center at smu, which makes its public debut next month. mrs. bush, thank you so much for having us here, and this little sneak peek -- >> thank you for coming, erin. i'm glad you're here to see it. >> reporter: i sat down with the former first lady to talk about the bush's educational program. >> it's really the answer, i guess, to a dream that george and i both had. we both believed that women are going to be the ones who lead the democracy movement across the broader middle east and so we brought, a year ago, a group of egyptian women. we decided to focus on egypt first. >> reporter: 14 egyptian women have spent the past year learning leadership skills from prominent american women, in education, health care, business, politics, law, and media. >> a lot of people say egypt, and they, especially when you think of women. there have been gang rapes in tahrir square and the numbers on things like genital mutilation remain horrific, something like 90 plus percent. what made you said, egypt now?