Malalai Joya Does Not Speak for Afghan Women!

The author of Harry' Place asks the obvious question: what would happen if the international community followed Malalai Joya's advice and abandoned Afghanistan to let it sort out it's own problems?

Members of CASC respond:

Brian Platt

In fact, at the presentation she was asked what would
prevent the Taliban from taking over after a NATO/UN withdrawal.
Instead of answering the question, she proceeded into a long speech
about how terrible the situation is right now. So I put up my hand and
demanded she answer the question. This led to a long, angry exchange
between the two of us that lasted about 10 minutes, at which point I
was told to shut up by the “antiwar” organizers of the event.

Platt names several brave Afghan women who do not want coalition forces to leave yet.

[N]one of these women gloss over the problems
Afghanistan is having. None of them are uncritical of Karzai–far from
it. However, none of them are foolish enough to ask for suicide, which
is what the withdrawal of international troops would mean for Afghan
women on the frontlines of the struggle to achieve their
constitutionally-mandated human rights.

Terry Glavin

During my many conversations with feminists and progressives in Afghanistan last year,
one thing that came through loud and clear was that the “troops out
now” posture so commonplace in polite society in western countries has
no support among Afghan women’s leaders. What was also clear was that
Joya and her backers with the so-called Revolutionary Association of
the Women of Afghanistan, to the extent that they are thought about at
all, are regarded as faintly ridiculous and marginal characters, at
best.
…..
You want a real, brave Afghan feminist? Just one, among thousands, is Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission:
“Finish the job you started. It’s not just for protecting Afghanistan,
or protecting Canadians. It is about the protection of humanity. This
is a human responsibility. It isn’t possible to escape this kind of
responsibility.”