the last decade. since medicare patients are the bulk of our hospital patients, nobody has ever successfully explain and medicare never asked why people are still building hospitals? because you would think if you lose money on every patient you want to reduce volume, not increase volume. there's a lot of that in health care. a lot of things in health care you go if i get off the island and think in terms of the real world, you know, if you have a decline, probably wouldn't be increasing -- building new factories. i want to spend one more moment on prices. because prices are the circulatory system of the real economy. one of the things mow misunderstood in health care, but these things drive the way human beings receive service. one of the things we assume is that we pay for health care. the question is, how do we pay for health care? one of the arguments i i'm making today is the how we pay drives the type of care we're

getting. >> you can watch this and other programs online at become tv.org. >> next, zainab salbi interviews women in war. this is about an hour. >> know, this book, there's a lot of young people in here so i want to tell you the journey how this book started. it started like everything else. people having an idea and saying, let's just do it. so i met with rennio. we were in a photo shoot and says i want to volunteer to do something for women, and we -- just one step after the other, and all of a sudden, boom, we have a whole book. so, i'm a big believer in the possibles of change and the possibilities of living and doing whatever you set your mind

to do and this is particularly for the young people or the young-minded or anybody in this room. we wanted to -- the book is called "if you knew me you would care." and when it comes to women in war, everybody thinks of them is a victims. none of us wanted to convey the victim's story, because to the there is victimhood in their story, their story is so far more than just a victim story. they are not defined by the actual story. what they are defined by is what they make out of the story. claudeine, for example, is a woman who wanted to be a doctor when she was a kid. she had an as separation and everything is good and until her father died when she was 13 years old and she had to leave school so she can work and help her mother support her. 'm i can tell you what claudine

went through, and when she was 16 she fell in love with a young man, she saw him in her way to the church and they would ambulance at each other,, -- thy would glance at each other and until today she did go -- she talks about how she fell in love. and they got married when they were 18. for those who are young in here. they got married when -- later on and had a happy marriage they had kids and a house and it was a happy marriage. until the war one day breck out, and when the war broke out, it took everything away from them and he started drinking, and he started being an alcoholic, and when he start drinking, he start beating her up, and one day he pete her up so badly the hospital refused to treat her unless she tells who did this to her. and that is how her new journey started. they took him to prison and when he left the prison he divorced

his wife. claudeine was raped to years ago by a soldier she did not know in congo. but claudine made up her hair in this style. how cool. claudine is a woman who is in love claudine is a woman who was beaten, who survived, who had a farm right now. it is the story -- the story is never a simple story of those others, in other parts of the world and in this case in congo. i started the journey of women thinking i'm embarking on a journey to save the world. i learned that the world is saving me and the woman i think i'm helping, end up helping me. when i asked her what does peace mean for her, i ask every woman what does she mean biasness part or women's for women's goal is to understand war and peace from a women's privilege.

perspective. when i she said, peace is inside my heart. no one can take it away from me. no one can give it to me. i go to yoga every single day, at least i try, and i spend so much money on yoga studios and medication and all kinds of things just so i can understand the peace claudine is talking about. peace is inside my heart. no one can take it away from me. no one can give it to me. if i tell was actually locked in a room for three months and raped day in and day out by one military commander, and the day she was supposed to be killed, he said i cannot see you be killed so he gives her his military uniform and he steals someone's motorcycle so he can give hear ride to her home village, and she says the tribe. out of rape is my profit. she teaches me how to love. and that is if you knew me, you would care, you would care that

you would understand the intimate stories not only the horrible stories, this woman said, do not look at me as a poor woman. i was a rich woman once. she had her cows and her chicken and her goat and the war came and they just took it away from her. and we have to connect what i learned in the journey, that it's not only what the victim's story, this woman was not smiling because she has a gap in her teeth, and unlike many of us appreciate beauty and want to be beautiful and was embarrassed to smile to show the gaps in her teeth. if you connect on the beautiful story and connect on the love story and connect on the story this woman's husband cheated on her and got her h.i.v. but there's stories that any of us in here coop go through, and they're not all the bad stories. it is stories i learn from this

woman who was a buoy particulars, and she taught me how to take ware half my eyebrows and in afghanistan they're a beauty everybody appreciate and we see them only as the burk -- burk. this woman has a beauty shop and talking about makeup and the woman was married to a man who is 40 years older than her, and her parents did not want her to marry this man but they were so worried about here they gave up. the were so worried he would ky kidnap her anyway. she is struggling day in and day out so she can send her four daughters to school. she has been victimized but she is not defined by her victim story, and if we can not a see

