Malalai Joya’s Defense Committee’s Campaign for Internally Displaced Afghans
February 10, 2022
Since the Taliban came back to power last year, thousands of Afghans especially women and children were internally displaced, lost their jobs, are living in a terrible economic situation. In short, they are experiencing a humanitarian disaster. Many of the men and women who lost their jobs were the only breadwinner in their families.
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Hunger is rampant in Afghanistan today
The famed Afghan activist, former parliamentarian and author of A Woman Among Warlords, Malalai Joya, recorded this brief message on August 28th.
Read More...Afghan Women’s Mission has been in touch with RAWA to address their needs at this urgent time. In this brief Q&A with AWM Co-Director Sonali Kolhatkar, RAWA explains the unfolding situation on the ground as they see it.
Sonali Kolhatkar: For years RAWA spoke out against the U.S. occupation and now that it has ended, the Taliban are back. Could President Biden have withdrawn U.S. forces in a manner that would have left Afghanistan in a safer situation than currently? Could he have done more to ensure the Taliban were not so quickly able to take over?
RAWA: In the past 20 years, one of our demands was an end to the US/NATO occupation and even better if they take their Islamic fundamentalists and technocrats with them and let our people decide their own fate. This occupation only resulted in bloodshed, destruction and chaos. They turned our country into the most corrupt, insecure, drug-mafia and dangerous place especially for women.
Read More...20 Years of U.S. Occupation Was Brutal in Afghanistan—And So Will Be the Exit
July 17, 2021
By Sonali Kolhatkar
There has long been a deliberate effort to downplay the U.S.’s failures and paint a rosy picture of a war whose victory has always been just around the corner. But there is no happy ending for Afghans, and there was never meant to be. Afghans, already weary of never-ending war in 2001, were promised democracy, women’s rights, and peace. But instead, the U.S. offered elections, a theoretical liberation of women, and an absence of justicewhile championing corrupt armed warlords and their militias. In trying to end the debacle, American diplomats refused to involve the (admittedly flawed) Afghan government that they had helped to build as a bulwark against fundamentalism, and instead engaged in peace talks with the Taliban—the same “enemy” of democracy, women, and peace that the U.S. had spent nearly two decades fighting. Now, as the fundamentalist fighters claim more territory than they have controlled in decades, and the Taliban have predictably begun reimposing medieval-era restrictions on women, ordinary Afghans, including women, are taking up arms to fight them. Was this the liberation that the U.S. promised Afghan women?
Acclaimed Afghan women’s rights activist, former Member of Parliament and author of A Woman Among Warlords, Malalai Joya, recently appeared on Democracy Now to comment on the Afghanistan war.
“As I was saying in the past, as well, and repeating again, that catastrophic situation of the women of Afghanistan was a very good excuse for U.S. and NATO to occupy our country. Unfortunately, they pushed us from the frying pan into the fire as they replaced the barbaric regime of the Taliban with the misogynist warlords, who are — their nature seem like the Taliban. They physically changed, imposed on the destiny of Afghan people. That’s why today millions of Afghans are suffering from insecurity, corruption, joblessness, poverty. And still most of Afghan women are the victim.”
Read More...The War Cannot be Won with Weapons Afghanistan is a fearful place to be a child, especially a girl. Violence continues to be the norm, and Afghan women continue to suffer. According to a recent Guardian story, in Helmand province “adult women are almost entirely invisible, even in the city” of Lashkar Gah, the provincialRead More…
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On December 12, 2015, an American humanitarian aid worker named Lisa Akbari was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan outside the gym she frequented. Heartbroken by their loss, Akbari’s family in the United States set up a crowd funding initiative to raise funds in her memory. Afghan Women’s Mission is touched and honored to be the recipient of the funds raised. We thank Akbari’s family and express our deepest condolences to them. The funds will appropriately be used to further Afghan women’s rights, a cause dear to Lisa Akbari’s heart.
This holiday season, a 19 year old from Arizona, named Aaron Peterson, contacted us saying he wanted to do his part to raise much needed funds for RAWA’s work. Afghan Women’s Mission is proud to feature Aaron’s Indiegogo campaign to raise $25,000 for RAWA by the end of this year.
All donations to this campaign will go directly to AWM in order to fund RAWA’s important work to empower women and girls in Afghanistan: prejects like Danish school in Farah Province.
Aaron’s message to you is: “I want you to help me change this sense of hopelessness by ensuring women in Afghanistan receive the modern healthcare, education and other resources that they require.”
Please click here to visit the online campaign Aaron Peterson has launched and please give what you can this holiday season!
Read More...Huffington Post: A Woman Among Warlords: An Interview With Malalai Joya
October 27, 2013
By Suzanne Persard Published in Huffington Post on 10/25/2013 Most publications incorrectly report the number of assassination attempts Malalai Joya has received — the number is seven, not six; and these are only the number of plots that have been counted. In 2007, Joya, the youngest elected member to the Afghan parliament, was expelled fromRead More…
Read More...Originally published on Truthdig.com on Oct 10, 2013 By Sonali Kolhatkar Contrary to her small stature, Afghan activist Malalai Joya is a towering figure among ordinary Afghans. At the tender age of 25, she openly challenged her country’s notorious U.S.-backed criminal warlords at the 2003 Constitutional Loya Jirga (popular assembly) in Kabul. She thundered, “ItRead More…
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So Cal Events |
Events and Announcements
- Malalai Joya’s Defense Committee’s Campaign for Internally Displaced Afghans
- Malalai Joya Sends a Message to the World
- RAWA Responds to the Taliban Takeover
- AWM Thanks the Lisa Akbari Foundation
- One Young Man’s Holiday Wish: Raise Funds for RAWA
- RAWA Statement on 12th Anniversary of US War
>> Read More...
Afghanistan News Wire
- Malalai Joya Sends a Message to the World
- 20 Years of U.S. Occupation Was Brutal in Afghanistan—And So Will Be the Exit
- Malalai Joya on Democracy Now!
- Girls School in Danger of Closing
- Huffington Post: A Woman Among Warlords: An Interview With Malalai Joya
- The Cost of Courage: Malalai Joya’s Life-Risking Activism
>> Read More...
Press Releases
- Tenth Anniversary of Afghanistan War: RAWA Member Available for Interviews
- U.S. Responds to Broad Public Campaign, Grants Malalai Joya Visa!
- US government denies entry visa to Afghan women’s rights activist and author Malalai Joya
- Leading Afghan Feminist Urges Immediate end to U.S. War
- A Woman Among Warlords – Malalai Joya Available for Interviews
- Afghan Women’s Rights Activist Calls for an End to US Occupation
>> Read More...