Raising My Voice is the real story of Afghanistan’s youngest female politician, Malalai Joya

Marie, Leaves in the Lonnen, May 15, 2012

April came with much promise, for I managed to get my hands on a book I had much wanted to read for months. Raising My Voice is the real story of Afghanistan’s youngest female politician, Malalai Joya. I first came across her name in an Afghan exhibit in Second Life, the creator of which told me of this amazing woman and her struggle to bring justice and freedom to the people of her country.

Joya’s story is an inspiring one. Through her own words you learn the truth about post-war Afghanistan. Even though the country has a parliament, it is a corrupt one, populated by the same warlords who ravaged the Afghan population before the rise of the Taliban. Those few politicians who choose to stand up for the rights of their people are silenced, ridiculed, threatened and murdered in the pursuit of justice. From an early age, Joya chose to be a fighter: surviving endless derision and many assassination attempts, she has continued fighting for Afghanistan. Reading her story has made me an avid fan of hers; in an age of political apathy and spineless ineffective politicians it is satisfying to learn about a politician who truly deserves the title.

“No nation can liberate another nation,” Joya said.

Pip Hinman,Green Left Weekly, April 13, 2012

Malalai Joya. Photo: Peter Boyle

“You have to put more pressure on your government to allow Afghans decide their own future”, Afghan democracy activist and former MP Malalai Joya told a 150-strong public forum on April 11.

“No nation can liberate another nation,” Joya said. “Ten years of war should have made this clear. It's better the troops leave.”

The public meeting, organised by Sydney Stop the War Coalition, was chaired by human rights activist and lawyer Kellie Tranter. Tranter told Green Left Weekly: “It's important to listen to Malalai Joya because she is the voice of a vast network of ordinary people across Afghanistan who are saying the foreign troops have to get out.”

ملالی جویا: هیچ ملتی نمی تواند برای ملت دیگر آزادی بیاورد، ده سال جنگ این را ثابت ساخته است

پیپ انمن، هفته‌نامه "گرین لیفت"، ١٣ اپریل ٢٠١٢

ملالی جویا فعال دموکراسی و نماینده سابق پارلمان در نشست اجتماع عمومی با شرکت ١٥٠ تن بتاریخ ١١ اپریل اظهار داشت، "شما باید بالای دولت خود فشار بیشتر وارد کنید تا بگذارد افغان ها خود سرنوشت آینده شان را تعیین کنند."

او می گوید، "هیچ ملتی نمی تواند برای ملت دیگر آزادی بیاورد، ده سال جنگ این را ثابت ساخته است، بهتر آن است تا نیروهای خارجی افغانستان را ترک گویند."

نشست عمومی که بوسیله ائتلاف ضد جنگ سیدنی تنظیم گردیده بود، ریاست آن را حقوقدان و فعال حقوق بشر، کیلی ترنتر بر عهده داشت. ترنتر به گرین لیفت ویکلی گفت: "این خیلی مهم است تا به حرف های ملالی جویا گوش داد، زیرا او صدای جمع وسیع از مردم عادی در سراسر افغانستان است که خواستار بیرون رفتن نیروهای خارجی از کشور شان هستند."

Afghan politician and human rights campaigner Malalai Joya ran secret schools for girls during the Taliban regime and is an outspoken critic of president Hamid Karzai and the US-led occupation.

Reporter: Emma Alberici, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, April 9, 2012

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Time magazine has called her one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Malalai Joya is an Afghan politician and a human rights campaigner. Under the Taliban she operated secret underground schools providing an education for the country's girls.

She's an outspoken critic of Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai and of the US-led occupation. But speaking out has come at a cost. There have been six attempts on her life. The most recent scare came just last month when gunman attacked her office in Kabul.

Malalai Joya is visiting Australia to address a public meeting in Sydney later this week.

Marxism 2012: revolution in the air was a great Conference both quantitatively and qualitatively.

John, En Passant, April 9, 2012

Malalai Joya in Lateline of ABC

It was three days of political discussion and debate. 925 people attended. Malalai Joya, John Pilger, Mamdouh Habib, Gary Foley, and comrades from across the globe (eg New Zealand, the US, the Philippines, Japan, Palestine, Bangladesh, Thailand, Egypt, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Chile and elsewhere) spoke and participated. There were over 70 sessions on a range of topics that could whet most radical appetites.

And the debates were great, from socialists to reformists, populationists, liquidationists, to anarchists and Greens and people interested in the ideas but not yet committed or convinced, all contributing or questioning. This was the Conference of the Left in Australia.