her beyond the victim store, then shame on us, the dalai lama said if you cannot respect those you serve, then better not serve them because they would feel if you do not respect them. this woman, afghan woman, she was a soldier against the taliban. this is one of the picturesment we have other pictures using an ak-47. i said, i believe you. but how many times we heard afghan women being sold -- fighting next to their hoveses against the taliban. these stories exist, and if we minimize them into only very victim's story, we're violating them again, and that's why perspective if you knew me, you would know i'm trying to lose weight in here and this woman is a teacher and is gettingmer masters degree. her mother is a widow and a single woman who talks about crossing rivers and crossing over dead bodies just to save her two daughters, and help them

go to school. she is a teacher right now and she is trying to lose weight, struggling with eating right, and bread every single night, which is not go. this is a universal this. don't eat bread. but the point is, if we connect -- if you connect to temple just like any of us in here, then and only then maybe we can build serious bridges of peace based on conversations a woman to a woman, a person to a person, as opposed to the victims to the saviour, and that is when we change the narrative of the discussion. zarcon washington was playing as a six-year-old child. and she was grabbed one day from the playground by her father and put on another man's back and he told her, you now belong to another family. her brother was playing with another brother and he killed him by accident, so they had to

send their daughter to mary the boy of the other family. so he was angry at the family but the boy they forced her to marry was a boy, nine years old. they did not get married legally but he help her escape and he helped her connect her family, and then they actually fell in love, and they got married, and she got pregnant and he went to her family to have peace and they killed him. and so she said, i was so -- it was one thing to be angry at my father as a sick-year-old child but another thing to be angry at him when he killed my own husband. and so she raised no a single mother at the age of 16, raising a daughter on her open. the taliban comes, she is in the street and one day they see her wearing an open-shoes. it was illegal to wear an open shoes. and so they got out the car and start whipping her, and she is talk -- she told me about how she grabbed one of the taliban's hand who was whipping her, grabbed the whip from his hand,

and threw it. and everyone froze. and his commander got out of the car, and said, what are you doing in she said, i told him not to beat me, and he beat me. so, i asked her, how did you get this courage? she said it's not me pain of the whipping that got me the courage. it was the humiliation of being beaten in public. that woman is more courageous than many of us. many of us see -- we do not act, and just as it's not the big wars only. it's sometimes in our streets. it's sometimes in our neighborhoods. and how she has the courage to stop the taliban from beating her up, each one of us should have the courage from stopping anybody abusing us or abusing our environment of our streets or city or country or animals or anything like that. she now has $30,000 in the bank

account, and she just bought a machine, a knitting machine, for $18,000, and is employing 150 people, and all she wants in afghanistan is peace. so she can expand her business. and that is her desire. now, i embarked upon this journey wondering, what is the secrecy sauce? after founding and running women for women for 18 years, an organization that supports women survivors of war, and help them rebuild their lives by doing simple thing. we ask every single person in here to sponsor one woman at a time by sending her $30 and month and exchanging pictures and letters with her. you can help one of these women. you can help claudine or cuna or whoever is here, and it was a very simple program designed to help women move from crisis to

opportunity. so you sponsor her, we give her training and vocational skilled training, training in women's right training, and she graduates at the end of the year and we help her get a job and stand up on her feet. and after 18 years of growing women for women international, from helping 33 bosnian pin to 303,000 women all over the world, and distributing more than $100 million to women survivors of war. [applause] >> i went and i decided to actually leave so i can do something completely different in my home country. my home region, in the arab world and the middle east, and on the eve of my departure i went and visited each country and that's the book, actually, to try to understand why is it. what is it that is the agent of change in women's life? what triggers the change in

women's life? it was was in bosnia, that one of my colleagues held my hand and said, zainab, the secret sauce to trigger change is inspiration. is the telling of the story. so, there is basha, i believe. she is from -- a slave in 1994, when 8,000 muslims were killed and massacred. the biggest failure and embarrassment for the u.n. who failed to protect them after promising to pro protect them. the women were raped and displaced and now some of the women came back, the survivors came back. i asked her, what triggered you to come back and she said, i came back in spite. i came back in spite of seeing

my brother being tortured and seeing his eyes pop out. i came back in spite of being forced to clean the floors and the ceilings from blood in the concentration and rape camps. i came back in spite of seeing my mother's brain burst open. i came back in spite to tell them i am still alleve and with me the story exists and it will not die. do you have any other questions? ...

