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An Evening with Malalai Joya Featuring Eve Ensler in New York April 15


04/04/2011

South Asia Solidarity Initiative and War Resisters League in association with Center for Place Culture & Politics at CUNY present

An evening with Malalai Joya featuring Eve Ensler:
Women Facing War in Afghanistan, and the Need for U.S. Solidarity

Friday, April 15 - 7pm til 9pm

CUNY Graduate Center, Recital Hall

365 Fifth Ave at 34th Street - Ground Floor
[BDFV & NQRW trains to 34th St, 6 train to 33]

This event is free and open to the public, We may get a FULL HOUSE -- arrive early to guarantee admission!

We encourage everyone to make a donation to support the cost of Ms. Joya's tour, her health clinic in Farah Province, and her office in Kabul.
The donations should be made at the following link: http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?page_id=518
(Please be sure to indicate "Malalai Joya" in the "order comments" section).

Copies of Ms. Joya's memoir will be available for sale at the event.

Facebook event page: http://tinyurl.com/malalai
Contact information: [email protected]
Co-sponsors: www.southasiainitiative.org | warresisters.org | web.gc.cuny.edu/pcp

As the U.S.-NATO occupation of Afghanistan approaches its 10th anniversary this year, the U.S. anti-war movement is in dire need of clarity and momentum. The Afghan people still face overwhelming oppressive obstacles to creating movements toward social justice and self-determination -- obstacles empowered by the context of foreign intervention and war. Please join us for a rare opportunity to hear from the one of the most courageous voices for justice and peace in Afghanistan, Malalai Joya. She will be joined by the acclaimed U.S. artist and activist Eve Ensler, to discuss the experiences and resilience of women (and all people) in Afghanistan -- and what people in the U.S. can do to raise their voices and support their struggles.

Speakers:

Malalai Joya is the youngest person to have been elected to Afghanistan's parliament, and an outspoken activist against military occupation and for women's rights in her country. She has been called the most famous and bravest woman in Afghanistan by BBC News. She was selected among the "heroes" for the Time 100 [TIME magazine, 2010] -- and she was just selected among the top activists of the world's Top 100 Women by the UK Guardian newspaper. Her memoir, "A Woman Among Warlords," was just published in paperback by Simon&Schuster, with a new chapter on Afghanistan in the Obama era. She just wrote a piece for the Guardian on the U.S. soldiers' "kill team" and atrocity photos, a story that has returned U.S. news attention to Afghanistan this March-April.

[More info]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malalai_Joya

Joya was supposed to arrive in the U.S. on March 18 to start a nationwide speaking tour, but at the last minute her visa was denied. A quick mobilization of media attention, activist petitioning and pressure on the State Department turned it around! [See articles in TIME magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle.] She arrived in the U.S. on March 25, joining Noam Chomsky to address a crowd of over a thousand people at Harvard. Having spoken all across the U.S., her tour concludes in New York City on April 15 at this event.

Eve Ensler is an acclaimed playwright, performer and activist. She is the award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Eve's work, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life Of Girls Around The World (2010), made the New York Times' best-seller list. She is the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls, which has raised over 80 million dollars for the cause. Ensler has traveled to Afghanistan, and built relationships of solidarity with activists for justice and peace there.

[More info]: http://www.vday.org/about/more-about/eveensler