Mujahedin Denounced

Although she was threatened with removal from the assembly and asked to apologise, she stood her ground and would not retract her accusations.

Malalai Joya, a young delegate elected to represent Farah province in western Afghanistan, began by saying she was speaking on behalf of young people. In an emotional speech, carried live on public television, she continually referred to mujahedin leaders as “criminals”, and said that they shouldn't be at the gathering.

In the past, statements such as Joya's have caused journalists to be threatened and jailed.

Joya questioned why the people who had previously said the Loya Jirga was against Islam were now participating in it.

When the mujahedin were fighting the communists, they also expressed hostility to previous institutions of the previous royalist regime, including the Loya Jirga.

Joya also questioned why such people were heading so many of the gathering’s ten committees. “Why don’t you have all these criminals in one committee to once again see where they take the nation?” she asked.

“They made our country the centre of national and international fighting. They were the people who put our country in its current condition, and want to again….

“They should be tried in national and international courts. Even if our people forgive them, history will not.”

Her speech provoked delegates, who leapt from their seats. They crowded the stage, shouting “Death to communism” and "God is great".

Sibghatullah Mujaddidi, chairman of the Loya Jirga, tried to calm the crowd, urging delegates to be more tolerant of Joya’s remarks. But the representatives only sat down when Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf, head of Itahad-e-Islami jihadi party, took the microphone and insisted on quiet.

“I believe some people want this gathering to fail, and the failure of this gathering is the failure of the whole nation,” he said.

Sayyaf, defending the record of mujahedin, said, “We have shaken the super power of the world [Soviet Union]. This brave nation tore it up with the….sword.” And he urged the delegates to exercise restraint.

Others, though, told Mujaddidi that Joya she should be removed. Mujaddidi, appearing exasperated, told security officials, “Take this sister out from the gathering, she doesn’t have the right to be here.” Two Afghan National Army soldiers came up to Joya, but some women delegates appealed to Mujaddidi not to remove her, and the deputy chairs of the gathering agreed.

Mujaddidi then backed off and said, "She is forgiven."

Later, other delegates said Joya should apologise, and Mujaddidi tried to order her to do so but she refused.

One of the deputy chairmen then abruptly switched topics to the appointments on the 10 committees, and immediately adjourned so that two of the committees could elect their leaders. The council worked the rest of the day in its committees, including Joya, who was guarded by UN officials.

In a lunch-hour press conference, Mujaddidi defended his right to remove delegates from the hall. As for Joya, he said, “We did this for her safety. Otherwise who can stop the mujahedin? They rose up against big super powers. The woman, God forbid, could have been seriously injured.”

A secretary of the Loya Jirga, Jamila Mujahed of Kabul, told IWPR that seven members of Joya’s family had been killed in a rocket attack, and that she now lives with her uncle in Farah. Other details about her were not available.

Female delegates also hurled accusations at jihadi leaders during the Emergency Loya Jirga in June 2002. Some observers say that woman feel freer than men to level such charges because they don't fear they will be killed for doing so – as a man might be. The reason for this is that women's words are perceived as carrying less weight as men's.

Danish Karokhel is an editor and staff reporter for IWPR in Kabul.