Speaking up for Afghanistan
by Thel Krollig
According
to Malalai Joya, human right’s activist and arguably Afghanistan’s
most famous woman, Australian policymakers must align their policies
with the aspirations and wishes of Afghanis rather than follow US
policy if they want to help the people of Afghanistan and to bring
positive changes there.
"They must recognise the needs of Afghan people and stop any kind of support to the warlords and reactionary and ignorant elements within the system. Only by such policy can they gain people’s trust and prove themselves as real friends of Afghan people," the 28-year-old member of the Afghan parliament said last month at lecture as part of the Hawke Centre’s Focus on Rights lecture series.
Malalai,
presented here in association with her national UNIFEM Australia
tour for International Women’s Day and strongly assisted by the
local Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan (SAWA), was
one of the prominent winners in Afghanistan’s landmark parliamentary
elections. She is an outspoken critic of the country’s warlords, has
survived three attempts on her life and experienced death threats
for her determined stand to rebuild Afghanistan as a civil society.
"Five years after the collapse of the misogynist and anti-democratic regime of the Taliban, and after almost five years of the US-led attack on Afghanistan, you may expect that I might be able to describe the achievements and positive outcomes in Afghanistan. But it is a land still burning in twofold fire," she said.
She is critical of the US Government, which "removed the medieval-minded regime of the Taliban and their Al Qaeda masters, but then proceeded to bring to power the Northern Alliance, comprising brothers-in-creed of the Taliban and as brutal and anti-democratic.
"Today, the Afghan people are hostages in the hands of the most brutal enemies of democracy and human rights," she said.
"And many evil men, who are responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent people in the past two decades, are in power and hold the key positions."
Malalai is currently fighting to defeat legislation introduced into the parliament, which would preclude prosecution of anyone for committing war crimes in the past 25 years.
"Unlike the propaganda raised by certain Western media, Afghan women and men are not ‘liberated’ at all. Today, we have a mafia system in Afghanistan and our so-called government is deeply implicated in the drug mafia and warlords. US-supported President Hamid Karzai and westernised intellectuals have joined hands with fundamentalists of any brand to impose this mafia-system on our people," she said.
"I am well aware of the hardships, challenges, and death from anti-democratic forces, but I trust my people. One day these forces may kill me, as they have guns and power and the support of the US government. But they can never silence my voice and hide the truth."
Malalai, a women’s literacy and health worker and orphanage founder, took her place in the 249-seat National Assembly, or Wolesi Jirga, to represent the remote province of Farah. Her work has been widely recognised including by the World Economic Forum, which selected her among 250 Young Global Leaders for 2007.
The Hawke Centre event raised more than $1,500 in public donations for her cause and more information is available at the website, www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au