25 speaking events to start 3/20. Afghan hero and fighter Malalai Joya denied US Visa. Take Action!

[annm4peace]

I would think this is a news story. The State Dept denied an Afghan women who speaks about about our tax dollars being used for Warlord's desires and used to kill women and children in Afghanistan.


I belong to WAMM. Women Against Military Madness. WAMM and Twin Cities Peace Campaign was hosting Malalai Joya coming here April 1st and to speak at St. Joan of Arc Church on her nationanwide speaking tour.

I have been admire of her since 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malalai_Joya
She is an amazing and incredible brave young woman.

Here is some info on the MN event: click on 'more info" below her picture.
http://www.worldwidewamm.org/home.html

They have already sold tickets, last I heard over 40 tickets sold. There already have been radio interviewes lined up for the 1 day she is here.



I have just found out Malalai has been denied entry to the US.

This is beyond outrageous. How many dictators, butchers, thieves, war criminals has this State Dept allowed into the US, yet they deny this very courageous and heroic woman the right to speak to people in the US. ? The very people who's tax dollars are killing the woman and children in her country and the very tax dollars that are going to war lords who are building villas in UAE with our tax dollars.

Coleen Rowley emailed me that Malalai was denied a Visa and entry to the US.

I hope we can all call the State Dept, the White House and our Senators and Reps to demand that Malalai Joya be allowed into the US and give an apology. How shameful of our country not to recognize her bravery. It is making me sick.


Below is the link to the Press Release released by the Afghan Women's Mission:

*********************************
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1255

For Immediate Release –
The United States has denied a travel visa to Malalai Joya, an acclaimed women’s rights activist and former member of Afghanistan’s parliament. Ms. Joya, who was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, was set to begin a three-week US tour to promote an updated edition of her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Joya’s publisher at Scribner, Alexis Gargagliano, said, “We had the privilege to publish Ms. Joya, and her earlier 2009 book tour met with wide acclaim. The right of authors to travel and promote their work is central to freedom of expression and the full exchange of ideas.” Joya’s memoir has been translated into over a dozen languages, and she has toured widely including Australia, the UK, Canada, Norway, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands in support of the book over the past two years.

Colleagues of Ms. Joya’s report that when she presented herself as scheduled at the U.S. embassy, she was told she was being denied because she was “unemployed” and “lives underground.”

Then 27, Joya was the youngest woman elected to Afghanistan’s parliament in 2005. 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, a U.S. based organization that has hosted Joya for speaking tours in the past and is a sponsor of this year’s national tour.

Joya has also become an internationally known critic of the US-NATO war in Afghanistan. Organizers argue that the denial of Joya’s visa appears to be a case of what the American Civil Liberties Union describes as “Ideological Exclusion,” which they say violates Americans’ First Amendment right to hear constitutionally protected speech by denying foreign scholars, artists, politicians and others entry to the United States.

Events featuring Malalai Joya are planned, from March 20 until April 10, in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and California.

Organizers of her speaking tour are encouraging people to contact the Department of State to ask them to fulfill the promise from the Obama Administration of “promoting the global marketplace of ideas” and grant Joya’s visa immediately.

Malalai Joya is available for a limited number of interviews. Contact Sonali Kolhatkar (626-676-7884), Prachi Patankar (917-415-0659), or Natalie Reyes [phone]).
* * *

Praise for Malalai Joya and A Woman Among Warlords:

‘The youngest and most famous of all the women in the Afghan parliament…a powerful symbol of change’
- Guardian

‘A courageous female MP’
- The Times

‘… one of the few symbols of hope for Afghanistan’s future.’
- New Statesman

‘Quite simply the most passionate and devastating critique of Western intervention in Afghanistan I have ever read.’
- Peace News

‘ spoken her mind as few Afghan women dare to do’
- New York Times

‘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.’
- Noam Chomsky

‘Unwavering in her mission to bring true democracy to her country…Women have been known to walk for miles just to touch her. For them, she is their only real hope for a better future’
- Telegraph

‘Joya is a model for women everywhere seeking to make the world more just.’
- Six women Nobel Peace Prize laureates

‘Joya’s pain and bravery are genuine and can be felt on almost every page’
- Christina Lamb, Sunday Times

‘A fascinating account of Afghanistan’s political reality…Malalai Joya has been compared to Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi’
- Irish Times

‘Malalai Joya is a staunch defender of human rights and a powerful voice for Afghan women.’
- Human Rights Watch

‘Heroic’
- John Pilger

[robdogbucky]

1. Is this decision by the fierce advocate?

or by his triangulating PNAC/DLC handlers?


