October 25, 2007
Media contact: Anne Russell
604-795-2826
or 604-504-7441, local 2826
Cell: 604-798-3709
anne.russell@ucfv.ca
UCFV to host Afghan member of parliament and women’s rights activist Malalai Joya
Malalai Joya, a member of parliament in Afghanistan and outspoken critic of those who abuse power and human rights in her country, will visit UCFV next week as part of her BC speaking tour.
She will speak in the lecture theatre (B101) on the Abbotsford campus, on Fri, Nov 2, from 2:30 to 4 pm. (Note location change from University House.)
“This will be a truly thought-provoking and humanist talk focused on raising awareness about the role of women in Afghanistan,” says Satwinder Bains, director of the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies.
This a free event with donations gladly accepted for Joya’s group: Organization of Promoting Afghan Women’s Capabilities. People planning to attend are asked to rsvp to: satwinder.bains@ucfv.ca or 604-854-4547
Joya’s topic will be The Women's Rights Catastrophe in Afghanistan: Prospects for Change.
Malalai Joya is a 29-year-old Member of the Afghan Parliament and heads the
Non-governmental group, Organisation of Promoting Afghan Women’s Capabilities (OPAWC). She was elected to the 249-seat National Assembly, or Wolesi Jirga, in September 2005. She rose to fame in December 2003 when, as an elected delegate to the Constitutional Loya Jirga, she spoke out publicly against the domination of warlords, which caused uproar
Since then she has survived four assassination attempts, and travels in Afghanistan under a burqa and with armed guards. Joya was four when her family fled Afghanistan in 1982 to the refugee camps of Iran and then Pakistan. She finished her education in Pakistan and began teaching literacy courses to other women at age 19.
After the Soviets left, Malalai Joya returned to Afghanistan in 1998 during the Taliban’s reign and start teaching women in secret home-based classes, as education to women was banned at that time. During that time she also established an orphanage and health clinic, and was soon a vocal opponent of the Taliban.
Joya continued her case against fundamentalists in the Afghan parliament, which is mostly comprised of former warlords.
On May 21, 2007 she was suspended from the Parliament until the end of current term which ends in 2009 citing that she had broken Article 70 of the Parliament, which had banned Wolesi Jirga members from openly criticizing each other. Joya vowed to continue her fight outside the parliament and appealed to the Supreme Court against this ouster, which she has called illegal. She says she’s been told that Article 70 was created specifically to silence her.
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