You Cannot Stop the Coming of Spring
– The
Dangers of Speaking out for Afghanistan’s Malalai Joya
by Lys
Anzia / Women News Network
Recently, on March 20, 27 year old, Malalai Joya, one
of Afghanistan’s youngest parliamentary members, faced a dangerous uphill
battle. It was the battle for her own personal safety. During her recent month
long tour in the US, Joya has continued to speak out in public on the same
issues that have brought her and her family under increasing personal
scrutiny.
Since Dec.17, 2003, Malalai Joya has been an elected
member of the Loya Jirga, the Afghan General Assembly. For the past three years,
Ms. Joya has strongly questioned the validity of including members to the
assembly who are deeply connected to Afghanistan’s troubled past. Today, Malalai has brought international
attention to the parliamentary members who are also suspected members of
Afghanistan’s outlaw mujahedeen.
According to experts in international drug trade, the
mujahedeen warlords have been integral leaders in the largest heroin production
streams in the world. Their rise to power was outlined in a detailed 1997
Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times article by John F. Burns titled, How Afghan Stern Rulers Took Hold. In it
Burns covered the grueling takeover by the Taliban outlining its violence and
devastating effect on the war-torn country. In the 1997 article, Burns pointed
directly to the connection between the mujahedeen and what he called, “the most
wanted terrorist of all, Osama bin Laden”. It was in that article, in 1997, that
a strong correlation was made between the first, Feb.1993, bombing of the World
Trade Center and the covert dangers of the Taliban.
“They don’t really believe in democracy,” said Joya
in reference to the warlords she claims who now occupy seats on the Afghan
General Assembly. In a, March 17, 2006, Washington Post interview with Nora
Boustany, Malalai goes on to say, “Now they are the biggest risk for the future
of Afghanistan”.
Even the former Taliban leader and governor of
Kandahar province, Mullah Mohammed Hassan has agreed to some degree with Joya’s
view. He was quoted by John Burns, in the 1997 New York Times article saying,
"We are the pariahs of the world."
Speaking inside and outside the government agency in
Kabul, Ms. Joya has received growing international attention from those who now
wish to help her voice reach the public. She has also received, at the same
time, dangerous attentions from those who wish to harm and silence her. Today,
Malalai recognizes keenly, because she has been the only member of the General
Assembly to speak out publicly about the warlords in her country, that her
safety is not assured in any way from any location, even as she travels on tour
inside the US.
On March 20, in Fremont, California, as Joya spoke
about the current conditions for women in Afghanistan, Malalai’s engagement was
suddenly disrupted by over a dozen men who threw aggressive verbal insults at
her in an attempt to completely silence her. At the same time, inside
Afghanistan, efforts to discredit Malalai have been stepped up by the warlords
who also hope for Joya’s silence.
Currently, the Afghan central government is reducing
financial allotments that have been made available to insure Joya’s personal
safety. Malalai and her family now have twelve body guards to assist them. At a
reported cost reaching into millions of dollars, DynCorp, a US based security
agency funded by the US State Department, is currently in charge of maintaining
security for Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. This same agency has, to date, never
been assigned to protect Malalai Joya or her family.
Because of rising dangers, and the need for more
security guards, the current total costs for protecting Joya are increasing. Due
to this shift the funding that ensures the safety for Malalai and her family is
now in a tenable and deteriorating condition.
In spite of four assassination attempts, and over one
hundred threats to her life, Joya continues to speak out publicly. Recently, she told the BBC news, “They
will kill me, but, they will not kill my voice because it will be the voice of
all Afghan women. You can cut the flower, but , you cannot stop the coming of
spring.”
“I represent my people here”, said Joya in a Dec. 29,
2005 interview on Radio Free Europe. “I’ll continue my struggle, especially
against those parties that destroyed our country. As I am representing my people
I have high hopes”.
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-Lys Anzia, of Women News Network, is
an American historical playwright and freelance radio journalist for WINGS radio
syndicate. She recently interviewed Malalai Joya for radio while Malalai was
traveling on tour in the US..
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