we become that candle into another woman's life to help her know that she is not alone. to help her understand that i am her, she is made because the stories keep on repeating themselves so your biggest gift for someone else's to tell the story. i learned that from a congolese woman who when i asked her, why is she telling me this story she said if i can tell the whole world about nice story she was raped along with her 9-year-old daughter and her 20 and 21-year-old daughter she said if i can tell the whole world about what happened to me i will so other women will not have to go what i had been through.

a year later she was on the oprah winfrey show and we raised $5 million of many women supporting one woman at a time. i visited her and all the neighbors knew the story. instead of being the victim, all and her story and now they greet her as the chief, as the woman warrior who actually has owned the story and told it. we have a choice in that choice is up to each one of us. this woman asked for a job. people said how can i help other survivors? they want dignity and integrity. she said give me any job i just want to work. this woman started a business after having breast cancer and joined one of the women and try to go and get inspired.

she's independent and standing on her feet. this woman is married to a butcher. this moment, the beautiful thing about working with rennio comes not only from portrait photography but fashion photography and he will tell you why he set up portraits like that. you can imagine there are many women in here and even for the men them than you can imagine have someone having a background taking pictures. you are like a model and this woman came skipping from the photo shoot and she said i have been a refugee. i have been a poor woman. i have buried my father and today i'm a fashion model. the reason i tell this story is because we cannot treat them only as the dems. they are just like anybody in

this room. how do you help the other's? how do you reach out to integrity and dignity and respect at the core of this? this is what women to women international tries to do. it's the stories of inspiration that is the transformative power. this woman was a genocide survivor. all of her family except for her mother died in a genocide. she married a guy and fell in love because he had three kids that he loved. i don't know if you remember 1994, 800,000 people were killed in rwanda. half a million women were raped 100 days in rwanda. in 1994 and she is one of them. she goes and marries a guy and she loved the three children as well. in the marriage he started abusing her. he was so cruel that he would

not abuse her in any way that it would show. he would hold her and beat her in the back so no one could see the abuse. she thought, this is my fate. many women feel this way by the way. she said this is my fate, this is my destiny. one day she visited a neighbor and the neighbor said they have a sofa, she had furniture in this room. it was a very poor area and they usually would sit on the floor. she said in the neighbor ,-com,-com ma the children were dressing up really nicely and everyone was going to school. the neighbor had a man in her home but not any man. a good man. i took the neighbor to the site and i said how did you change your life? how did you do at? the neighbor tells her well, i learned how to make beads, favor

beats what's actually you can find in the store here. she said i learned how tomake beads paper baskets in the store. i started selling them and each necklace was $10 i started making money. i've bought furniture and the kids school well, the kids school first. that's the story of inspiration. and she looks for the organization that will teach her how to make -- and she enrolls and she goes to the organization behind her husband's back. she starts taking double classes so she makes the necklaces and she starts making money and starts buying furniture and the clothing for the kids. she learned how to read and write and began to see her in a different way. i said how is it now and she said well the relationship is

improving. we are negotiating for an improved relationship. we will see if he can improve. it's a work in progress. she changed her life. for her to be inspired by another woman's story and for someone who to give her the same for her to thrive to fulfill her full potential. these women are actually building their own center. after all this is how many women get their models i guess, get discovered. they were making bricks building a women's center in rwanda. this woman for gave her son's killer. schieffer gave her son's killer. if she can forgive her son's killer, who are we not to forgive someone who hurt us in here? he came to her and apologized and she refused and he came

again and apologized and she refused. he apologized again and she refused and finally she decides, i have to forgive them so i can release myself from that pain. when i see her, i say if she can forgive who am i not to forgive? if she can look that beautiful, that beautiful with a headscarf like this, who am i not to pay attention to how i look and how we should be presentable? if she can have grace and peace, who am i not to have grace and peace? i learned dancing from rwanda and singing from congolese women and i learned how to apply with maaco from bosnian women and i definitely learned how to pluck my eyebrows in my upper lips from an afghan woman. i gave iraqi women two weeks ago, they said you know the world sees us as victims but we

are by far not victims. we are strong women. we have been victimized but we are strong women. now there are many reasons for this book. there is reading the humor reason. "if you knew me you would care." there is also a reason, it's my farewell to women to women after 18 years of funding it as a ceo. that is why the journey of understanding what it is that we actually want, what is the secret sauce of change in women's lives? that is the story of inspiration. it's the reason i changed my life and i'm now focusing on media in the arab world and for arab women and muslim women, because we need to create more stories of inspiration. with that i want to actually, this is my work. i've done a lot of this but i did this journey with rennio who comes from a very -- very different world than i learned

so much from just being in his company not only the women because someone was not looking at them as victims but looking at them as beautiful women but i learned how to look at a society as women tell the story and with that i will hand it over to rennio. [applause] talking after zainab it was easier to go to kabul. she is so good. i was taking a portrait of zainab for a fashion company magazine and what i take a portrait there is always a different -- there are no rules. sometimes they talk and sometimes they don't talk too much.

