Media Release
March 8 2007
Afghanistan’s ‘most famous woman’ speaks out on justice
Malalai
Joya is known as Afghanistan’s most famous woman. The 28-year-old
Afghani Member of Parliament, who made her name as a woman's rights
activist in Afghanistan, will speak at a lecture series Focus on Rights
for UniSA’s Bob Hawke
Prime Ministerial Centre in association with
UNIFEM Australia
and the
Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan (SAWA).
Speaking on Afghanistan, Joya will share her thoughts and experiences on women’s issues in Afghanistan, her fight against drug barons and warlords, and her election to parliament.
One of the prominent winners in Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary elections, Joya is an outspoken critic of the country's warlords and has survived three attempts on her life and experienced death threats for her determined stand to rebuild Afghanistan as a civil society.
"I will do my best to stop the warlords and criminals from building any laws that will jeopardise the rights of Afghan people, especially the women," Joya has told the world media.
Joya, a women's literacy and health worker, took her seat in the 249-seat National Assembly, or Wolesi Jirga, representing the remote province of Farah. Her work has been widely recognised, including The World Economic Forum selecting her among 250 Young Global Leaders for 2007.
Director of the Hawke Centre Elizabeth Ho commented that it was a great coup to have secured her visit to South Australia, resulting from Joya’s appreciation of local SAWA efforts to support Afghani women.
“If we are searching for inspiring leaders on the global stage, then Joya must already be among them. In our society to become a politician is a relatively secure privilege. For Malalai Joya it is a statement of her unflinching commitment to a just society, for which she daily risks her own life. Her stand on education for women is one that we can only admire in the face of extremist attitudes that would deny half of Afghanistan’s population the right to learn,” said Ho.
What: Malalai Joya MP: “The most famous woman in Afghanistan” (BBC)
Speaking on Justice for Women In Afghanisatan
Focus on Rights lecuture series, The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre,
UniSA
Where: UniSA City East Campus, Mutual Community Theatre, Basil Hetzel Building (off Frome Road)
When: Tuesday 13 March, 2007, 5:45pm for 6pm start
Registration is essential via the
Hawke Centre website
or telephone 8302 0215.
Contact for interview
-
Elizabeth Ho office (08) 8302 0215 email elizabeth.ho@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
-
Thel Krollig office (08) 8302 0096 mobile 0400191297
email thel.krollig@unisa.edu.au