She certainly displayed cool nerve in the midst of rambunctious demonstrating crowds during her five-day visit to the Middle East last week. She also shrewdly pitched the president's agenda of freedom and democracy to the audience which could perhaps do more than any other to further that agenda throughout the Arab lands. That audience, of course, is the women of the region. In a male-dominated society, they are traditionally disenfranchised, relegated to inferior status, their educational potential and influence for constructive change untapped and dismissed. But if encouraged and unleashed, what a force they could be.

The winds of change are rippling across the Arab lands, as evident in voter turnouts in liberated Iraq, pro-democracy demonstrations that have sent Syrian troops exiting from Lebanon, and the burgeoning of a substantial opposition movement in Egypt. Of necessity, and not always from conviction, political concessions are being made by the kings and princes and traditional rulers. Islamist parties which have long curried favor with the population by providing social services for the poor, the sick, and jobs and medical care, are poised to become part of the opposition. Such parties as Hamas and Hezbollah, which have both political and military arms, are debating whether to renounce violence and become mainstream political organizations.

Arab women, if empowered, could be a significant factor in shifting the thrust of their menfolk away from terror and bloodshed and into orthodox politics. That is why it was cheering to see Laura Bush sitting down last week with Hanan Ashrawi, a former Palestinian spokeswoman and now a legislator, and other prominent Palestinian women, to encourage the advancement of women's rights.

Peace and stability will be better served when there are more women legislators and judges and government officials in positions of responsibility in the Islamic world. Some progress is being made, as for instance in post-Taliban Afghanistan. But throughout the Arab nations, 50 percent of the women are still illiterate. A recent report prepared for the United Nations by Arab intellectuals found that "despite laudable efforts to promote the status of women, success remains limited." Greater progress, it concluded, is required in women's political participation, legal status, their integration into development and marital rights.

Laura for president. Maybe that might help.

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John Hughes is editor and chief operating officer of the Deseret Morning News. He is a former editor of the Christian Science Monitor, which syndicates this column. E-mail: hughes@desnews.com