Girl Power!

What the Taliban (and other terrorist monsters) think will work in their favor is to terrorize people into doing exactly what they want. It didn't work with 9-11, and it doesn't seem to be working in Afghanistan either.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: One morning two months ago, Shamsia Husseini and her sister were walking through the muddy streets to the local girls' school when a man pulled alongside on a motorcycle and posed what seemed like an ordinary question.

"Are you going to school?" Then the man pulled Shamsia's burqa from her head and sprayed her face with burning acid. Scars, jagged and discolored, are now spread across Shamsia's eyelids and most of her left cheek. These days, her vision goes blurry, making it hard to read.

But if the acid attacks against Shamsia and 14 other students and teachers, which carried the tell-tale marks of the Taliban, were meant to terrorize the girls into staying home, they appear to have failed completely.

Today, nearly all of the wounded girls are back at the Mirwais School for Girls, including Shamsia, whose face was so badly burnt that she had to be sent abroad for treatment. Perhaps even more remarkable, nearly every other female student in this deeply conservative community has returned as well - about 1,300 in all.

This story is incredible on so many levels. This is what turning a page in history is all about. Generations of girls will grow up educated and free. This changes everything. When Pres. Bush says that history will judge him. This is what he means. What will these girls, who sacrificed so much, teach their own children? And then what will those children teach theirs?

They will teach them that you cannot let evil intimidate you. That freedom and education are things worth fighting for. They will teach them how brave these girls were. They will never let the Taliban dictate to them ever again. Incredible. This is what a taste of freedom does.

These are the result of REAL women's rights. These are the women of tomorrow that will change the Arab world forever.