Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya is an Afghan activist, writer, and former politician. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of warlords and war criminals in the Afghan Parliament. She is an outspoken critic of the Karzai administration and its western supporters, particularly the United States. Joya was born on April 25, 1978, in Farah Province, Afghanistan. She grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan before returning to Afghanistan and working as a social activist and teacher at underground girls' schools during the Taliban's reign. She was elected to Afghanistan's constitutional assembly in 2003 and became the youngest person elected to Afghanistan's new Parliament in 2005. She has survived multiple assassination attempts and currently lives in exile. She was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2010 and has received numerous awards for her activism.