To speak out and to listen

It is difficult for women in Australia to express a political opinion, let alone have that opinion taken seriously, because of the stigma that still surrounds their gender. For Islamic women these difficulties are further compounded, not only in the West where prejudice against Islam is rising, but also in Islamic countries where it may be physically dangerous to speak out at all, particularly when that involves condemnation of their own government and international military forces.

Malalai Joya is a former Afghan MP and outspoken activist against the Taliban, the Northern Alliance and the presence of allied forces in Afghanistan. During the Taliban regime, Joya worked underground to promote women’s health and education for girls. At age 23, she publicly denounced the presence of warlords and criminals at a constitutional assembly and was thrown out amid tremendous uproar. Two years later, in 2005, she was elected to parliament where she was repeatedly threatened and silenced every time she attempted to speak. She has received death threats and survived multiple assassination attempts.

A fierce critic of US foreign policy and presence in the region – and recently denied an entry visa to the US after speaking out against it – Joya is firm about her position that Afghanistan is occupied not for the greater good but for the purposes of power. Tens of thousands of Afghan people have been killed by allied forces, she says, predominantly via air strikes, most of them women and children. When the dominant voices in Australia on this country’s continued involvement in the occupation of Afghanistan are our own politicians, who for eleven years have been postulating that Allied forces in the region are for the benefit of all Afghan people, hearing the voices of women like Joya becomes even more important.

Malalai Joya will be speaking at two Melbourne Writers Festival events: Big Ideas: 10 years after 9/11 – Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Struggle for Democracy and The Pity of War: Afghanistan and Iraq where she will appear on a panel with Jeff Sparrow, John Martinkus and Karen Middleton. Joya’s appearance at the Melbourne Writers Festival is sponsored by Overland Literary Journal, the forthcoming edition of which features her in an extended interview. Overland 204 is being launched by Sophie Cunningham as part of the MWF on 27 August.