Human rights activist and former Afghan MP Malalai Joya spoke at and marched in a peace protest. She is on a speaking tour of the United States and was initially denied a visa.

Steve Rhodes, Demotix.com, April 11, 2011

April 10, 2011: Malalai Joya delivering speech to protesters in San Francisco peace march. (Photo by Steve Rhodes)

Human rights activist and former Afghan MP Malalai Joya spoke at and marched in a peace protest. She is on a speaking tour of the United States and was initially denied a visa.San Francisco, USA 10/04/2011

Former Afghan MP Malalai Joya spoke at an rally against wars in Dolores Park in San Francisco. She then led the over mile long march. She had spoken the previous night about her experience working for human rights in Afghanistan.

An Interview with Malalai Joya: The US is god-father of Islamic fundamentalism in the region

The Harvard International Review, April 10, 2011

Harvard International Review: How has Afghanistan changed since the fall of the Taliban? In particular, how have women’s lives changed?

Malalai Joya: The US invaded my country under the banner of the war on terror, women’s rights, human rights, and democracy. But even with the presence of tens of thousands of troops, not only women—also Afghan men—suffer from war, terrorism, injustice, the rule of drug mafia and warlordism, insecurity, joblessness, poverty, unprecedented corruption, and many other problems. While it’s true that the women’s rights situation may have improved when you compare it with the barbaric regime of the Taliban—some women now have jobs and education—it is used to justify the occupation. In most places, particularly in the villages, the condition of women is still like a hell.

ملالی جویا تصویر کلیشه ایی جهانیان از زن افغانستان را پریشان کرده است.

آوای زن, ۹ اپریل ۲۰۱۱

ملالی جویا را سال  ها پیش در سفرش به اروپا ملاقات کردم. دیدار کوتاه بود و فرصتی برای صحبت و تبادل نظر نبود. بعد از آن چند بار به سفارش نشریات مختلف با او تلفنی مصاحبه کردم و با پی گیری نوشته  ها وفعالیت  هایش بیشتر با او آشنا شدم. بالاخره چند ماه پیش در سفر مجدد جویا به استکهلم فرصت دیدار دست داد. به محل قرار که رسیدم ایستاده بود و مشغول تماشای ویترین مغازه ایی. بی خیال و آرام. به طرفم که برگشت دیدم هنوز همان ملالی است با چشمانی درخشان و هشیار که نشان از جانی شیفته دارد. حالا 32 ساله است. هنوز شعرهای شاملو را از حفظ می خواند. بی باکی و عشق پایان ناپذیرش به مردم افغانستان و آگاهی اش در مورد تاریخ، مسائل و رنج  های کشورش احترام برانگیز است.

مثل همیشه دلداری ام داد که نگرانش نباشم. در معرض تهدید دائمی است و زندگی اش در جابجایی برای حفظ امنیت می گذرد. هر دو نگاهی به زنان سرخوش جوانی که در میز بقل نشسته بودند انداختیم و ناخودآگاه موضوع بحث مان به نقش سوئد، حضور نظامی در افغانستان و سکوتِ به علامت رضایِ جامعه ی سوئد کشیده شد.

حالا دیگر تنها جنگ سالارها و طالب ها دشمنت نیستند! خیلی  ها می خواهند ساکت باشی! خروج نیروهای نظامی از افغانستان برای همین سوئدی های «صلح طلب» هم دیگر به صرفه نیست!

Sonali Kolhatkar interviews Malalai Joya on Uprising Radio

Uprising Radio, April 7, 2011

Malalai Joya, former member of Parliament in Afghanistan, spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar on April 7, 2011, about the war in Afghanistan. Joya is the author of “A Woman Among Warlords.”

Watch a video of the interview here:

L.A. RECORD’s Scott Schultz interview Malalai Joya

By Scott Schultz, L.A. RECORD, April 6, 2011

Malalai Joya—also known as Joya—gave a voice to the women, children and men of Afghanistan for the world when at the age of 25, while representing her region at the Loya Jirga (Afghanistan’s constitutional convention in 2003) in front of an international audience, she called out members of the newly elected Parliament as warlords, narco-terrorists and war criminals. Her life has been in constant danger ever since, but she continues to speak out against the fundamentalist Islamic regime in Afghanistan and against America’s involvement in the enforcement of the warlords’ continued positions of power over Afghan citizens.

