "Voice of Women Organization" emerged from secrecy to expand efforts to give women rights in the home, schools, the workplace and in the legislature. By one measure she has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams: the government says 2-million girls now attend school in Afghanistan.

