Human Rights Watch on Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya, Afghanistan's 28-year-old firebrand female MP, was suspended from the Afghan parliament last month. The reason? She broke Article 70 of the legislature's rules which forbids MP's from criticizing fellow MP's when she told a television interviewer that the parliament was worse than a zoo.

Human Rights Watch has mounted a campaign to have her reinstated and to urge the Afghan government to revise article 70 to "ensure that elected representatives can speak freely". In their news release, HRW's Asia director calls Joya "a staunch defender of human rights and a powerful voice for Afghan women". Further, HRW notes that "members of parliament have regularly criticized each other, but no one else has been suspended. "