with zainab i saw from the beginning that she needed to talk so i asked her and she started talking and talking. i didn't know anything about that because usually when i take a portrait i don't want to know too many things because i just want to work on the person and the layers of what she represents so i didn't know how to start it. when she started talking i started to it's interesting the story. i ended up in, and afghanistan. now she was telling me that the story about the women and then i said okay, and then when i finish the photos usually -- i said to her anytime you have a project let me know. i am here. and then they called me, she called me and we started with, and in the beginning my job was to work on the person in front

and not have the distraction with the background or the account we are doing. so my idea was to keep it very simple. i decided to use a white background that i decided to even to use an artificial light = new that we have so much time in every country so i couldn't wait for the right light and equipment to shoot outside because the women needed to be seen. they came in a burqa and they took the burger off because it was a safe space away do we provided for the women. from there she was there at the beginning and doing an interview because they chose these women for the story. so it was there and i was

waiting because it was an hour to an hour and a half. i was waiting and while i was waiting i saw all these women. i said that's an opportunity. so many interesting faces. i went around with my zoom and took portraits of the face and then i asked someone permission so i started to take a portrait. i showed her the pictures and she saw immediately there was something interesting so she decided to have a small interview. after the first country was, and we ended up with 20 portraits. then we started, we try to keep the same for each country. we had around 15 or 16 women and ended up with 62 women in this book. there was incredible for me. i come from fashion but my love was always portrait so i started

my career with portrait and ended up in fashion because fashion is a good way to make a living and it's easier. there was always a time in my life when i would decide to go back to my first love, and that's the portrait and then this is one of the times. i'm so happy because i go back to my roots and what i love to do and this is the result. >> what did you see in the women from, to afghanistan? >> for me it was interesting. i take the book and i go through the country and i can see that for example you can see there is a feeling in every country and you can read through the book. just looking at the picture. for example in the congo you can see the faces there, you can see there is something emotional.

zainab you can see in the book and then when you go to afghanistan there is a different feeling. you go through all the women and it's like these women are defeated and they lost everything. in their eyes, there is no light in their eyes anymore for most of them and you can feel the defeat. you go to rwanda and in her one day you see them smiling and happy. when you go-round in the country, those people are busy and happy. then again you go to bosnia and bosnia, for example in,'s zainab right now every time that she was interviewing the women, for me the first time because i saw these women they talked about their love story and then they go through the trauma and they would freeze. for me at the beginning it

seemed fake. it didn't feel real. because the pain is too strong, they can't even be there. seeing all the women repeat the same pattern. in bosnia it was different because bosnia had been years ago and what you see, most of them they process that moment of shock, the moment of being disassociated with happened. you see in all the feeling, you have a feeling in the portrait. that's it. [applause] >> thank you. we would love to take questions if anybody has any. no questions? okay, go ahead. can you stand up and say who you are perhaps in the microphone?

>> my question is what is important for a woman -- about to a better country? >> what's the value and importance to? [inaudible] >> to find an award? >> from the soldier's? bea. look, i think what we need is to live in a world where every woman has the freedom to make whatever choices that she has too fulfilled her full potential. if one woman wants to be a

soldier, and that is fulfilling her potential than it should be. if another woman wants to be a nurse or a doctor then she should be. as long as this is coming out of choice and a choice of living with an opportunity in a place where you can afford that choice. that choice sometimes is cultural but sometimes its financial. for me financial independence for women is very very important and i say that to women who have money and women who do not have money. a lot of focus is usually on the woman who does not have money. but if you have money and you are not earning it but your husband is doing it you still have the freedom to make whatever choices you want. it's very important for women to have that choice. in terms of -- war and peace we have to understand not only from a frontline position which is fighting but from a back line

decision. mostly it's the men who fight at the frontline and that is one aspect of war and one aspect of peace. peace in this case becomes the ending of fighting but if we understand true war in peace we would understand it from the frontline discussion, the fighting and we would also be fully understand the back line discussion, how to keep life going and that is what women go through. in a lot of the countries that go through war, syria, people don't talk about the people in syria have to be back and have to go to school and have to go to jobs and they have to earn money so they can eat. we have to understand that is the back line discussion and that is war in the discussion. the women and i didn't know their stories, what you think of war and what is your hope for the future? almost none of them said peace is the ending of fighting. peace was being able to send

