You Cannot Stop the Coming of Spring – Mounting Security Concerns for Afghan Parliamentary Member Malalai Joya

An Afghan woman dressed in a traditional burqa walks through traffic in downtown Kabul. Image: Canada in Afghanistan

On March 20, in Fremont, California, as Joya spoke about the current conditions for women in Afghanistan, Malalai’s engagement was suddenly disrupted by over a dozen men who threw aggressive verbal insults at her in an attempt to completely silence her. At the same time, inside Afghanistan, efforts to discredit Malalai have been stepped up by the warlords who also hope for Joya’s silence.

Currently, the Afghan central government is reducing financial allotments that have been made available to insure Joya’s personal safety. Malalai and her family now have twelve body guards to assist them. At a reported cost reaching into millions of dollars, DynCorp, a US based security agency funded by the US State Department, is currently in charge of maintaining security for Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. This same agency has, to date, never been assigned to protect Malalai Joya or her family.

Because of rising dangers, and the need for more security guards, the current total costs for protecting Joya are increasing. Due to this shift the funding that ensures the safety for Malalai and her family is now in a tenable and deteriorating condition.

In spite of four assassination attempts, and over one hundred threats to her life, Joya continues to speak out publicly. Recently, she told the BBC news, “They will kill me, but, they will not kill my voice because it will be the voice of all Afghan women. You can cut the flower, but , you cannot stop the coming of spring.”

“I represent my people here”, said Joya in a Dec. 29, 2005 interview on Radio Free Europe. “I’ll continue my struggle, especially against those parties that destroyed our country. As I am representing my people I have high hopes”.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI10EcNudA4?rel=0]

An ABC foreign correspondent follows MP Malalai Joya around on one of her usual days in Kabul, Afghanistan, as armed guards stay close-by because of the constant threat of her being murdered by those she has spoken out against inside the country.
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As Editor-At-Large for WNN, humanitarian journalist, Lys Anzia, has been working to bring current news about global women to WUNRN – Women’s UN Report Network and has produced radio for WINGS – Women’s International News Gathering Service. She recently interviewed Malalai Joya for radio while Malalai was traveling on tour inside the US.
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Other sources for this article include the Washington Post, the New York Times, Radio Free Europe, YouTube and the Defense Committee for Malalai Joya.
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