A women’s rights activist since her youth, she would risk her life as a teenager, covertly educating girls and women at Afghan refugee camps. Currently living in hiding in her native country, she routinely has to change safe-houses and has to travel at all times with an armed guard due to constant assassination attempts. Last month, Joya was initially denied a visa to enter America for a tour promoting her autobiography A Woman Among Warlords and to speak out against what she calls the American occupation of Afghanistan.

U.S. TOUR: Soldiers disregard lives, says former lawmaker

Adam Ashton, The Olympian, April 6, 2011

A former Afghan lawmaker told an audience of South Sound peace activists Tuesday that photos of Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers grinning over the corpse of a boy they allegedly murdered revealed a disregard for civilian lives among U.S. forces fighting in her country.

“They are making fun with the dead bodies of my people,” said Malalai Joya, 32, a human rights activist who visited the University of Washington Tacoma on her U.S. speaking tour. About 80 people attended her talk, which was hosted by the group Peace Action of Washington and was her seventh in the Puget Sound area this week.

She spoke about 12 miles north of the Lewis-McChord jail, where the soldiers shown in the photographs are being held as they await courts-martial.

ACCLAIMED AFGHAN ACTIVIST SHARES HER STORY AND THE REALITY OF THE AFGHANISTAN WAR

Afghan Women's Mission, March 4, 2011

Malalai Joya, former Afghan parliamentarian and author of A Woman Among Warlords, will be speaking at 4 events in Southern California. Elected to the Afghan parliament in 2006, Joya was the nation’s youngest MP, and known for her outspoken views against the U.S. backed warlords that dominate the government. She has survived 4 assassination attempts, and in 2007, was kicked out of Parliament by the very men she criticized. Women and men across Afghanistan demonstrated for her reinstatement.

Hard truths have a soft landing at historic Oregon university- includes video coverage of Willamette event.

Report by Tim King, Photos by Dexter Phoenix, Salem-News.com, March 4, 2011

(SALEM, Ore.) - Former Afghan Parliament Member Malalai Joya spoke to a welcoming and enthusiastic packed house at Willamette University's Smith Auditorium Sunday night.

Her talk to a wide ranging audience led to a minutes-long standing ovation; it seemed like a clear indication of Salem's interest in this far away land occupied by U.S. troops locked in a fierce war claiming an escalating number of lives on all sides.

A most interesting and resilient woman; Joya has paid a heavy price for her open criticism of the government led by President Hamid Karzai who she says is both a puppet of U.S. policy, and a war criminal with links to the darkest corners of Afghanistan's criminality.

Women Facing War in Afghanistan, and the Need for U.S. Solidarity

VDay, March 4, 2011

South Asia Solidarity Initiative and War Resisters League in association with Center for Place Culture & Politics at CUNY present:

Friday, April 15 - 7pm til 9pm
CUNY Graduate Center, Recital Hall
365 Fifth Ave at 34th Street [BDFV & NQRW trains to 34th St, 6 train to 33]
This event is open to the public, $20 suggested donation
For more information: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.southasiainitiative.org

Joya: We believe that the brutal actions of these 'kill teams' reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation.

By Adam Ashton, The News Tribune, March 4, 2011

Photos showing Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers posing with an Afghan corpse reveal a form of racism among some U.S. soldiers, a former Afghan lawmaker contends.

"I must report that Afghans do not believe this be a story of a few rogue soldiers," ex-parliamentarian Malalai Joya wrote in The Guardian last week. "We believe that the brutal actions of these 'kill teams' reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation. While these photos are new, the murder of innocents is not. Such crimes against civilians have sparked many protests in Afghanistan and have sharply raised anti-US sentiments among ordinary Afghans."