their kids to school and peace meant a job. peace meant justice. peace meant being able to celebrate the holidays without fear. peace meant being able to roam around in iraq. i was there and people still ask about the piece of not having bombings in the streets and that's peace from a woman's perspective. piece of having jobs and peace of having stability. it's a long way and i'm not sure if i answered your question but i do believe we have got to hear women's voices not at the ceremony a level but in a real level. [inaudible] i have been waiting for a chance to hear your -- hear you speak. i wanted to ask you considering the cultural climate in these

places, how easy is it for women to believe that they deserve peace and are they ready to accept it? i was just curious. >> i have never found resistance from any woman on bad actually. i think their struggle is, now mind you we work with the poorest of the poor and when you are in that level of poverty all that you need to do is to survive. i haven't even found resistance from the husbands to be honest. i remember being in a very poor family with iraq and i was talking with the wife to tell her about what we do and the husband walks in. i am like boats, that is what we do. is it okay that we work with your wife? he said we are so hungry and we are so tired and if you are going to help the family in any way shape, if it's going to be

through my wife and please then please help us. i found that same story in rwanda. at the end of the day the struggle becomes how do i survive and how do i get a decent -- i've never met a woman who says i cannot. usually, you are put down for so long that you think that this is my destiny. that is why sharing the stories is so vital. the afghan woman with a makeup artist, the makeup artists you know, when i told her that there are good men she said are there really good men out there are? i was like of course there are good men. you get beaten up for so long that you think this is the world. and so i don't mean physically beaten up but your spirit gets beaten up for so long and you are told you are worthless than you think, i am more a see no? the stories, everyone coming and

standing up and saying this is my story to come so important to understand that i'm not the only one. and then it opens up. it's a flow. there's a south african saying that culture is water and it is a stone. water always paves its own way so it's constantly evolving and changing. but i want to say one more thing about the story because it's not the other women's story. it's us in here story. when it comes about stories, i actually use american women's stories. everyone thinks of american women are a perfect euphoria. i was like no, no this is what they have gone through this is what they they're going through and this is a struggle. i remember in bosnia, really? they go through this? of course they do. that is when they open up. when the bosnian woman knows that i'm not the only one who

was going through violence. one out of five women in the world is sexually violated and to make the connection between each other becomes very important. that is what we create together a space to say i deserve more. i deserve to be happy and joyful and then love and with love. it is i deserve to have a good life. and i can only reach that stage if we share the possibilities of what can happen. >> did you find that through the process for them to open up to you and to take their photos and open up and tell you their stories especially in afghanistan, where the government might have been controlling their -- >> should i start first?

first, these women all of them are at the women to women center so there is already a trusting environment. it's a caveat and it's not a stranger on the street saying hello, my name is zainab and they are all in a safe space. my philosophy actually, if i were someone to tell me their story, then i need to take the initiative first. most of these interviews started with me telling them my story and i told them that i am from iraq and this is how i grew up and i was in an abusive marriage and i was raped. i came out and i stood up on my feet and i built my life and married another wonderful guy. i just tell the story but its vulnerability and its sphere and its work. i actually take the first step and i believe that this is my respect for them. how can i expect her to tell me

my story -- her story if i'm not willing to take that risk myself and share my vulnerability with her? almost every single one i start with my story. i think of the story as the biggest gift i can give. only then i said back and say we you tell me your story. that becomes the exchange. it's a different exchange with rennio i think. >> for me, sometimes a just a few minutes you spend with the women because as i said there were just a few there are. even though there was a portrait being taken, a few minutes for me was to create a safe space for them when they arrived and they feel respected and taken care of. and i have to say it was very easy first of all because as we said before i was already in a safe place.

they would take the burqa off. i don't go after the woman and ask permission. the funny thing that happened in afghanistan for me, i was in this room starting with a group of women and there were 20 people. at one point i said can everybody leave please because i just need to have woman in front of me. they looked at me and said okay, and to left. there were 18 now. can you please? know you cannot be in a room of what the women by yourself. okay. it was a very humbling experience. they come with this distrust and with a stranger there but as i

say it was to give them a safe space where they feel respected and taken care of. >> actually i want to say that same space is so important. if we have to hear what women want to say politically or economically or whatever it is that safe space is important to create so even for example in syria right now, whenever i talk to politicians they say there are no women. of course there are women with political decisions and good viable opinions. women come from a marginalized history, always being on the margin on the side so in order to get any person to speak up even in your corporations, school and classes or whatever we have got to create that safe space for her to share her story. >> we have time for a couple more questions. we are doing a book signing too

so our global chainstore is fair trade values through this country. as you mentioned the beads and all of that. when you buy stuff from the bookstore you are supporting these women and when you read this book you are supporting zainab and subtree. >> supporting women for women. >> oh yeah. [laughter] all of the proceeds support women international. it's like a 34. so please do that. we probably have time -- you take a long time to answer questions so we will go around the room and we will wrap it up. thank you. >> thank you so much for coming.

