Afghan Women's Rights Activist Malalai Joya Denied Visa For Book Tour

US Government denied entry visa to Afghan women's rights activist and author Malalai Joya for her book tour for "Women Among Warlords." The news was announced in a press release.

Joya was named one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010. She has been called Afghanistan's Aung San Suu Kyi and was elected to Afghanistan's parliament at 27 in 2005. She was told she was being denied entry because

[S]he was "unemployed" and "lives underground"... Because of her harsh criticism of warlords and fundamentalists in Afghanistan, she has been the target of at least five assassination attempts. "The reason Joya lives underground is because she faces the constant threat of death for having had the courage to speak up for women's rights - it's obscene that the U.S. government would deny her entry," said Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women's Mission.

Comments

[ResistImperialism]

05:43 PM on 03/18/2011

Its obvious why, at a time of widespread opposition to continued war on Afghanistan, the US doesn't want a former Afghan MP to come and speak her mind here. It doesn't fit with Obama's current rhetoric on the war there.

[Lena McFarland]

04:23 PM on 03/18/2011

The U.S. doesn't foster a culture of dissension anymore. No discussions about the most important issues of our day....

Joya is not a warlord. She's not Taliban. Therefore, the U.S. doesn't have a category for her.

She's amazing though. Let her in. Let her speak.

[Johnny Crass]

09:42 PM on 03/26/2011

sure, but lets drop the word 'amazing' when we talk about every woman that comes down the pike.

[leener]

01:26 PM on 03/29/2011

Now I understand your frustration. You're completely globalizing this situation and buying into some kind of government conspiracy theory.

Most things in the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Government are extremely mundane and have no shades of any of this insanity. There are as many opinions among government employees as there are among everyone else. It's not like some huge, amorphous glob of automatons following pre-programmed instructions. That said, as agents of the government, bound by federal law and, in the case of a Foreign Service Officer, bound by Oath, we are required to carry out the laws and policies of our government. But again, your typical government employee isn't privy to the kind of conspiratorial undertow that you're hinting at.

I believe our culture of dissension takes place in a less obvious forum than you'd see in the Middle East. There you see it on the streets. In the U.S., we see it on TV and online more often than not.

FYI - Malalai Joya got her visa last week. I'm sure if you knew the real story behind the original denial, you'd find it to be much less exciting than where your imagination has taken you.

[Balzac]

10:24 AM on 03/18/2011

Tight. She should get a visa. I'm in favor of more Afghan women immigrating.