Malalai Joya Fights for Afghan Rights, Persecuted for Speaking Out

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24 June 2009 :: J.E. Robertson

Malalai Joya is a pioneer in Afghan politics, one of the female members of Parliament, as of 2005, and a voice for women’s and human rights generally in a nation increasingly beleaguered by corruption, mass violence and social disintegration. Joya was stripped of her seat in parliament in 2007, in extralegal proceedings, for criticizing the warlords among her colleagues.

She now lives a nightmare of constant persecution, in which she is forced to change location nearly every night to avoid falling into the hands of those who threaten to kill her for speaking out. Joya says that Afghan democracy and the “voiceless” people of her country are engaged in an invisible and desperate struggle with enemies of her nation and her people, enemies of peace, like the Taliban leaders and warlords who seek to subjugate the population.

Joya has said she might be killed but her voice will live on and that she is determined to do her part to contribute to combating the forces of extremism and those factions that seek to imprison or repress women, deny them education or force them out of public life. She says her international reputation should be valued only insofar as it allows her to raise awareness of the plight of millions of those who cannot speak for themselves.

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She has reportedly not met the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and she has told a BBC reporter she would prefer not to meet him, as his government has been characterized by making deals with the enemies of the Afghan people. “What matters is whether my living or dying has had any effect on the wellbeing of others”, she said.

Joya’s words evoke those of other prominent dissidents or rights activists who have been targeted by political enemies, such as Russia’s Anna Politkovskaya —an investigative journalist gunned down in her apartment building while reporting on atrocities in Chechnya—, Sri Lanka’s Lasantha Wickramatunge —a newspaper editor shot to death after reporting on atrocities committed in the war against the LTTE—, or Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, who led a potent pro-democracy movement in the waning days of a military dictatorship whose arch rival was a surging fundamentalist insurgency.

Joya does not necessarily share the experience or situation of these other figures, and there are a wide range of differences among them, but she does share their prophetic sense of their own possible untimely demise. She is not as well protected as members of the government or powerful provincial governors, but she does have a network of people willing to support and protect her.

Human rights activists abroad and within Afghanistan have sought to elevate Joya as an example of a modern Afghan woman, fighting for democratic rights in a deeply traditional society; they have also called on the government to protect her against potential threats and restore her to parliament.

Defiant, Joya continues to openly critique the warlords and corrupt politicians she believes are undermining democracy and human rights in her country. She told the Washington Times in a recent interview “These warlords are killers, drug smugglers and dirty-minded criminals who are ruining our country, with support from the United States”. US policy has been criticized by members of both major parties throughout the war for not adequately working to marginalize warlords.

That Washington Times report explains that for Joya:

The Kabul government’s stated willingness to negotiate with militant fundamentalist leaders such as Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, while tolerating the alleged drug-related activities of President Hamid Karzai’s own brother is, in her view, proof that “one group of criminals has replaced another.”

As for Afghan women, who were supposed to be liberated by the U.S. toppling of the Taliban in 2001, she said, “The situation for most women today in Afghanistan, if I say it is still like hell, this is not enough.”

Joya requires a complicated array of security measures to protect her from elements in Afghanistan who seek her death. She has been an adamant champion of the need to defend women against abusive treatment and extreme violence, which she says is all too easily concealed by a return to fundamentalism that increasingly strips women of any access to the public sphere.

According to Ms. Joya, “Last year, 47 women burned themselves to escape abusive husbands. Today 80 percent of marriages are forced. Almost as many women are beaten at home.” Even high profile cases of gang rape have gone unpunished, due to political corruption or the lack of authority women have to speak on their own behalf. There have been cases of women killed for defiling their family’s honor, by becoming unwilling victims of rape.

One example often cited of the desperate and worsening conditions for Afghan women was a “family law” passed earlier this year that barred Shi’a women from refusing sex with their husbands. Stripping women of the right to refuse sex is clearly to turn women into sex objects —an odd choice for so conservative a society—, but with 80% of women forced into unwanted marriages, it was undeniably a law that would legalize rape.

After international outcry, the Karzai government rejected the new law and said rape would be prosecuted as a crime. But it remains to be seen whether the government will actually hold to that position, or whether attempts to appease groups that seek that law’s implementation might be ongoing.

Malalai Joya rose to prominence during the historic Loya Jirga (or council of tribal and political representatives) that was called in order to discuss the forming of a democratic post-Taliban constitution. In the words of Jason Motlagh:

Then, in December 2003, at the age of 24, she stepped up to a microphone. As the youngest elected delegate to the Loya Jirga, or grand council, called to ratify the Afghan constitution, she publicly denounced assembled mujahideen leaders as warlords guilty of destroying the country during the civil war of the early 1990s.

When the stunned assembly chairman demanded an apology, she refused. Shouts of “whore” and “infidel” shot back. The video clip was broadcast around the world and the plucky Ms. Joya became a small sensation.

She has been bold and consistently brave in her willingness to speak truth to power and demand that those who abuse their public authority be called to account. But some say her way of seeking justice is reckless, that her safety should be an integral part of her work to achieve the laudable goals that obsess her. For her part, Joya is philosophical and pragmatic about the danger she faces: “Even if I am killed, people around the world now know what is happening here.”