i read your book several years ago and i volunteered in an organization as well. i wanted to ask you, having been in touch with the ngo world and the politicians and the business people, do you find ever a -- to change your message depending on who you're working with and as a corollary of the importance or the challenge of say working with people that might not seem to be aligned with your mission? just the challenges of that. thank you. >> i'm going to walk around this way. hans? ..

women and why women love to degrade themselves. >> first of all -- you talked about what reminds me of a life form -- [inaudible] -- also asked you having grown up as a

woman, how it is in that culture and -- what is the reaction? >> thank you very much for the inspiring words. you seem younger than you probably know. my daughter was 13. i hope you work with other people. put my question now is you said how dare you do that? and going to a safe place in the center, where does it begin?

to begin, you have any kinds? thank you. >> i was wondering, can you -- [inaudible] vaudeville >> from the other way. >> a have the right to go to school. i have good times every time i think of her. >> just had a question that you touch done. so i was wondering what you had

the opportunity, issues, their decision, what they should be doing to care for their daughters and there were a lot of women and i was wondering about that. >> open it up. i have got -- how many more have to speak? two people. >> [inaudible] >> thank you for coming and sharing your story. stories about women loving

women. >> all right. now you have a little bit of a break here. the total of six minutes. >> oh my god! all right. i am going to -- i am going to go really fast. did i ever change my message? know but you need to learn to send the different messages to different people. for fathers to care the best way to communicate with their daughter, what happens to their daughters and father dollar over the world care about their daughters but any communication, keep communicating the same message over and over again in a different ways until it gets through. to help women, in the book, women like them, there are thousands of women literally waiting to be enrolled in a

woman's program. that is the jeter question. it came from a wonderful dear friend, lovely woman. but also to live life as much as possible. there are a couple questions. i can only tell you about my journey. i started my journey, not the men in my personal life put in the context i was working on as well as some in my personal life with a gear. i was very angry at men, commit a lot of crimes against women, lot of violence against women is committed by men. that is the truth so i came from a grand the beginning. someone asked when i was 27 years old, when i was 23 years old, which means i am 43 years old right now so when told what keeps you going, it is like in justice.

but then, but then, about injustice, always act but i was in afghanistan in 2002 and two men who looked like the taliban walked towards me and my colleagues, they have the beard and the turban and i was scared. oh my god, this is the taliban and they're going to kill us and the whispered to my colleagues and said let's run to the car. no, let's just hold on and see what they have to say. the men came and they spread their hands and said thank you, we want to thank you for helping our wives be more happy and more fulfills. that was the transformative moment. i realize in that moment that as much as i was fighting against ordering women, i have been doing the same thing to men,

cornering their image to only the aggressor. i cannot do justice to women if i doing justice to men. that was what transformed my relationship with men, from anger to understanding to compassion and be leaving that we cannot do this journey, a woman's right to say we are half way in the mountain but we cannot get to the top of the mountain without elaborating and talking with men. it became a transformative relationship and i have a lot of compassion and we have a whole program that works with men to understand why, we have 400 imams who give sermons about the man's rights so it is possible. iraq, the hardest country i ever worked in, my home country so

everything is 100% more emotional for me. i am writing a new book on iraq that will be coming out next year. it is close to my heart, there's a lot of the motion but i keep on going to end going and connected to the arab woman absolutely right, the arab woman right now on the battlefield of the war of ideology that is happening in the middle east. is not woman against men or man against woman but a different ideology and women to control them and what is going to happen to them. and i believe women's stories tell a national story, national narrative is not women only but what happens to that country and that is why i resigned and now producing a film on arab women and the arabs spring and focusing my energy on arab and muslim women because this is the

most important thing. and you want to stay in touch please let me know. i need more women to help in this journey. we need to define our follies more than any other time. it is a critical time for us. work with younger people, actually my new work is already -- that is where i get inspired. wind you go to the arab world, the younger ones, they say the older generation was given their rights and taken away from them. their rights were given and taken away and now we need to earn it and it needs to be part of our system and we will work on that. that is why i am optimistic despite the challenges. how do we create -- usually i will announce -- the way it works is we knocked on the doors until women start campaigning and knocking on each floor. the book of mormon is still in my head. hello.

