House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi touted the contributions of women to the uprisings in North Africa last year in an op-ed on CNN.com:
They have succeeded in that first phase: Gadhafi, Mubarak and Tunisia’s Zine el Abidine Ben Ali are gone. These young women are under no illusions about the challenges they face. They are deeply committed to building democratic societies, and they are looking to us. We cannot fail them.
Leaders throughout North Africa and the Middle East must honor the role women played in freeing their countries: All their citizens — including women — have important contributions to make at this historic moment. That is a lesson it has taken the United States many generations to learn, but it is surely one of the most important pieces of wisdom we can share with developing democracies around the world.
