Women Among Warlords

In the novel “A Women Among Warlords” the author, Malalai Joya, educates the reader on the historical suppression of both men and women in Afghanistan. While the novel focuses on Joya’s upbringing and ultimately her career as a teacher and as a member Afghan parliament, the novel brings to the light her encounters as a progressive leader, with both men and women whom has faced hardships due to unequal rights. Joya uses her encounters to educate the reader on not only the hardships women have faced but the truth behind the “false image” of a better Afghanistan the west has created since the declaration of the “War on Terror” (Joya 28). Specifically, Joya notes how over eighty percent of women and over fifty percent of men are illiterate to allude to the greater focus of lack of education in society, thus alluding to the larger
In focusing on the chapter of her working in a medical clinic and orphanage, her encounter with the children of the orphanage fully embodies Joya's importance of education and equality through these young children’s individual hardships. Specifically, when meeting a young girl whose parents had been trying to “sell” her for a higher dowry, Joya was able to educate the girl on her value as a “human being” and not as an “object” to sell; Thus allowing the girl to educate her own parents and changing their minds on her value as a human being (59). However, Joya’s examples in the orphanage where not always positive, as she uses the story of a girl named Rahellah to bring to light the cruel reality women face, which ultimately lead to abuse and “self-immolation” (60). These stories ultimately illuminate the importance of educating the “value” of both men and women in society. In educating the value of oneself, she helps “pass” the idea of change to both the children of the orphanage but the parents and family