Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Minister, for coming.
Minister, this is something unusual. I will congratulate you and your colleagues on the fact that these reports are sent out on a quarterly basis. I think this is important that as a committee we very much assess our six priority goals and ensure we are meeting those goals.
Minister, I have three areas of questioning, I hope fairly brief, and I'll share with my colleagues.
The first area is with regard to the Shia law that literally was brought before the president. We have a gender advisor in the interior ministry, and we're spending about $680,000 on significant programs, too numerous to mention. How would something of that nature have caught us off guard, given the fact that we have someone embedded there and the fact that this would have occurred under present circumstances? What are we doing to ensure that this type of situation does not occur again, given the fact that this is one of our goals, and I think a very laudable goal, in fully integrating women into Afghan society?