Personally Malalai Joya on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon was the highlight. Both her incredible bravery in opposing both the US Occupation and the Taliban, and her deep understanding of the international situation and Afghanistan’s position within it, for example the global reach and brutality of US imperialism and the need for American workers to overthrow the dictatorship of capital, made her talks the most moving of the Conference and perhaps in all of my political life.

مشخصا ملالی جویا شب پنجشنبه و بعد از ظهر شنبه شخصیت برجسته درین گفتگو ها بود.

این پزنت، ٩ اپریل ٢٠١٢
نویسنده: جان پزنت، مترجم: سمیر

مارکسیزم ٢٠١٢: انقلاب در حال وقوع، کنفرانس بزرگ از نظر کمی و کیفی بود.

این بحث و مناظره سیاسی سه روز ادامه یافت که در آن ٩٢٥ تن شرکت نموده بودند؛ ملالی جویا، جان پلجر، ممدو حبیب، گیری فولی و دوستان دیگر از سراسر جهان (زیلاند جدید، ایالات متحده امریکا، فلپین، جاپان، فلسطین، بنگله دیش، تایلند، مصر، بهرین، سریلانکا، چیلی و جا های دیگر) در بحث ها شرکت داشتند.

این گفتگو های مهم بود، از سوسیالیست ها گرفته تا ریفورمیست ها، طرفداران کنترول نفوس، انحلال گرایان، انارشیست ها، سبز ها و کسانیکه نسبت به اندیشه های علاقه مند بودند، اما تا حال تعهدی نسبت به آن اندیشه نداشته و یا اینکه متقاعد به آن نشده بودند، تمام آنان درین گفتگو ها سهم گرفته و پرسش هایی را مطرح ساختند.

مشخصا ملالی جویا شب پنجشنبه و بعد از ظهر شنبه شخصیت برجسته درین گفتگو ها بود. او بدلیل شجاعت بی نظیرش در مخالفت علیه اشغالگران امریکایی و طالبان و درک عمیقش نسبت به وضعیت بین‌المللی و موقعیت افغانستان در آن مطرح است. بطول مثال پرداختن وی به موقعیت جهانی و بیداد گری امپریالیزم امریکا و ضرورت براندازی دیکتاتوری سرمایه بوسیله کارگران امریکایی، بحث های او را به بحث اصلی این کنفرانس تبدیل نموده بود، که بدون شک نمونه آنرا در تمام حیات سیاسی خود ندیده‌ام.

She speaks of injustices in her war torn countries, and wants USA to remove all their troops in Afghanistan.

Levitated One, April 5, 2012

Malalai Joya – An Afghan activist speaking in University of Melbourne, Australia on April 5, 2012. She survived an assassination attempt just days before entering Australia, which left multiple of her body guards killed and injured.

Malalai Joya reasoning about why wearing burqa

Eleanor Hall, ABC, April 5, 2012

ELEANOR HALL: In 2010, Time magazine called her one of the world's 100 most influential people and Foreign Policy magazine listed her among its Top Global Thinkers.

But to many she is simply "the bravest woman in Afghanistan".

Author and human rights campaigner Malalai Joya has been one of the fiercest critics of the Afghan government and the foreign occupation of her country and the latest attempt on her life was just last month.

In 2005 she become the youngest person to be elected to the new Afghan parliament but she was dismissed two years later for continuing to criticise the warlords and drug barons she accuses of destroying her country.

Over the past few years PEN Melbourne has organised events in collaboration with WISA (Women’s International Solidarity Australia) in support of Malalai Joya.

Melbourne Pen, April 3, 2012

WISA fundraising dinner with special guest Malalai Joya

Women’s International Solidarity Australia (WISA) welcomes back Malalai Joya for dinner and a discussion to launch WISA’s 2012 Featured Events Series.

Kicking off the series is human rights activist and former Afghan MP Malalai Joya was a featured guest at WISA’s 2010 launch and we welcome her back again in this fundraising dinner. All funds raised will help Joya to continue in her work for human rights and gender justice in Afghanistan.

Sydney Stop the War Coalition is proud to host Malalai Joya at a meeting organised in a question and answer format

Stop the War Coalition, March 29, 2012

The murderous rampage by a US army sergeant in Afghanistan on March 11, killing 16 civilians (mainly women and children) signifies the death throes of the US occupation.

Whether mental illness can be blamed or not, army veterans only act like this when they have lost all confidence in their command and regard the military mission as hopeless.

Malalai Joya, a former MP, recently survived the sixth attempt on her life.

