Malalai Joya speaks out ahead of Afghan elections

Malalai Joya became Afghanistan's youngest Member of Parliament when she was elected aged just 27 to the 249-seat National Assembly in September 2005. She has been suspended since 2007 on charges of insulting the parliament.

Joya was in the UK last month to promote her new book, but also to deliver a message to Britain: "We do not accept foreign occupation -- three times a British government have occupied my country faced with the opposition of my people."

"Foreign governments are wasting their money and their blood in Afghanistan by supporting Karzai. After this election, the result will be the same donkey, only with a new saddle."

Malalai Joya's memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, written with rabble.ca editor Derrick O'Keefe, will be published in North America in October by Scribner, and is available for pre-order here [2].

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