Afghan MP and Women’s Rights Activist Suspended by Canadian
Supported Warlord Government
Canadian Peace Alliance - May 23, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to Afghanistan comes just one day after Malalai Joya, an outspoken women’s rights activist and Member of the Afghan Parliament, was suspended. The pretext for her suspension was her description of the Afghan Parliament as no better than a ‘zoo’. But it was clearly aimed at silencing her criticism of the Afghanistan government.

During his surprise visit, Harper said that Canada is bringing, "the light of freedom and democracy, of human rights and the rule of law," to the people of Afghanistan, but most Afghans’ true experience is violence and misery at the hands of the warlord-dominated government.

Joya’s suspension speaks volumes about the nature of the "democracy" we are bringing to the country. Silencing critics and intimidating or killing political opposition figures is common practice for the government that Canada continues to support.

Joya has been a thorn in the side of the NATO-supported government by being an outspoken critic of the human rights abuses of the warlords that dominate the parliament of Afghanistan. In the elections of May 2005, more than 60per cent of those elected to parliament were from known warlord groups, many of whom are responsible for war crimes committed during the civil war from 1992 to 1996. An international campaign to have the warlords held to account failed when the parliament decided to offer immunity for all past war crimes.

Joya has been threatened and attacked for her stance. In 2006, President Hamid Karzai cut her security funding, proving that women’s rights are not a concern for his government despite assertions to the contrary from the Government of Canada.

In an interview with the Guardian, Joya said: "When I speak in parliament they threaten me. In May they beat me by throwing bottles of water at me and they shouted, ‘Take her and rape her.’ These men who are in power, never have they apologized for their crimes that they committed in the wars, and now, with the support of the US, they continue with their crimes in a different way. That is why there is no fundamental change in the situation of women."

The Canadian Peace Alliance is calling on member groups and supporters to send messages to the Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, and to Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs calling for Malalai to be reinstated.

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad
246 Queen Street, Suite 400
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5E4

Tel: (613) 563-4223 / 65
Fax: (613) 563-4962
email: contact@afghanemb-canada.net

Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
509-S Centre Block
House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6

Tel: 613-992-6022
Fax: 613-992-2337
e-mail: mackay.p@parl.gc.ca