Malalai Joya's visa application was recently denied by a U.S. State Department consular officer. The reason? Because she was "unemployed" and “lived underground."
Well, duh.
Considering that Malalai Joya was forced into hiding AND has experienced five assassination attempts after her 2004 speech against the placement of warlords within Afghan parliament, denying her a visa to the US was an aggressive attempt to ignore the voice of a key advocate for the Afghan people. Having successfully applied for a U.S. visa four times before, this rejection was a politicized act: one responding to the fact that Joya is vocal in her opposition to U.S. policy and military involvement in her country.
After a letter writing campaign that flooded the offices of Hilary Clinton, the State Department reconsidered their decision, and finally granted Joya a three week visa to continue her tour as planned.
Who would have guessed that this prominent woman would not only speak at Harvard to promote her new book, but also a respectable yet much less recognizable venue as Willamette U. This woman has a message, and she's bound and determined to be heard. And she's appealing especially to young people. My Transnational Feminism class was privileged enough to even have her undivided attention for over an hour today. Least to say I was incredibly excited... yet I also had some questions.
Primarily we discussed issues surrounding the culture of war and its impact upon women. War culture, or the largely patriarchal power struggles that disempower already poor and vulnerable populations, wreak tremendous havoc upon the lives of women. Whether through rape, violence, disenfranchisement, lack of education, inability for self-sustainance, and overall robbing of agency both within the community and the household, contribute to the oppression of women and is exacerbated by war. With war, women's rights - already suffering from the ambiguities within the UN Declaration of Human Rights, are readily sacrificed for the cause OR are used and abused to promote foreign intervention. Afghanistan is a prime example, where the burqa has become a prime target for Western nations to help "end" oppression. Often Western narratives claim that to free the woman from the stuffy confines of the burqa is to empower her. That to bomb her village to kill Taliban forces - but also in the process killing her husband and child, or destroying her home - is to "help" her. Overall, the Afghan women is not only completely oppressed, she is completely unable to remedy her condition. She is a perpetual victim, powerless by the rhetoric constructing her. Thus, the Muslim Afghan woman must be "saved."
But does she?
Joya would answer, "Allhamdulilah, hellll no!"
Western intervention and military campaigns ironically continue to perpetuate the problems currently oppressing women, Joya argues. By simplifying the oppression of Afghan women to the burqa (which Joya has actually used to smuggle textbooks to her secret school in Kabul and protected her from the success of assassination attempts), the complexities that come with understanding the struggles of Afghan women are lost, instead becoming a convenient punchline for American taxpayers and privileged white feminists to readily buy into. The construction of the helpless Afghan woman and the call to arms of her American sisters to cast aside the burqa sadly misses the deeper issues that are silencing her. Ridding the Afghan woman of the burqa will not educate her. It won't give her skills necessary for employment. It won't even free her from the oppression inflicted by men.
In essence, "saving" the Afghan woman is contributing to her oppression. By denying the Afghan woman's ability for self-determination, by perpetuating her victimization through warfare, the West is helping to sustain her vulnerability.
Its like the sour, violent twist of a "white horse" fairy tale, where in riding up to a fair maiden "needing" rescue, the rider doesn't see her and instead pummels her into the muddy misunderstandings found within the greatest tragedies. And history repeats itself... as Libya may reveal in the coming months.
Joya's facilitation of our class discussion and her lecture later in the evening only lead me to additional questions. Moreover, I was left feeling despondent. After hearing stories of unimaginable atrocities commonplace in a land under siege, and hearing Joya express her frustration with the role the U.S. has played in debilitating the autonomy of Afghan women, I was left disoriented.
What do WE, acting within the parameters of a global sisterhood, DO in responding to the conditions of women in Afghanistan???
Unsurprisingly, Joya offered a plan of action: the United States must withdraw from Afghanistan, largely so that Afghan women have "only the warlords and the Taliban leftover to fight."
No wonder this disturber of the peace didn't get a US visa.
Well, duh.
Considering that Malalai Joya was forced into hiding AND has experienced five assassination attempts after her 2004 speech against the placement of warlords within Afghan parliament, denying her a visa to the US was an aggressive attempt to ignore the voice of a key advocate for the Afghan people. Having successfully applied for a U.S. visa four times before, this rejection was a politicized act: one responding to the fact that Joya is vocal in her opposition to U.S. policy and military involvement in her country.
After a letter writing campaign that flooded the offices of Hilary Clinton, the State Department reconsidered their decision, and finally granted Joya a three week visa to continue her tour as planned.
 |
| Reflection of an activist who "raised her voice" |
Primarily we discussed issues surrounding the culture of war and its impact upon women. War culture, or the largely patriarchal power struggles that disempower already poor and vulnerable populations, wreak tremendous havoc upon the lives of women. Whether through rape, violence, disenfranchisement, lack of education, inability for self-sustainance, and overall robbing of agency both within the community and the household, contribute to the oppression of women and is exacerbated by war. With war, women's rights - already suffering from the ambiguities within the UN Declaration of Human Rights, are readily sacrificed for the cause OR are used and abused to promote foreign intervention. Afghanistan is a prime example, where the burqa has become a prime target for Western nations to help "end" oppression. Often Western narratives claim that to free the woman from the stuffy confines of the burqa is to empower her. That to bomb her village to kill Taliban forces - but also in the process killing her husband and child, or destroying her home - is to "help" her. Overall, the Afghan women is not only completely oppressed, she is completely unable to remedy her condition. She is a perpetual victim, powerless by the rhetoric constructing her. Thus, the Muslim Afghan woman must be "saved."
But does she?
Joya would answer, "Allhamdulilah, hellll no!"
 |
| Times article arguing that to leave Afghanistan is to abandon Afghan women to their oppressors. Joya would respond that in leaving Afghanistan, Afghan women have one less oppressor to fight... |
Western intervention and military campaigns ironically continue to perpetuate the problems currently oppressing women, Joya argues. By simplifying the oppression of Afghan women to the burqa (which Joya has actually used to smuggle textbooks to her secret school in Kabul and protected her from the success of assassination attempts), the complexities that come with understanding the struggles of Afghan women are lost, instead becoming a convenient punchline for American taxpayers and privileged white feminists to readily buy into. The construction of the helpless Afghan woman and the call to arms of her American sisters to cast aside the burqa sadly misses the deeper issues that are silencing her. Ridding the Afghan woman of the burqa will not educate her. It won't give her skills necessary for employment. It won't even free her from the oppression inflicted by men.
In essence, "saving" the Afghan woman is contributing to her oppression. By denying the Afghan woman's ability for self-determination, by perpetuating her victimization through warfare, the West is helping to sustain her vulnerability.
Its like the sour, violent twist of a "white horse" fairy tale, where in riding up to a fair maiden "needing" rescue, the rider doesn't see her and instead pummels her into the muddy misunderstandings found within the greatest tragedies. And history repeats itself... as Libya may reveal in the coming months.
Joya's facilitation of our class discussion and her lecture later in the evening only lead me to additional questions. Moreover, I was left feeling despondent. After hearing stories of unimaginable atrocities commonplace in a land under siege, and hearing Joya express her frustration with the role the U.S. has played in debilitating the autonomy of Afghan women, I was left disoriented.
What do WE, acting within the parameters of a global sisterhood, DO in responding to the conditions of women in Afghanistan???
Unsurprisingly, Joya offered a plan of action: the United States must withdraw from Afghanistan, largely so that Afghan women have "only the warlords and the Taliban leftover to fight."
No wonder this disturber of the peace didn't get a US visa.
No comments:
Post a Comment