Laura Bush has quietly been trying to help women around the world not only transform themselves, but to transform the society in which they live.

A Washington Post column today details how the First Lady has been helping women make education and equality gains in places like Kabul, Afghanistan and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She’s also helped further the State Department’s breast-cancer initiative in the Middle East – a region where 80 percent of breast-cancer victims died before Bush began meeting with leaders there. Those numbers have since dropped.

“I’ve been privileged to watch her in action, as well as to appreciate the life-saving results of her efforts,” writes Kathleen Parker of the Post. “Largely because of her, and the breast-cancer-crusading Susan B. Komen for the Cure organization, women in that harshly patriarchal part of the world have been given an empowering voice. More importantly, women are surviving.”

In remarks Monday to a small gathering of biographers, historians and journalists, Bush said she intends to continue helping women and children through her education and health initiatives after she and her husband leave the White House. She also hopes to include women’s leadership training as part of President Bush’s planned Freedom Institute at Southern Methodist University.

Parker says Bush’s demure librarian-teacher persona has minimized her appeal to the media and many may not realize the work she has done.

“But Bush’s Texas manners should not be confused with passivity,” Parker says. “She is a serious player whose White House tenure provides lessons for the next First Lady.”

Here’s video of one of Bush’s recent trips to Afghanistan: