Malalai Joya, "the bravest woman in Afghanistan" says western "liberation was just a big lie"

[Better Believe It]

'Liberation was just a big lie'
Outspoken Afghan MP says Canadian mission is a big waste of time
November 19, 2009

She sleeps in safe houses, with a rotating squad of bodyguards securing the doors. She goes out only in a billowing burqa. Even her wedding was held in secret.

Elected the youngest member of the Afghan parliament – and suspended for her outspoken criticism of the country's top officials – Malalai Joya has been labelled the bravest woman in Afghanistan.

Small, soft-spoken and now 31, she has survived at least four assassination attempts and is angry at the oppressive life she is forced to lead, dodging enemies she has denounced as bloody-handed warlords and drug kingpins.

"Canada should pull its troops out now," she said in Toronto on Wednesday, where she was promoting her book A Woman Among Warlords, co-written with Canadian peace activist Derrick O'Keefe.

And, she says, U.S. President Barack Obama, who is considering a surge in troop levels to battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban, should think again.

"The United States should go, too. As long as foreign troops are in the country we will be fighting two enemies instead of one."

"Liberation was just a big lie." Joya believes Afghans are now better prepared to battle the Taliban alone – if the warlords are disarmed, and the international community helps build a society that can push back against extremism.

It is a tall order, she admits. But "resistance has increased, and people are becoming more aware of democracy and human rights. They need humanitarian and educational support."

But not, she adds, at the point of a gun.


Malalai Joya, who was in Toronto to promote her book, A Woman Among Warlords, says Canada and the United States should pull their troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/727873---liberation-was-just-a-big-lie

[2tr4nqued]

1. I agree, waste of time, waste of life, waste of money.

But the administration may think otherwise. How can we stop Obama from sending more troops?



http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/shut-up-and-bring-them-home-if-you-want-our-vote

[redqueen]

2. That pic is tasteless.

I agree that we shouldn't send more troops... but that pic is over the top IMO. That kind of thing would be more fitting elsewhere.

[anonymous171]

3. Foreign aid is also a waste of time.

And how exactly does one "disarm" warlords without escalation?

[tuvor]

4. Link to her interview on CBC Radio's The Current this morning...

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200911/20091119.html

[Better Believe It]

5. Thanks for the link

[slipslidingaway]

7. Thanks - what a brave woman. n/t

[Better Believe It]

9. "Brave woman" almost seems to be a gross understatement.

[slipslidingaway]

11. Very True! n/t

[slipslidingaway]

6. knr - Malalai Joya: The woman who will not be silenced

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/malalai-joya-the-woman-who-will-not-be-silenced-1763127.html

"...I am not sure how many more days I will be alive," Malalai Joya says quietly.

The warlords who make up the new "democratic" government in Afghanistan have been sending bullets and bombs to kill this tiny 30-year-old from the refugee camps for years – and they seem to be getting closer with every attempt. Her enemies call her a "dead woman walking". "But I don't fear death, I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice," she says plainly. "I am young and I want to live. But I say to those who would eliminate my voice: 'I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.'"

The story of Malalai Joya turns everything we have been told about Afghanistan inside out. In the official rhetoric, she is what we have been fighting for. Here is a young Afghan woman who set up a secret underground school for girls under the Taliban and – when they were toppled – cast off the burka, ran for parliament, and took on the religious fundamentalists.

For a moment, as these old killers started to give long speeches congratulating themselves on the transition to democracy, Joya felt nervous. But then, she says, "I remembered the oppression we face as women in my country, and my nervousness evaporated, replaced by anger."

When her turn came, she stood, looked around at the blood-soaked warlords on every side, and began to speak. "Why are we allowing criminals to be present here? They are responsible for our situation now... It is they who turned our country into the centre of national and international wars. They are the most anti-women elements in our society who have brought our country to this state and they intend to do the same again... They should instead be prosecuted in the national and international courts."

These warlords – who brag about being hard men – could not cope with a slender young woman speaking the truth. They began to shriek and howl, calling her a "prostitute" and "infidel", and throwing bottles at her. One man tried to punch her in the face. Her microphone was cut off and the jirga descended into a riot..."

[kenny blankenship]

8. IAS!S!

I am shocked! SHOCKED! to learn that we used Afghan women as a cheap propaganda tool to justify our invasion and to suppress dissent against our occupation of that country. No one could have ever foreseen that the American commitment to the cause of women living under patriarchal religious oppression there would prove to be a greasy pickup line, promising something we couldn't possibly deliver on, and which we never truly, seriously intended to carry out in the first place. Against Democrats, who as a party have a higher proportion of female voter support compared to Republicans -and essentially all of the feminist support- it was the perfect wedge. Against Afghans, it worked just long enough to get them out of their burqas -and then back in again. Oh we love em and we leave em!

[glowing]

10. When has western "liberation" been anything but a lie.