Laura Bush’s radio address Saturday was an unprecedented use of presidential air time by a first lady with an appropriately powerful message. As the Taliban flee and the brutal oppression of women in Afghanistan is exposed, we see, Mrs. Bush said, “the world the terrorists would like to impose on the rest of us.”

Though the oppression was no secret before, horrifying details now are emerging through first-person accounts. The Taliban’s subjugation of Afghan women was total; the slightest breach of their nightmarish code was punishable with beatings, torture, even murder. As the tyranny crumbles, the stories coming out are shocking – a desperate mother and sick child shot in the street for trying to get to a doctor without the required male relative escort. And they are inspiring – underground schools for girls operated in several cities and towns for years, despite certain death sentences for the teachers and public lashings for the students had they been caught.

Mrs. Bush’s radio talk coincided with the release of a State Department report (available at www.state.gov) on the “Taliban’s war against women,” which describes the systematic repression of the last five years and the joyless, fear-filled existence that was the result. It also notes that, before the Taliban, Afghan women held a fairly high percentage of the country’s positions in medicine, government and education. Now, those precious human resources must be restored.

That restoration already has begun. Congress last Thursday authorized President Bush to use some of the $40 billion emergency funding approved after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for the immediate health care needs of Afghan women and children, in addition to funds available through other foreign aid programs. A similar initiative is taking shape in Great Britain.

But beyond publicizing the Taliban’s atrocities and addressing urgencies, Mrs. Bush’s speech launched a new campaign to assure Afghan women an important role in shaping post-Taliban society and power in the government that must be built from scratch. This will be difficult, but contrary to the Western impression of Afghanistan as a place hopelessly backward, not as revolutionary as it might seem.

Before the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were protected under law and enjoyed substantial influence in Afghan society. In 1977, they comprised more than 15 percent of Afghanistan’s highest legislative body. By the early 1990s, 70 percent of schoolteachers,

50 percent of government workers and 40 percent of doctors in Kabul were women. The Soviet invasion, the long civil war and the Taliban’s brutality took an enormous toll on Afghanistan’s already meager population of literate, educated people of both sexes. The educated and talented women driven into hiding must be part of the reconstruction.

The repression of Afghan women began, ironically, as part of a war for freedom. The Soviets made substantial investments in building schools and educating women; fundamentalist mujahadeen, some who became Taliban, some who now are leaders of some northern alliance elements, used the victory against the Soviets as an excuse to promote their extreme, perverse interpretation on Islam. By insisting that women be part of a new Afghanistan government, the United States and the United Nations negotiators can do much to ensure the integrity and stability of the new government of Afghanistan.