Speech of Malalai Joya at the Manifestation on 4. 02. 2012 against the NATO-Warconference at Marienplatz

I would like to thank the organizer for giving me their tribune to bring the massage of suffered people of Afghanistan, especially its unfortunate women, to you.

I send salutation to all anti-war and progressive forces of Germany who stand in solidarity with my mourning people. If German government is a close friend of the enemies of our people and follows the sinister policy of the US/NATO since over 10 years of occupation, but I am glad that anti-war and peace-loving people of Germany stand in solidarity with us which gives us more encouragement and determination to fight for justice and true democracy in our country.

Only weeks ago, the second Bonn conference was held in Germany where a handful of Afghan corrupt officials, the hirelings of the US and the West were gathered to sell Afghanistan to their masters. Any decisions made in such conferences are against the will of Afghan people and those participants were not the true representatives of Afghanistan. The conference was an effort to prepare the conditions to to give legitimation to US permanent military presence in Afghanistan.

As long as we have US military presence in Afghanistan we have no independence. In a country which has no independence talking about democracy, human rights and social justice is a painful joke.

In the First conference of Bonn they handed over Afghanistan to the criminals, looters and worse enemies of democracy and justice. The conference was start of a new big game of the West in Afghanistan which had fatal consequences for our country. But in the second conference of Bonn they tightened the chains of slavery of Afghanistan.

After ten years of war and occupation in my country and killing tens of thousands of my innocent compatriots, now the US officials confess that Taliban are not their enemies! That is true, I have said in the past that the Taliban and other terrorist groups are all products of the White House and they are only enemies of Afghan people and not their foreign masters. All fundamentalist terrorist bands in Afghanistan from Mullah Omer to Hekmatyar and Osama and those in power like Mohaqiq, Khalili, Fahim, Dustom, Qanooni, Abdulah, Amrullah Saleh, Sayyaf etc. were created, armed, nourished and empowered by the US and other Western governments during the Cold War and the US still relies on them as they are the only sold-out groups who become slaves of any power in exchange of Dollar and power.

The consequences of the 10 years of occupation were more bloodshed, crimes, women rights, human rights violations which doubled the sorrows of our people. During these bloody years tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed by the occupation forces and terrorist groups. But the US and NATO are only after their own strategic, military, economic and regional interests and scarify my suffering nation for reaching their bloody goals.

Situation of women is getting worse day by day. Kidnapping, rapes, self-immolation, acid attacks and domestic violence are increasing rapidly. It is also the most dangerous place to be a woman according to UNIFEM. Helping Afghan women is only part of the propaganda campaign of the Western powers to justify their presence in Afghanistan, but in practice the well-being of Afghan women have no value for them.

Many of you may heard the suffer story of Sahar Gul who has been tortured by her cruel husband recently .There was a lot of hue and cry created for her but there are thousands of other Sahar Gul in Afghanistan who are killed, raped, kidnapped, tortured and face extreme kind of violence but they made her story headline because it didn’t have any backing from any warlords, fundamentalist or mafia criminal. It was just an ordinary rapist behind it otherwise they would have silenced the news in the most shameless way.
The shocking story of Gulnaz Bigum is a small example how Afghan women are suppressed by the male-chauvinistic customs in the society but later the officials also promote such dirty customs. Gulnaz was raped by a relative, when she complains, the government put her in prison and accused of adultery, sentence to 12 years while the rapist is sentenced to 3 years! Gulnaz gives birth to a child in prison and when a foreign journalist publicizes her case, the court puts a condition before her: If you marry the man who raped you, your sentence will reduce to 3 years! As this story was widely covered by media and was a shame to the government, President Karzai intervened and released her from jail, while thousands of other Afghan women with similar cases suffer in Afghan jails.

According to official statistics, over US$65 billion of foreign aid have been poured into the country for rebuilding Afghanistan, but most of this aid have been looted by warlords, drug-lords and national and international NGOs. Afghanistan is the 2nd most corrupt country in the world and the most corrupt in our history.

In these 10 years the US puppets have changed Afghanistan to the center of narcotics in the world, since 2001 the production of opium increased over 4400% in my country. It was the US policy to specialize Afghanistan in drug-production because they get hundreds of billions of $ every year from Afghan opium industry while our poor people’s lives are destroyed. I believe opium is more dangerous than Al-Qaida and terrorism and more than war kills and spoils the life of the people. Around two million out of the 30 million population of Afghanistan are addicted and many of them are women and children.

US/NATO tells us that they will leave Afghanistan by mid-2014 but it is a lie and make fool of their own people. We know that the US and its allies are there for their own interests. Even if they are mobilizing the Afghan army and police, it is just to use them as cannon fodders to decrease their own soldier casualties. They want to change Afghanistan into their military and intelligence base in Asia. It is enough to show the hypocrisy of the US government.

The Western governments not only betrayed afghan people but their own people too. They are wasting tax-payers money and their soldiers’ blood for a war which only safeguards the interests of the big corporations and a handful of Afghan corrupt and puppet rulers.

I believe that the only solution to Afghanistan is that the troops should withdraw because their presence is making our fight for justice much harder by empowering reactionary, brutal and dark-minded forces that are great obstacles for the true democratic elements.

Some say Taliban may get back to power and a civil war will break but my people, despite being wounded, tired and hopeless of all the wars will fight steadfastly till the end against warlords and Taliban because of the hatred they have for them. The history bears witness that only the nations can liberate themselves, democracy and justice can’t be imposed by a foreign power that too by the US, which has a history of overthrowing democratic regimes and imposing dictators and murderers on countless nations of the world since WW2.

I hope one day Afghanistan also sees glorious uprisings like Middle East countries against fundamentalist dictators and their guardians, as right now we are witnessing small uprisings in Kunnar, Takhar, Nangarha, Paktia, Logar, Farah, Heart, Ghazni, Helmand provinces, which is increasing a big source of hope for all of us.

So now I would like to ask all peace-loving, justice-seeking and democratic organizations, groups, parties and individuals to join hands with progressive and democratic- minded forces that need your support and solidarity. Therefore, my massage to you is to empower my people educationally because education is a key towards emancipation.