we are women for women. would you join our work program. we do that and we go for community service, community meetings where we announce in front of every man woman's this is what we are doing. transparency is the best thing you can do. this is what we're doing. to your approval is working in your community or not? they say yes we stand if they say no we leave and then -- it becomes a community decision and that is when we create woman to woman center and everyone becomes part of the process of selecting the most vulnerable so that is how we went about it. my favorite woman, and i am so inspired by rennio maifredi 11 -- if she has the courage to speak up against injustice then we all have to speak up against the injustice in our life today. doesn't have to always be about the other. struggling so much to go to

school, for those of you in school don't ever say a word, go to school and finish college and get your doctorate and finish school. look what she had to go through just to go to school. and i think i am done. i really deserve applause for this. [applause] >> come on. anything. men? >> anything else? >> last question. >> women living -- you know, we don't have -- never paid attention, went out of our way but i can tell you a story that touched my heart. a lot of women we work with in other countries like afghanistan or bosnia are very conservative women. they come from reserve societies where sexuality is not talked

about little loan homosexuality but it is a taboo. that is why it is very hard. i remember a long time ago, those who survived, displacement, in a refugee camp, and she got a letter from her foster in america and the sponsor in america, a young american lesbian who wrote her i am young american lesbian woman and that is my life and all of that and i was in the room, when i would distribute everything myself, all of that, she started crying and everyone is like why are you crying? she just did not know how to process the information, so cute. like she was so confused. it was very confusing.

it was the most beautiful thing because it gave the ability to talk and that is only about homosexuality but about sex generally, howard is part of a woman's life and all of that so it really came out to the letters, the exchange, to understand these issues are talked about in public in this culture but in private in the other culture. it is part of breaking the silence. when she said i emma lesbian woman she broke her silence and inspired a bosnian woman to create the space to think of her. that is the space we dealt with. other than that it was always about helping them get on their feet regardless if they weren't married or divorced or widowed or raped or not raped, doesn't matter what they have gone through, sexual orientation they have for just helps them stand on their feet.

[applause] >> booktv is on facebook. like us to interact with booktv guests and viewers. watch a video to get up-to-date information on events. facebook.com/booktv. [inaudible conversations] >> i put stephen in the back because i've read over it. not the have any personal friendship -- i am just a guy didn't do it at all. is the case i read. when i read the mr. chairman -- i read that book and tried for the life of me to figure out, the rest of the place was a post office scandal. i read what he did.

he had two shares and came out to nothing. the second case is interesting because refused to give information. i don't know why somebody put the mentality at that time on a legal case but it was a very fascinating deal. involved -- >> when he came -- how much money? >> $20 million. speaking about that, $20 million -- >> don't even want to think about what is. a man who has been in jail or

out of jail. >> wrote about it in the book. here is the purpose. the amount of money, singleman wanted to gamble in the door through the lottery, the casino voters didn't want that. the other shane is the second judge, secretly phoned the defense and the george bush administration vetoed. so this is a part of the military, the judge who wants

44% of the company and three hundred million in the contract. >> the location, thousands -- >> i didn't know it. >> i just found it very fascinating, the issue of what happened and abramoff raise a question on the money. when i got out of morgantown federal prison we referred our program at that time, i did something nice war i wouldn't do, telling me and needed to do radio, need to be quiet and sit around a little bit. you have some experiences and

knowledge and history. the first show we did and i have a lot of respect for tom hartman and today in washington you are to the right. doesn't matter how some would be classified, he is fair and he knows journalism and the other fields, a was a little nervous when we did the show and it went well and i continued to do the whole thing, did my own show for a bill but in wheeling, west d

india the assistance that i do for people lie was able to write this book and it is absolutely amazing, got nervous here tonight, i never thought i would do a book but my cousin got rest his soul, i always told the republicans he coined the phrase the gipper for ronald reagan, that was his successful movie,

what he was known best for. that was ronald reagan. my cousin always told me you need to write a book, no kidding, i need to write a book, just never thought i would write this one or write it this way. i put a lot of thought into it. i didn't want to do and outlined it. 16 minutes with my former chief of staff. neil and i agreed to do 60 minutes to get there. we have jack abramoff on 60 minute and we talked and it was better to have the two of a. it shows and honesty factor when i say this, he could say no. in my opinion the two side by side with a better way to do that. i went to india and then for one month trip. when i saw that i watched jack

