Afghan writer, feminist and anti-war activist, Malalai Joya will give a talk at the Armidale Town Hall in September about issues affecting her country: “Afghanistan Ten Years On – Why Western Troops Must Leave.”
Ms Joya is a guest speaker at the Melbourne Writers Festival this year and is visiting some regional areas to give public talks and raise funds. The youngest person to have been elected to the Afghan parliament, she is an unwavering defender of the rights of ordinary Afghans, and Afghan women in particular, and is a critic of the ongoing occupation of her country by Western forces and the fundamentalist forces including the Northern Alliance and the Taliban.
She has also been outspoken in her criticism of the Hamid Karzai regime for its alleged corruption and lack of democracy. Her teenage years were spent in refugee camps in Pakistan; she later worked as a teacher/activist smuggling books to clandestine schools beneath her burqa.
Her first visit to Australia was in 2009, when she was promoting her autobiographical book Raising My Voice. Her visit this year coincides with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US and the Coalition invasion of Afghanistan. Her activist work has been praised by Noam Chomsky, who said, “Malalai Joya leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their own fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers.”
Her visit to Armidale is being hosted by New England Writers Centre, Women In Black, Socialist Alliance New England, Peace Studies UNE, Uniting Church Armidale.
Entry to her public talk will be by donation (no bookings) which can be paid at the door – $5, $10 or $20 – all proceeds will go to Malalai. The talk is on Monday, September 5, starting 7pm at Armidale Town Hall. For further information contact Bea Bleile {mobile phone prefix O-four}58 752 680 or New England Writers Centre {local land line prefix}2 7210.
Price$5/$15/$20
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