Public lecture: Prospects for Peace and Democracy in Afghanistan
- Posted:
- July 16th, 2009
- Editor
- - AEST
Guest speaker: Malalai Joya, Suspended Member of Parliament, Government of Afghanistan
Malalai Joya was four days old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Following a childhood spent in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan, she returned to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, where she worked for underground organisations promoting the cause of women. She was elected to the Afghan parliament in 2004 but was soon suspended for speaking out against fellow parliamentarians: criminals and warlords with a long record of human rights abuse. Since then, she has survived numerous assassination attempts and lives in hiding but continues to press the cause of those who elected her. She received the International Human Rights in Film Award at Berlin in 2007 and was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2008. Her story is available on the Defense Committee for Malalai Joya site.
Ms Joya is in Australia to launch her book: Raising My Voice (Pan Macmillan).
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