In just a few days, over 2500 people have signed an online petition to protest the denial of a U.S. travel visa to Afghan women's rights activist and author Malalai Joya, who was to make a three-week U.S. tour to promote the updated edition of A Woman Among Warlords.

On Sunday, Joya addressed the closing plenary of the Left Forum in New York City via Skype, opening her remarks by saying, "Now the U.S. government tries to stop me from entering, but they can never block my voice from reaching the great and peace-loving people in the United States." 

The Canadian Peace Alliance has issued this announcement of a brief return visit by Malalai Joya. The tour comes at an important time, with exhortations coming from a number of fronts to extend Canada's role in the military occupation of Afghanistan beyond 2011.

Malalai Joya, described as “the bravest woman in Afghanistan” is on a Canadian speaking tour, which started in Ottawa last night. Joya was recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. She is an outspoken critic of the NATO-led war that she says has not provided democracy and women's rights and has taken a terrible civilian toll in her country.

TIME has named Malalai Joya to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Joya has become renown around the world as a courageous advocate of women’s rights and a fierce critic of the NATO war in Afghanistan. The full list and related tributes appear in the May 10 issue of TIME, available on newsstands on Friday, April 30, and now at time.com/tk.

Malalai Joya wraps up her cross-Canada book tour in Ottawa Friday. Her tour started two weeks ago in Vancouver with a launch attended by about 1000 people at Saint Andrew's Wesley Church. Having travelled on the first half of the cross-Canada trip -- I co-wrote the book, A Woman Among Warlords, with her -- I can testify to the great response she has received at packed meetings against the war in city after city. The success of her tour bodes well for the anti-war movement in Canada, especially at this moment where the Harper government is mired in scandal over its complicity in the torture of Afghans.