I'm very pleased to welcome back to our program the man that I consider the best
president
up my lifetime a Nobel Peace Prize winner 10
our worlds genuinely great statesman arm
president former President Jimmy Carter he has a new book out called a call to
action
women religion violence and power president carter welcome back to the
program
I was gonna be on with you I'll post all the country thank you so much
on before we get to your book which I have
red most other than its absolute brilliance I how but
and unrelated question about american politics don't mind if I ask that or
would you prefer I'm
its okay yeah on in about 3 three or four years ago the LBJ library released
tapes have LBJ working with whatever direction trying to stop
the nixon campaign and 68 from blocking LBJ's peace deal with South Vietnam
they were not successful and dirksen called what nixon did
treason and that those tapes are now available present body solders said that
something similar happened to you during the reagan campaign
and George W Bush was only president because the intervention the US Supreme
Court something you've commented on the past
I'm wondering and you know have we had a legitimately elected Republican
president since Dwight Eisenhower
well I think so I would want a car or a comment on that
as priests free growth buddy I think we've had a legitimate
elected president I don't like that George W Bush won the election
are in 2002 I guess I'll go because I think it he
probably lost for and also that nationwide
but you know that when the Supreme Court ruled in our country
are that's what we have to accept yeah I absolutely in your book
I E your your book is so extraordinary and I i just one strongly encourage all
of our listeners to pick this up it's a it's a short easy re dance
its its so solid arm a call to action
%uh early on a book then page in fact on page 35 you talk about how
America has dropped the ball how
how incarceration for example a you said
at when I was president it I might now you know there are now five times as
many American inmates in federal state local presence as well
as when I was president the number of incarcerated black women has increased
by
eight hundred percent that's correct yes sites what ever compare when I was
governor
their seven tracks seven and a half times as many people in prison now
we we're gonna be a punitive society rosanna rehabilitative
society we also have the only death penalty as you know
in this hemisphere where nato and armed
go saying this I believe or out for Chesil Dave Bolland and they'd don't go
home
depend on making people better if they had do make a mistake and
an hour and in the loft and there are about thirty two hundred people in this
country now
to in jail for life sentence
that have never committed any crime pilots stayed there for drugs and so
forth so this is what we are doing our country and I think it sets a bad
example
for a for demonstrating balance in in other aspects of my life
as as a Christian you quoted
the a conversation you had with I believe was an
orthodox Christian or was it the the vatican I'm sorry I read it I don't have
a right for me
where they talked about how man was created first but then
with the a you know in a Christian context
men and women are created equal basically through baptism here and
and that you see that as a really good sign
in in bad realm could you speak to that and also to the later story that you
told about how the King a Morocco came back to the white house and talk spoke
with her mother and
and and how he's opening up Morocco to women
you you mention Saudi Arabia arm some these countries that we think I've is
very restrictive in
and in many ways they are how the Muslim world is changing as well
well I think the most immoral is not to be condemned because our
I love a major not a whole lot of what may be about 20
countries in our in the Islamic world to have a very honest and fair
election in fact the largest Islamic country in the world is indonesia
where we've had two election at the carter center monitor
and in Morocco the young king who came to visit
me at the white house when I was present he was just a boy then has made a most
profound
up changes all reforms and I lost
in Morocco than any other country in Islamic waters force guarantee women
equal rights
and this is a very good encourage insane
but I wouldn't say that the Karan has any worse
verses in it about women's rights send us the Holy Bible
in fact is hard to find a verse in the Quran
dead really shares at men are superior to women
almost invariably divers say that they're both
created equal and in God's eyes but I in the Christian Church course
an Interpol Testament you can find some selected verses
that are say the opposite think but I i teach about whatever Sunday my long home
church in planes
and I and II know that I love Jesus Christ
was a preeminent champion of women's rights in his lifetime and maybe Olympic
champion
have all times so when I get into a quandary about a particular person about
about 36,000 album
I just go back and read what Jesus did and said as reassures me about women's
rights
from I'm curious your thoughts on population I didn't see much discussion
other than the book although
as I mention I've only read about three-quarters of it on
I wrote a book back in 96 lester's mention sunlight citing
a buncha research that showed that if you want to stabilize population
it's not even a matter back sister birth control it's a matter of political
an economic power for women that when women are empowered
they will control pot family size that's exactly right
if you educate girls and women
and give them an equal chance in the society
then almost immediately raises their number of children that they bear
drops down there's a direct relationship
between economic are progress picture with women
and the small size of families and we found that we have had problems in about
80 countries around the world
we found that in every place we've had a major health program
that he that that as women have have power and control over themselves that
they're popular family sizes do
yeah and and when I know the children to go live you know when I give the
children better
I better sanitation a min ago under peridot
and so forth they give a rudimentary opportunity for better health care
if a very large their children got a lil then
they don't have as many children as a is a can another thing that happens is it
that when you can bench
our community that the girls it can
get educated and be just as productive
are when you're when you at all parents
as your son can maybe even more attentive to dispatch to her parents
then of course you stop the genocide agenda that I call it a little girls
when they're born
now yeah the the
will we it's very easy for us to look at the
at third world nations or a or
other countries religions in and wave your finger at them
one other points that you make in the book in and so very eloquently you talk
about
on the not just equal rights a moment but the Violence Against Women Act and
then
and then a meal in the next paragraph Powell there were a number of prominent
a politicians and people I phyllis schlafly who condemned it
what what is the what is your prognosis for
women's rights here in the United States we still have not passed equal rights
for it around us we we have we're a 78
in a world where equal pay for women seventy-seven other coaches are above us
we are a 70 s
and a number women who hold public office at a local straight and level
threat national level we have are their worst our sexual trafficking
or slavery programs in america particular young girls a State
Department last year estimated
that have a hundred thousand girl sold into slavery
in america every year atlanta's a number one trading post
for young girls being sold into slavery because we have the largest airport in
the world
every import a lot of our passion is from the southern hemisphere
where girls that upheld most to buy all possible almost by
a much more cheaply and aborted and the girls
in a northern hemisphere so we have all these kinds of abuses
not only in a min well just measure but also in a military
in almost every university in America we have sexual abuse
this is not really it punished or even brought to the public's attention
so there seems in the United States and presumably all around the world
a number of different leverage points economic political
educational religious where are the
areas to bring about equal rights for girls and women
and an empowerment of girls and women that you think
are the most powerful effective as our last question here
bogota on a prayer service for the United States Congress to ratify I'll
prove the laws that have been passed
by the United Nations General Assembly and also by the security council
does not deem has a convergent
all the elimination of discrimination against women
see dollar card that the most other countries have ratified including China
and so forth
but the US Senate refused to ratify this so disco conversion
and as an international class Against Women Act that have been passed on most
charges are again
United States Congress refuses to pass it and so these are things that block
our coach for taking a leadership role in the whole world and try to reduce
the abuse of women and girls care President Jimmy Carter
his new book a call to action women religion violence and power.
sir you are genuinely one of my heroes thank you so much for being with me will
you thanks very much
thank you for