Green Left Weekly, March 25, 2012

Malalai Joya, a former MP and one of Afghanistan’s best-known democratic leaders, recently survived the sixth attempt on her life. Taliban gunmen attacked her office at 3 am on March 10, wounding two of her guards. In an exclusive interview, she told Green Left Weekly’s Pip Hinman that “such terrorist acts will never stop my fight for freedom, democracy and justice”.

Joya will visit Australia in April to speak at the Marxism 2012 conference in Melbourne and a Stop the War Coalition public meeting in Sydney on April 11. Read more of Green Left's coverage of the Afghan war.

For me, she is the bravest, strongest and most daring woman we have today

Ahura Parwani, Fighting for a Change blog, March 26, 2012

"Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth." -Socrates

The reason I quoted Socrates is because he is one of the many people who pursued the truth and died because of the truth. He was known as the "gladfly" (as the gadfly stings the horse into action, so Socrates stung various Athenians) of Athens. He irritated many people with considerations of justice and pursuit of goodness. So much, that he was asked to stop. He chose to end his life by drinking poison. And many of our Afghan Women Activists' and Journalists' have had similar stories. For example, Meena (founder of RAWA) was murdered by Gulbuddin's people, Zakia Zaki (Afghan journalist who was assasinated in front of her child), Sitara Achakzai (who returned to Afghanistan to try to improve Women's situations was shot by the Taliban), Safia Ahmed-Jan (she was a provincial director of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kandahar province), Malalai Joya and many others. It is a sad reality that even after ten years of war, that country is not a safe place for women. There is no freedom of speech. No democracy. No re-construction. Afghanistan is still at its worst state and will remain there until we have a stable government and a REAL president.

عروس‌های تریاک، به جای خودکشی قیام می‌کنند

برگردان: اکبر فلاح‌زاده،رادیو زمانه، ٠١/٠٤/١٣٩١

اکبر فلاح‌زاده ـ ملالی جویا، زن شجاع افغان را همه می‌شناسیم. او همیشه و همه‌جا بسیار پرشور ظاهر می‌شود و توجه همه را به خود جلب می‌کند.

مخالفانش به همین دلیل بر او خرده می‌گیرند و استهزایش می‌کنند، اما دوستان و هوادارانش او را تحسین می‌کنند. خانم ملالی بی‌باکانه حرف می‌زند. برای درک رفتار و گفتار متهورانه او نخست باید وضع رقت‌بار زنان در افغانستان را به خوبی شناخت. چندی پیش شبکه چهار تلویزیون انگلیس گزارش تکان‌دهنده‌ای از زندگی یک خانواده افغان نشان داد: یک زن جوان که مادر یک بچه خردسال بود، تحت فشار شوهرش تن‌فروشی می‌کرد تا خرج خانواده‌اش را در آورد.

The LEFT condemns assassination attack on women's rights activist Malalai Joya in Afghanistan

Die Linke, March 12, 2012

Malalai Joya with Monika Knoche and Heike Hänsel at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.

"The LEFT condemns the criminal assassination attack on the internationally renown women's rights activist and prominent critic of the ISAS troops, Malalai Joya. For years I have been responsible for her in the parliamentarian protection program in the German Bundestag, several times Joya has visited the Bundestag for political talks", says Heike Hänsel, spokes woman for economic cooperation and development politics in the LEFT Party parliamentary group. This violent attack on her office was the sixth attempt to kill Joya, two of her guards were seriously injured.

د ملالۍ جویا په وینا دا لومړې ځل نه دې، بلکه تر دې مخکې دا څو څو ګواښل شوې او د حملې هڅه ورباندې شوې.

ذکیه غیاثی نذیر، آزادی رادیو، د ١٣٩٠ کال د کب ٢١مه

د ولسي جرګې پخوانۍ غړی ملالۍ جویا وایي، چې دا د ښځو د ملاتړ او بشري حقونو لپاره مبارزه کوي او په دې برید کې هم یو شمېر داسې کسان لاس لري، چې له دې ارزښتونو سره مخالف دي.

د ولسي جرګې پخوانۍ غړی ملالۍ جویا وایي، چې دا د ښځو د ملاتړ او بشري حقونو لپاره مبارزه کوي او په دې برید کې هم یو شمېر داسې کسان لاس لري، چې له دې ارزښتونو سره مخالف دي.

د ولسي جرګې پخوانۍ غړې ملالۍ جویا که څه هم په فراه کې د دې پر دفتر د شوې حملې په اړه شواهد نه لري، خو شک څرګندوي، چې په دې اړه د وسله والو مخالفینو ترڅنګ هغه کسان هم ښکیل دي، چې په دولت کې پراخ نفوذ لري.