Named in TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, Malalai Joya is no stranger to controversy. As a prominent women and human rights activist, politician and writer in Afghanistan, she has received widespread attention for her outspoken views on the current condition of women’s rights in Afghanistan and her criticism of the war and the United States’ occupation of the country.
In 2003, Malalai Joya skyrocketed to fame when, as a 24-year-old delegate, she described the mujahedin leaders as warlords before an Afghan national assembly. She also accused the leaders of being guilty of killing thousands of people during the country’s civil war and of corruption that has served to ruin the country.
Although Joya has previously traveled to the United States several times to participate in speaking engagements involving anti-war themes, her most recent attempt to apply for a tourist visa to attend a three week speaking engagement with the likes of Noam Chomsky was denied. She was quoted in TIMES Magazine as saying that the reasons she was given for her visa denial include being “unemployed” and that she “lives underground”. Given the fact that she now does live underground due to necessity as she has survived five assassination attempts after speaking out against the Afghan leaders, and that this is well known by the United States, it was a bit of a surprise to receive this reasoning behind her visa denial.
Joya believes that her recent visa denial might be due to a request on behalf of the Afghan government to the United States not to allow her entry, as she might make further moves to expose the policies the U.S. is employing in Afghanistan and what she deems to be the United States’ puppet government ruling the country.
She has also campaigned on a local and international level against the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, and has blamed the U.S. for collaborating with corrupt Afghan power brokers who perpetuate the debasement of women in Afghan society. She is also outspoken in regards to the U.S.-caused civilian death toll in Afghanistan.
Her latest efforts include campaigning in Afghanistan against new legislation that would, if passed, ban private shelters for women who run away from their families or abusive relatives. The women would then be placed under government control and would be required to undergo medical examinations as well as forced eviction if their family asks for their return. She fears this new policy underscores President Hamid Karzai’s efforts to appease fundamentalists sympathetic to the Taliban and demonstrates that the women’s rights movement in Afghanistan may experience setbacks once a peace deal is reached.
Several members of the U.S. Congress are drafting a letter asking for Joya’s visa to be granted. The American Civil Liberties Union has also appealed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Joya’s cause.
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