Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya (Pashto: ملالۍ جویا) (born 25 April 1978) is an activist, writer, and a politician from Afghanistan. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of warlords and war criminals in the Afghan Parliament. She was an outspoken critic of the Karzai administration and its western supporters, particularly the United States.Her suspension in May 2007 generated protest internationally and appeals for her reinstatement were signed by high-profile writers, intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, and politicians including members of parliament from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. She was called "the bravest woman in Afghanistan" by the BBC.In 2010, Time magazine placed Malalai Joya on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Foreign Policy Magazine listed Malalai Joya in its annual list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. On 8 March 2011, The Guardian listed her among "Top 100 women: activists and campaigners". Joya wrote a memoir with Canadian writer Derrick O'Keefe. The US and Canadian version of the book was published in October 2009 by Scribner under the title of A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice in 224 pages. The Australian and British versions have already been published by Pan Macmillan and Rider under the title of Raising My Voice: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dares to Speak Out. It has so far been published in German titled Ich erhebe meine Stimme – Eine Frau kämpft gegen den Krieg in Afghanistan, in Norwegian under the title Kvinne blant krigsherrer – Afghanistans modigste stemme and in Dutch under the title Een vrouw tussen krijgsheren and in Japanese under the title Together with Afghan People.

The book will be available, in translation, in France (titled Au nom de mon peuple), Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Indonesia and Israel.

Kirkus Reviews write about Joya's book: "A chilling, vital memoir that reveals hidden truths about Afghanistan and directly addresses the misguided policies of the United States."Library Journal writes: "This book will interest those who seek stories of real-life heroines risking death every day for their nation."Publishers Weekly writes: "Joya was outspoken in condemning these warlords she called "criminals" and "antiwomen," enduring the shutting off of her microphone, assassination threats and, finally, suspension from Parliament. Joya is on a dangerous, eye-opening mission to uncover truth and expose the abuse of power in Afghanistan, and her book will work powerfully in her favor."The New York Times Book Review writes: "(...) bears witness to the horrific experience known as 'being female in Afghanistan'."Noam Chomsky writes: "Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this inspiring memoir is that despite the horrors she relates, Malalai Joya leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers, and that they can reconstruct a decent society from the wreckage left by decades of intervention and the merciless rule of the Taliban and the warlords who the invaders have imposed upon them."