Afghanistan: Sec. Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush Advocate for Afghan Women's 'Hard-Fought Gains' --- November 15, 2013 – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former First Lady Laura Bush came to Georgetown today to talk about protecting the progress made by women and girls in Afghanistan after American troops leave the country next year. -- The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS), which Clinton says may be the “first ever” such institute in the world, co-sponsored the symposium, entitled “Advancing Afghan Women: Promoting Peace and Progress in Afghanistan,” with the George W. Bush Institute; the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council; and the U.S. Alliance in Support of the Afghan People. -- “We can point to a lot of progress,” Clinton told a packed Gaston Hall full of diplomats, Georgetown faculty and students. “But we’re well aware this is a serious turning point for all the people of Afghanistan … in particular for the hard-fought gains that women and girls have been able to enjoy and what we can do as Americans to try and support these courageous women and men who want to build the Afghanistan that they imagine.” -- “We don’t want the people of Afghanistan to think that because our troops are leaving they no longer matter to us, because they do matter and the relationships and the friendships we built, especially with Afghan women … really do matter to us,” Bush said, “and I want the people of Afghanistan to know that the people of the United States do support them.”