Malalai Joya

Biography

Malalai Joya, at only 30 years of age, has been called "the most famous woman in Afghanistan" and compared to democratic leaders such as Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi. Born in Afghanistan's remote Farah Province, she grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan before returning to Afghanistan as a social activist and a teacher at underground girls' schools during the Taliban's reign. In 2003 she was elected to Afghanistan's constitutional assembly and, two years later, was the youngest person elected to Afghanistan's new Parliament, a post from which she was suspended in 2007 for her regular denunciation of the country's warlords and their cronies in government.