Chiara Marchionni, il manifesto, June 22, 2007

The goal of the action was to express their solidarity to the Afghan MP Malalai Joya

Demonstration for Malalai Joya on the steps of Victorian State Parliament.

Rome. The other face of western countries, the one that doesn’t want to hear at all about wars, and even less of the fundamentalism that come with the war, yesterday had a meeting in 21 places of the world (amongst the others, Rome, Milan, New York, Barcelona and Melbourne), to held sit ins starting at 18.30, local time. The goal of the action was to express their solidarity to the Afghan MP Malalai Joya, that since a month is persecuted by the parliament of Kabul, for some “inconvenient” declarations. In fact, an interview for Tolo TV the MP denounced the condition of the parliament of her country, which doesn’t represent at all the people and which Malalai Joya judged “worse than a stable or a zoo” because of the presence of criminals and enemies of Afghan people”. Those statements have caused the interdiction from her office or member of parliament, an accusation for insult by the supreme court and limitation of movement outside Afghanistan.

Very serious measures, that the legal of the woman judge “illegal” and for which the vice president of European parliament Luisa Morgantini addressed to the parliament and Afghan embassy asking for the suspension of the decision judging it damaging of “freedom of expression”. If some can criticise her for her radicalism one cannot deny the will of Malalai to expose a situation which is embarrassing. “As written by many organizations for the protection of human rights, like Human Rights Watch, at the moment in the afghan parliament are sitting 24 members of criminal gangs, 17 drug dealers and 19 men accused of violation of human rights”.

Malalai is committed to the task of exposing warlords since 2003.

With the action of today the organizations CISDA, Women in Black and Bastaguerra of Milan wanted to join all the people that in Afghanistan demonstrated in her favour.