|
 Malalai Joya
(at left), 26, of
Afghanistan endures constant death threats and is protected
by bodyguards. Why? Because the social worker and elected
representative to Afghanistans’s Loya Jirga — or Grand
Council — dared to speak out against fundamentalist warlords
who wanted to become leaders of the country.
In her
December 2003 address to the Loya Jirga when the
council was meeting to approve a new constitution, Joya said
that the fundamentalists and criminals who waged
Afghanistan’s 26-year war should not be allowed to serve as
leaders of the new democratic government; instead, she
suggested they should be put on international trial for war
crimes.
Joya was one of about 100 women out of more than 500
delegates serving on the Afghan Grand Council, and her
speech was cut short by an uproar from those who disagreed
with her. Because she refused to apologize, she was called
infidel and prostitute, and her house was attacked. In order
to continue as a representative to the Loya Jirga, she was
placed under United Nations protection.
As a young American woman living safely in my country, I
probably would not have read or heard about Joya’s death if
the warlords she condemned had succeeded in killing her. I
certainly would have never met her. However, as a program
assistant for the Lutheran Office for World Community, I am
privileged to meet brave women like Malalai Joya. Because I
work in the Church Center for the United Nations —
a building that houses non-governmental organizations and is
across the street from the UN headquarters in New York City
— I have heard stories like Joya’s from women of Sudan,
Colombia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, East Timor, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. These women come
to the UN looking for solidarity and support from peace
activists in our country. However, many times the only
people in the room to hear them are other women — often from
faith-based organizations.
Joya, in her youth and stature, is unimposing, but her story
is powerful. While she told her story with the help of a
translator, several realizations came to me in what I can
only describe as waves of enlightenment:
• I had never met a woman so culturally different than me
before;
• everything I’ve heard about her country is probably a lie;
and
• there are so many other women in the world like her that I
know nothing about.
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Women
Braving Peace
