Pajhwok Afghan News, May 30, 2007: KABUL: Hundreds of people rallied in support of suspended Wolesi Jirga member Malalai Joya in Kabul on Wednesday.
Attended by 300 men, women and children, the latest pro-Joya rally was taken out from an area close to the Governors House and terminated at the UNAMA office.
Chanting slogans in favour of the woman and against several MPs opposed to her, the participants called for the legislators immediate reinstatement.
Burqa-clad women, with loudhailers in their hands, shouted slogans against Wolesi Jirga Speaker Younus Qanuni, legislator Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, Mustafa Kazmi, Muhammad Mohaqiq, Mullah Abdul Salam Rockety and Syed Muhammad Gulabzoi.
The protesters asked the lawmakers to apologise to Malalai Joya for suspending her membership without any solid reason.
Abdul Qadir, one of the protesters, said the demonstrators wanted to show people that the 29-year-old did not represent the Farah province alone, but enjoyed support across the country. He warned if their demand for Joyas reinstatement was not met, they would push ahead with protests.
Mariam (13), who identified herself as a student, stoutly backed Joyas stance on issues pertaining to members of Parliament. She insisted the woman was justified in branding war criminals and druglords as donkeys, and that the remarks did not warrant her ouster.
The protesters handed to UNAMA officials a resolution saying that no one could scrap the Wolesi Jirga membership of Joya - elected by 8,000 voters of the Farah province.
In a groundswell of support for the legislator - known for her stringent criticism of warlords now part of Parliament - hundreds of women and girls Tuesday rallied for her in the northern Baghlan province.
They demanded the immediate restoration of the woman MP ousted by a majority vote on May 21 over what legislators called insulting remarks she passed in a TV interview against the Lower House of Parliament.
In her interview with a private TV channel, the 29-year-old reportedly slammed Parliament as worse than a stable, alleging warlords and druglords sitting in the august house did no service to the long-suffering Afghans.
Similar pro-Joya rallies have been held in other Afghan cities as well earlier in the month, with participants and speakers denouncing her suspension as an unwarranted measure.
On May 25, dozens of people, including women, staged a protest rally in Jalalabad to support the ousted female MP. They gathered at the Hospital Square and later marched through the city centre to the office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
On Thursday, a similar protest demo was staged in the western Farah province, the home province of the 29-year-old ousted parliamentarian.
Also on Thursday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch demanded the reinstatement of Joya and asked Parliament to ensure the freedom of expression for the MP.
Rating: User: watandar2000 2008-01-03T10:37:49.28Z
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