A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice [Paperback]

This is an excellent overview of the recent history of Afghanistan from the first hand experience of Malalai Joya and the story of a courageous advocate for Afghan freedom and independence. A must read book for anyone interested in the current policy debate. Other books recommended by Malalai Joya on the subject include Bleeding Afghanistan (Kolhatkar), Descent into Chaos (Rashid), and I is for Infidel (Gannon).

This is the extraordinary story of an Afghan Woman who details her life as a child living in different refuge camps and later as a young woman fighting undergrown to educate women in the era of the Taliban. The author goes on to describe life now in Afghanistan and how hard the Afghan people still need to work in order to achieve true democracy and equal human rights for women. Malalai Joya denounces the misrepresentation of the current "democratic government" and their attempts to silent her.

This book is an eye-opener and a truly inspiring story.

Malalai Joya has written a lucid book called "A woman among warlords-The extraordinary story of an Afghan who dared to raise her voice.".In it she tells of her upbringing during the war in Afghanistan in the 1980's. She describes how the family had to flee the fighting and live in dangerous conditions in Iranian refugee camps where many Afghans where persecuted. Then the family took refuge in Pakistani refugee camps where many of the Afghan orphans would later be recruited into the Taliban. After the Russians are driven out of Afghanistan with support from America the country is left to be ravaged by opposing factions of brutal warlords. The stories that Malalai reports here are incredibly brutal, with rape and murder becoming a commonplace thing in the Afghan scenery at this time. Some of these warlords who fought for power between 92 and 96 when the power vaccum developed would later become part of the new Afghan government under Hamid Karzai that America and Nato now support.

The Soviet empire had bombed and killed their way all across Afghanistan and now the warlords fighting was continuing to tear the place appart. Finally the Taliban took power in 98 and this brought some inital stability to the country but at a high price. Human rights suffered immensley as well as womens rights. Malalai went back into the country to start teaching the women reading and writing in underground schools. The Taliban misused Islam too and crearted a set of medieval, repressive rules in the name of their religion. She took risks teaching these classes but local Afghans demanded it, not wanting their girls to lack education. Many of the fun things for people had to be done on an underground level. Malalai recounts: "It was a challange to learn to eat icecream under the burqa". Women would meet and dance together in each others homes, wear makeup or western style clothing under their burqas, or have "Titanic parties" where people would meet up at secret parties and watch the popular film Titanic together. Ofcourse after the Taliban fell in 2001 the first hing that happend was that people went out and bought DVD players and stereos, with music blasting on every street corner.

After the tragic events on 9/11 Afghanistan was now under an attack from the US army and NATO. The goal was to get rid of the Taliban government and catch Bin ladin and his ALQaida men. Civilians in Afghanistan first felt liberated but then eventually betrayed when the old warlords who had been driven away by the Taliban started to return to power with US and NATO backing. On november 19th 2001 the New York times wrote that "The galaxy of warlords who tore Afghanistan apart in the early 1990s and who where vanquished by the Taliban because of their corruption and perfidy are back on their thrones , poised to excercise power in the ways they always have." Now old warlords like Dostum and Fahim came back to power at the dread of many Afghans. Sensing that a critical voice was needed within the new government Malalai went into politics.

She travelled to Kabul to attend the Loya Jirga, a big national meeting between representatives from many different regions before the elections in 2004. Here all the different players who had helped America defeat the Taliban where represented. Many of these warlords had long records of human rights abuses yet here they where wearing "the mask of democracy" as Malalai Joya called it. This outraged her and she delivered a powerfull speech where she denounced the warlords and their cronies. This launched her into the public eye making her message known around the world almost overnight. The BBC news called her "The bravest woman in Afghanistan". But it also enraged the warlords who immediatley denounced her and she was banned from speaking again in jirga. She also started recieving alot of support from Aghans who shared her point of view. But she also became the target of threats and assassination attempts due to her comments.

Later Joya met with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. He listened to her and even shed tears when she told her the brutal stories about the women she had cared for who had been raped. She also met with his wife who wanted to start a womens group with her. This was never followed through and Malalai Joya makes her point clearly that she sees now Karzai as being a puppet for the American with the real power behind the throne being Zalmay Kalilzad who was at the time the US ambassador to Afghanistan. Who according to Joya "many people in Afghanistan considered the architect of misguided US policy in Afghanistan". It is Joyas opinion that America was repeating it's old mistake of supporting Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan. Due to a movie made about Malalai called "Enemies of Happiness" her message started to spread around the world. The film won some prizes so she was invited abroad to speak about the war in Afghanistan. This lead to her reputation as a peace activist growing. Eventually she was thrown out of the Afghan parliament and has become even more unpopular because of her outspokeness against the corruption and former warcrimes of some of the parliament warlord members.

All in all this book is a very heavy read. It takes you deep into the troubled world that is Afghanistan today. There are so many tragic stories she relates about the immense suffering of the Afghan civilians who have been caught up in 30 years of brutal warfare. The picture she paints of her country is very dark and one becomes very pessimistic for Afghanistans future when one reads her assessment of the state of things in her country. But the warlord policy that is now in place is something that is a huge obstacle to the countries future. By allowing the corruption to continue regular Afghans see the former warlords now filling their pockets with foreign aid and drug money. The Americans and NATO forces who have put them in power and support them have become very disliked because of this in many Afghan peoples eyes. Even vice president Joe Biden said "America has replaced the Taliban with the warlords. Warlords are still on the US payroll but that hasn't brought a cesation of violence. Not only is the US failing to rein in the warlords, we are actually making them the centerpiece of our strategy."

Malalai says that her country has always been used as a battlefield for a much bigger chessgame taking place between foreign players, wether it be the Russians, the British, the Americans, the Iranians or Pakistanis (the list goes on). But the massive support that America gave to the radical islamic movements in this part of the world has now brought America back to the region into a much bigger quagmire. I am honestly very discouraged about how things will turn out for them there. By backing Hamid Karzai who cheated his way into winning the recent election and also supporting many misogynistic, drug dealing fundamentalist warlords their chances of gaining local support will be bleak at best. But I like the quote that Malalai has in the book from Martin Luther King:

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."