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Malalai Joya, a controversial woman figure in Afghanistan who reached the zenith of fame due to her harsh criticisms of former warlords in the historic Loya Jirga of 2003, has authored a book about her life titled “A Woman Among Warlords”.
In an interview on her book, Ms. Joya maintained that the idea and purpose of writing a book under such a title was to expose the political and military establishment of Afghanistan to the western world.
She elaborated that in this book she has strongly disagreed with the presence of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and has called Afghanistan ‘an invaded country’.
She says, “We have a proud history that never accepts invasion. I strongly believe that the oppressed people of my nation will stand hard against invasions in the future as well and will teach the occupiers like Americans and NATO a very good lesson like they had done to the English and the Russians”.
In addition, Ms. Joya has covered in her book her father’s and family’s activism in politics, from the Monarchy to Democracy and to the invasion of Afghanistan by the former USSR and the American strikes on Taliban in 2001.
Ms. Joya has traveled far and wide to different cities of the United States of America for the inaugurations of her book. She has been to the cities of Los Angeles, Washington, New York, Boston and other American cities.
In her travels, speaking in different institutions and universities she spoke against the American presence in Afghanistan and asked the US and its western allies to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan.
While some believe that Ms. Joya’s statements are welcomed because of her stance against the western forces in Afghanistan is believed to be a reaction of the majority of Afghans, others believe while Ms. Joya comes strong on occupation forces and the former warlords, she has no idea on how to tackle the issues facing Afghanistan and remains silent when asked about it.
Due to her harsh criticisms of former warlords and her fellows in the Afghan Parliament she was suspended from the Afghan parliament in June 2007. She has gained public fame ever since and has received quite a few international awards too.
