[lbo-talk] Malayai Joya: Civil war is better than occupation

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Thu Nov 19 18:43:09 PST 2009


http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/727873---liberation-was-just-a-big-lie

[Back-up URL: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/19 ]

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Toronto Star

'Liberation Was Just a Big Lie'

Outspoken Afghan MP says Canadian mission is a big waste of time

by Olivia Ward

She sleeps in safe houses, with a rotating squad of bodyguards

securing the doors. She goes out only in a billowing burqa. Even her

wedding was held in secret.

[Malalai Joya, who was in Toronto to promote her book, A Woman Among

Warlords, says Canada and the United States should pull their troops

out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. (Carlos Osorio/Toronto

Star)] Elected the youngest member of the Afghan parliament - and

suspended for her outspoken criticism of the country's top officials

- Malalai Joya has been labelled the bravest woman in Afghanistan.

Small, soft-spoken and now 31, she has survived at least four

assassination attempts and is angry at the oppressive life she is

forced to lead, dodging enemies she has denounced as bloody-handed

warlords and drug kingpins.

As Afghan President Hamid Karzai is inaugurated Thursday for another

four years in office after a fiercely disputed election, she says

his term is already tainted by the corruption, criminality and

violence of those around him.

"(Prime Minister) Stephen Harper says this election was a success,"

she said. "But Karzai has not only insulted, but betrayed the Afghan

people."

Karzai has vowed to launch anti-corruption investigations under

pressure from Washington. But, Joya insists, Canada is wasting blood

and treasure on keeping his government in power.

"Canada should pull its troops out now," she said in Toronto on

Wednesday, where she was promoting her book A Woman Among Warlords,

co-written with Canadian peace activist Derrick O'Keefe.

And, she says, U.S. President Barack Obama, who is considering a

surge in troop levels to battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban, should

think again.

"The United States should go, too. As long as foreign troops are in

the country we will be fighting two enemies instead of one."

Yes, she says, there is a risk of civil war, as happened when the

Soviet Union gave up the fight against U.S.-backed Afghan Islamists

20 years ago. But it would still be better than "night raids,

torture and aerial bombardment" that killed hundreds of Afghan

civilians while the Taliban made steady gains.

"Liberation was just a big lie." Joya believes Afghans are now

better prepared to battle the Taliban alone - if the warlords are

disarmed, and the international community helps build a society that

can push back against extremism.

It is a tall order, she admits. But "resistance has increased, and

people are becoming more aware of democracy and human rights. They

need humanitarian and educational support."

But not, she adds, at the point of a gun.

Joya has firsthand experience with the Taliban, as well as the

brutal warlords who forced her family into refugee camps after the

exit of the Soviets in 1989.

As a teacher in the secret schools that educated girls - strictly

banned by the Taliban - she walked around western Afghanistan at the

end of the 1990s with books hidden beneath the enveloping burqa.

"Once we were stopped and searched but the burqa saved me," she

recalled in her book. "They ordered me to stretch out my arms but

because they did not pat me down they never found the school books."

But after the Taliban's violent repression of women, Joya says,

Karzai's Afghanistan has done little to ease their plight.

Religious extremism is rife, and even a 25 per cent quota for women

in parliament has produced few female politicians who are willing to

fight for women's rights.

That is what makes Joya an inspiration for those who greet her

tearfully on her heavily guarded visits to clinics, community groups

and an orphanage she supports.

It has also made her a target for radicals, as well as the warlord

factions she denounces. Since she called for the prosecution of

highly placed warlords and drug smugglers in a landmark 2003 meeting

on the country's constitution, the threats have not stopped.

When Joya returns to Afghanistan this month, she will resume her

perilous career as a rallying point for the country's downtrodden

and disenchanted - and hope she will live to see genuine change.

"It will be a long struggle," she wrote. "A river is made drop by

drop ... you can kill me, but you can never kill my spirit."

© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2009



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