abramsoff, objected not do this to me. i did it to myself so i don't sit here saying jack abramoff made me. i made the decision but i watched him on 60 minutes, i could feel some empathy having been in prison. but beyond that i wondered where jack was going with his version of history. when i heard 100 members at $10 million, the short end of that stake is the money. but i sat there in all seriousness and thought i want to tell my end of this. i know the headlines but i wanted to make it more than that. that is part of the story and i told the story and i get asked constantly, don't you live in ohio, i am in the district, parts of the district and get asked all the time what happens? this book tells a very

complicated story, not as easy as having dinner and here i go. it is a complicated story where i have my part and there are other parts, the perfect storm, where put together the outside influence to help with the idiocy i created. very important to me and i want to mention this, deals with iran and the opportunity we missed as a country to have a deal where iran was recognized, where iran would have disbanded hezbollah. i send that deal to the white house and they chose to ignore it. and and they were recently made legitimate. i want to mention that on an international basis.

the other part about morgantown federal prison, i was a lawmaker and became a lawbreaker and went into prison. very challenging. web hubbell is a high-profile person who live first met in the back of the anteroom in the finance committee, the banking committee. congressman mike oxley, the chairman, said weekend do that. and they did and he came out and testified on whitewater deal. that is how i met him the first time. the second time of this headed to president just want to go to prison as a self reporter. ..

i have because things are going on inside those walls and i don't expect anybody different from me but i have the ability to network and the ability to stand here tonight. i have the ability to be on television to have writers here with radio and print media and i can write a book and a lot of people don't have a voice inside those walls. we are warehousing human beings. we are not rehabbing them. we are warehousing them. this government and the current administration too has -- big drug dealers and they put them

away. ironically became friends with not the white-collar offenders but the drug offenders. they have now become a statistic that the drug dealers put away. they are addicts and they are not getting treatment for their addiction. my own personal struggle being in recovery with addiction and i have a message i think in this book that i say in the beginning that you don't have to be in politics to abuse substances to make your life go down. it can happen to anybody, i don't care what you do. if you are a waiter, no matter what your life's profession a reporter whatever you are you can't ingest substances into your body and lose your focus. you cannot pay attention to what you were doing and go down the path that will cause you personal problems. i have recovery information which i think works in this book. a couple of funny stories about the congress and i give credit to members of congress from both sides of the aisle in this book.

a few funny stories and some things that will shock people in this book about staffers especially congressional spouses. they kind of run things let's face it. i came to a conclusion in the book. i almost didn't write that conclusion but i felt compelled to and that conclusion is very simple. what jack abramoff and i did and our staffs, and that was the biggest scandal of its time etc. but what we did has been codified into a legal situation today. i is, lobbyists can take any member of congress or have a staffer and have a fund-raiser. once i have a fund-raiser i can take you hunting. i can take you devegas. last year they had a fund-raiser and i put that in the book. either side of the aisle can do this. citizens united, i fought john

mccain on campaign finance reform twice. the bill still was worthless and i can still tell you that today. as worthless as it was back then. you can have loopholes that you can drive trucks through. at the end of day with citizens ruling and the lack of campaign finance reform at that time. you have a situation today where super pac comes along and we can pick on karl rove or george soros whichever side of the aisle you want to skewer but you have the super pacs and they go after the people. in order to counter that you need $3 billion which is $10,000 a day they have to raise. they take their staffer and go across the street on several -- the taxpayers dime and they get on the telephone. that doesn't mean we have bad staffers. they are victims of the system. i promise you many members of congress would like this to change too. many members of congress do not like to raise this money. there are a lot of good things

and that comes to the conclusion that it still correct. jack abramoff went in and i went away and some staff people with felonies but it didn't change change anything. if my dismay people feel more comfortable but it didn't change things so i put that conclusion there and i ended with a quote i really like basically to paraphrase it says i had an addiction and today there is another addiction and that is the campaign contributions. they need an intervention and the public can do an intervention on it. it's a beautiful place and we can make it even better. i address a lot of issues in the book and i hope it is not looked at just this one issue. i am not a better person. i spent time with my granddaughter today. i get to go to india and i have a chapter on india's i told you. i get to do radio.

a lot of great people like tom hartman and people to the right of the left of the middle to get their voice out there and tell people a story and what's going on in their government and the journalistic side of this is critical. so i am happy. i am not a person that is unhappy and angry and i want to get everybody but there were some things i have to had to tell. i couldn't leave it out. as my grandmother always said this to him shall pass and she said -- so i want to thank everybody for coming. thank you. [applause] >> i went in and walked into the kiosk and i said i'm bob ney here here here to report to the guard came up as we walked up and he said i knew one of your campaign managers in ohio. i said okay. we got down in their and the guard said here you have some hate mail. it was froma