Newsday (New York)
December 18, 2003
Uproar at Afghanistan Assembly; Woman delegate denounces warlords
By Dan Morrison
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's constitutional convention burst
into uproar yesterday after a 26-year-old woman delegate denounced
her country's powerful factional warlords as "criminals" who "should
be brought to justice."
Malalai Joya provoked roars of anger and threats from former
guerrillas loyal to the warlords, who expelled the Soviet army in
1989 and then further devastated the country in years of factional
warfare that killed tens of thousands of civilians, including,
reportedly, many in Joya's family.
Women delegates surrounded Joya to protect her and later ushered her
from the large tent where the assembly is being held to a United
Nations office.
The incident highlights questions of gender, religion and civil
liberties that divide the 502 delegates, 100 of them women. The
traditional convention, called a loya jirga, is trying to establish a
stable government after 28 years of war in this deeply tribal,
traditional and Muslim country.
"I think this issue, the issue of women, will be here for the rest of
the loya jirga," said delegate Mohammad Usman Tariq. "What she said
was true," he added. "There are some stupid people in there who might
try to do something to her." A UN political officer, Rina Amiri,
expressed concern for Joya's security.
The U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, is pushing the assembly to
adopt a constitution giving the president wide powers. His opponents,
mainly disaffected regional warlords, favor a parliament and prime
minister to dilute presidential powers.
Analysts said Karzai was building support by co-opting some warlords,
including alleged war criminals and drug traffickers, with promises
of government posts and international legitimacy.
Yesterday, as delegates were preparing to break into working
committees, Joya took a microphone and blasted the warlords. "Why
don't they take all the criminals to one committee so we can see ...
to which situation they would bring the nation?" she demanded. "In my
opinion they should be taken to the world court," she said, as scores
of men leapt from their seats and the microphone was cut off.
On Monday, the convention's chairman, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi,
offended many women when he refused to name a woman as one of his
three deputies, saying that a woman's word was worth only half of a
man's. "This is God's decision, not man's," he said.