She discusses her life and the future of Afghanistan with Jerome

Worldview, WBEZ91.5, March 31, 2011

Afghan human rights activist Malalai Joya discusses the war in Afghanistan with Jerome McDonnell in WBEZ's studio on March 31. (WBEZ/Joe Linstroth)

Malalai Joya is an Afghan politician, writer and human rights activist. She was the youngest person elected to Afghanistan's new parliament. But in 2007, she was suspended from the body for her persistent criticism of the warlords and drug barons and their cronies. She has survived four assassination attempts to date, is accompanied at all times by armed guards and sleeps only in safe houses. Joya’s most recent op-ed, published in The Guardian on March 30, highlights the disturbingly graphic images of killed Afghan civilians being used as props by U.S. soldiers that were revealed in Rolling Stone magazine.  

This is full version of an article by Malalai Joya published on The Guardian yesterday

Malalai Joya, Zmag, March 31, 2011

The disgusting and heartbreaking photos published last week in the media are finally bringing the grisly truth about the war in Afghanistan to a wider public. All the PR about this war being about democracy and human rights melts into thin air with these pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead and mutilated bodies of innocent Afghan civilians.

I must report that Afghans do not believe this be a story of a few rogue soldiers. We believe that the brutal actions of these “kill teams” reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation. While these photos are new, the murder of innocents is not. Such crimes against civilians have sparked many protests in Afghanistan and have sharply raised anti-US sentiments among ordinary Afghans.

گفتگوی امی گلدمن با ملالی جویا برای نشریه دمکراسی ناو

تلخیص و ترجمه از کارمن کشیشیان، شهزاد نیوز، ١١ فروردین ١٣٩٠

ملالی جویا: برقع منزجرکننده که نمادی از ظلم و ستم است، امروز به بسیاری از زنان افغان به ویژه زنان فعال ایمنی می دهد. اگرچه وی با وجود داشتن برقع و محافظ، زندگی او امن نبوده و مجبور به تغییر محل سکونتش می گردد و موانع بسیار دیگری نه تنها وی بلکه احزاب دموکراتیک، روشنفکران و فعالان را به داشتن زندگی مخفیانه مجبور می سازد.

شهرزاد نیوز: ملالی جویا، عضو سابق مجلس افغانستان و منتقد صریح جنگ سالاران، بنیادگرایان، طالبان و اشغال افغانستان توسط ایالات متحده می باشد. وی که از ترورهای متعددی جان سالم به در برده است، از طرف مجله تایم جزو صد فرد متنفذ جهان معرفی شده است. ملالی جویا که قصد داشت برای معرفی و ترویج نسخه دوم کتاب زندگینامه اش با عنوان "زنی در میان جنگ سالاران" به ایالات متحده سفر کند، با رد درخواست ویزایش توسط مقامات آمریکائی روبرو گشت و تنها پس از کمپین اعتراضی که شامل نامه هائی از اتحادیه آمریکائی آزادی های مدنی و ٩ عضو کنگره ایالات متحده بود که با درخواستش موافقت شد.

These disgusting photos of murdered Afghans reveal the aggression and racism underpinning the occupation of my country

Malalai Joya, The Guardian, March 30, 2011

The disgusting and heartbreaking photos published last week in the German media, and more recently in Rolling Stone magazine, are finally bringing the grisly truth about the war in Afghanistan to a wider public. All the PR about this war being about democracy and human rights melts into thin air with the pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead and mutilated bodies of innocent Afghan civilians.

I must report that Afghans do not believe this to be a story of a few rogue soldiers. We believe that the brutal actions of these "kill teams" reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation. While these photos are new, the murder of innocents is not. Such crimes have sparked many protests in Afghanistan and have sharply raised anti-American sentiment among ordinary Afghans.

“When the enemies of our people, when the fundamentalists and the warlords unite, why should we not unite?”

Katie McKay Bryson, PopDev,, March 29, 2011

The story of her recent US visa denial is riddled with painfully ironic contradictions. Malalai Joya, once the youngest member of the Afghan parliament (driven out of President Hamid Karzai’s government in 2007 for her courageous repudiation of NATO-backed warlord domination and drug cartel cronyism), was denied a visa for a three-week US speaking tour earlier this month. The reasons given by the embassy? She has been “living underground” and is unemployed. Yet in the violent, misogynist reality of occupied Afghanistan, the vast majority of women are unemployed – and the primary reason Joya must lead an “underground” life are the four or more assassination attempts she has survived.