Afghans' 'Bravest Woman' Calls on U.S. to Leave

[sabra]

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1757/1/

Afghans' 'Bravest Woman' Calls on U.S. to Leave

Source: Women's E News



Malalai Joya, called the "bravest woman in Afghanistan," is finishing up a U.S. tour where she has pressed the Obama administration to pull the military out of her country. She says nothing could be worse for women than what she sees as the current civil war.

Malalai Joya at Brown University, Oct. 25(WOMENSENEWS)--Surrounded by powerful men twice her age, Malalai Joya, then 27 and the youngest person elected to the Afghan parliament, raised her hand to speak. She denounced the warlords and drug traffickers in the government and stood up in favor of women's rights.

That was 2005, four years after the United States invaded Afghanistan.

Two years later, Joya was expelled from parliament for criticizing the warlords who she says remain in control of the country under U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai.

Multiple times, her enemies have tried to kill her, forcing her to hide in safe houses and wear a burka.

Now, 31-year-old Joya, known widely as "the bravest woman in Afghanistan," has come to the United States to promote her new book and deliver a message to the U.S. government as the Obama administration, according to widespread press reports, considers some level of troop buildup.

On tour from Oct. 23 to Nov. 12, she's made the following demand in some two dozen engagements from New York to Los Angeles: "Leave my country as soon as possible."

...

"The last time we met in this chamber, the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school," President George W. Bush said in his 2002 State of the Union address. "Today women are free and are part of Afghanistan's new government."

Joya said the violence of occupation and the misogyny of the country's current political leaders have made life worse.

"Woman's situation is like hell," said Joya in a speech at Brown University, as part of her tour, noting that a single hospital in Kabul reported more than 600 attempted suicides, primarily by women from 2008 to 2009.

[Cerridwen]

1. K & R

[derby378]

2. God bless her, but the Taliban have painted a target on her forehead

I hope she's got the resources to keep those ghouls at bay.

[Sinti]

6. Pretty sure the warlords put the target there first n/t

[Overseas]

3. K&R. //nt

[Scurrilous]

4. "Leave my country as soon as possible."

I'm pretty sure that's the plan.

[demosincebirth]

5. I'm sure, if the taliban take over, she'll stay in the West.

[StarfarerBill]

9. And if she chooses to do so, she'll be most welcome here.

[demosincebirth]

13. Just like poking a stick, at a barking dog, through a hole in the fence...

your're safely on the other side.

[StarfarerBill]

14. As are you...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Well, what would Afghans know about their own country?

:sarcasm:

[StarfarerBill]

8. Thank you, Ms. Joya...

...for letting Americans know what's being done to your country before your eyewitness account can be filtered and distorted by the DoD and the corporate media.

[Lilith Velkor]

10. !

[tekisui]

11. knr!~ No more using women as an excuse for endless war.

[ShadesOfGrey]

12. K&R