Disgraceful, yet that seems like all we get nowadays.

[annm4peace]

2. 4 Things you can do !

The U.S. Embassy this week denied famed Afghan women’s rights activist Malalai Joya a visa to the United States for an extensive speaking tour that was to kick off on Saturday March 19th. Americans are being denied the right to hear from an on-the-ground activist how the war is affecting ordinary Afghans, especially women.

Read AWM’s press release about it here.

FOUR THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT:

1. Have your elected representatives sign onto a letter urging the U.S. Embassy to reconsider their decision – DEADLINE: Friday March 18th 5 pm EST.

Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) has drafted and signed a letter urging the US Embassy to grant Malalai Joya the visa. A draft of the letter can be found here.

Ask your Senator or Representative to add their names to this letter NO LATER THAN 5 pm EST on Friday March 18th. Have the staff in your Senator or Representative’s office contact Jessica Lee at [e-mail]. (Do not contact Ms. Lee yourself).

The more elected representatives that sign onto the letter, the greater the chance of that the U.S. Embassy will reverse their visa denial.

2. Sign an online petition demanding Malalai Joya be granted a visa to the United States

Click to sign the petition. Then, send it to all your friends and post it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/letmalalaijoyaspeak/

3. Attend one of the many events organized for Malalai around the country

Whether she gets to the U.S. or not it is imperative that the events go on as scheduled. If she is unable to be physically present organizers will attempt to have her speak to the audience via live video chat. Transform the events into “free-speech” events, to affirm your right to hear from people like Malalai Joya.

Details of Malalai’s tour are here.
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1201

4. Demand media coverage of Malalai’s Visa Denial

Contact local and national media urging them to cover Malalai Joya’s visa exclusion. The denial of a visa to Afghanistan’s most intrepid and well known feminist should make headlines! Point them to our press release for details.
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1255

[annm4peace]

3. the site has much info of the women of Afghanistan and Joya's speeches

http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=572

a documentary of Joya.


Here is one of the articles listed on the site: It shows why our Gov is afraid of her coming to the US to speak to the public/taxpayers


Leading Afghan Feminist Wants the U.S. and NATO to Leave Her Nation
March 3, 2011
By Sonali Kolhatkar
Published in Commondreams and Alternet

“The sad truth is that Obama’s war policies have turned out
to be even more of a nightmare than I expected.” – Malalai Joya, A Woman Among Warlords

While millions of Americans are experiencing unemployment, wage stagnation, rising tuition, dwindling social services, and poverty at levels not seen since the Great Depression, an unjustifiably large proportion of our taxes are being used to cause death and destruction in Afghanistan. With Afghanistan being the longest war the U.S. has ever officially waged, we should carefully examine the costs of the war – financial and otherwise – and ask ourselves, is it really worth it?

The war costs taxpayers between $500,000 to $1 million per soldier in Afghanistan every year. Since President Obama deployed thousands of more troops than Bush, the escalating war has come with a bloated price tag. So far, we have spent $336 billion on the war, and if Congress approves a request for additional funding, that number will go up to $455.4 billion – nearly half a trillion dollars. According to CostofWar.com, just the $120 billion in additional funding could fund 1.6 million elementary school teachers for a year, 1.9 million firefighters for a year, or $5,550 Pell Grants for 19.3 million students. A single month’s expenses on the Afghanistan war could pay for 46.9 billion meals for the hungry each month. Six months’ worth of Afghanistan war expenses could pay for school supplies for every single child in the world.

read more here: http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1220

According to Joya, “the truth about Afghanistan has been hidden behind a smoke screen of words and images carefully crafted by the United States and its NATO allies and repeated without question by the Western media.” Joya will speak directly to American audiences this spring in a nationwide tour intended to expose the brutality and futility of the war and clear the smoke screen. Her speaking tour comes ahead of a major push by antiwar activists to organize bi-coastal events protesting the Afghanistan war on April 9th and 10th 2011.

Joya’s words can help Americans clear the “dust from our eyes” and face the reality that for all our sakes, the Afghanistan war must end sooner rather than later.






maybe even going out and getting her book and reading it would be action also:

http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=169

[annm4peace]

4. Several of our Reps signed on to letter to the Embassy to allow her to come here

http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/docs/McDermott_letter_Joya.pdf

[annm4peace]

5. Am I the only DU who is outraged of them denying Malalai her visa?

when will we honor those who risk everything for peace and justice ?