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The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice
Scribner
November 2009
On Sale: October 20, 2009
240 pages
ISBN: 143910946X
EAN: 9781439109465
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Malalai Joya has been called "the bravest woman in
Afghanistan." At a constitutional assembly in Kabul in
2003, she stood up and denounced her country's powerful
NATO-backed warlords. She was twenty-five years old. Two
years later, she became the youngest person elected to
Afghanistan's new Parliament. In 2007, she was suspended
from Parliament for her persistent criticism of the
warlords and drug barons and their cronies. She has
survived four assassination attempts to date, is
accompanied at all times by armed guards, and sleeps only
in safe houses.
Often compared to democratic leaders such as Burma's Aung
San Suu Kyi, this extraordinary young woman was raised in
the refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan. Inspired in part by
her father's activism, Malalai became a teacher in secret
girls' schools, holding classes in a series of basements.
She hid her books under her burqa so the Taliban couldn't
find them. She also helped establish a free medical clinic
and orphanage in her impoverished home province of Farah.
The endless wars of Afghanistan have created a generation
of children without parents. Like so many others who have
lost people they care about, Malalai lost one of her
orphans when the girl's family members sold her into
marriage. While many have talked about the serious plight of women in
Afghanistan, Malalai Joya takes us inside the country and
shows us the desperate dayto-day situations these
remarkable people face at every turn. She recounts some of
the many acts of rebellion that are helping to change the
country -- the women who bravely take to the streets in
peaceful protest against their oppression; the men who step
forward and claim "I am her mahram," so the fundamentalists
won't punish a woman for walking alone; and the families
that give their basements as classrooms for female students. A controversial political figure in one of the most
dangerous places on earth, Malalai Joya is a hero for our
times, a young woman who refused to be silent, a young
woman committed to making a difference in the world, no
matter the cost.
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