News Release

Afghan Election Runoff

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“ZOYA” via Sonali Kolhatkar
Twenty-eight-year-old Zoya is a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Because RAWA is an underground organization, members like Zoya do not reveal their real identity for fear of being persecuted. She said today: “Neither Hamid Karzai nor Abdullah Abdullah deserve to be in a second round of voting because they have proven through their corrupt actions that they will resort to any means to gain political power. The people of Afghanistan deserve real democracy, not power-hungry criminals. It is disappointing that the Obama administration is trying to legitimize this election that has been discredited in the eyes of our people.”

Zoya was recently profiled in the Des Moines Register. She testified before the Human Rights Commission of the German parliament. According to her bio: “Zoya grew up during the wars that ravaged Afghanistan and was robbed of her mother and father when they were murdered by fundamentalists — Zoya was only 14.” http://afghanwomensmission.org/awmnews/index.php?articleID=84

Zoya will be visiting the United States until October 27.

Sonali Kolhatkar is co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence. She is also co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a U.S.-based nonprofit that supports women’s rights activists in Afghanistan.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167