attention, please.

i just finished this book. amazing. game changing, for me. you can read book reviews at amazon.com. i had a sneaky feeling there was much i didn't know about afganistan and the humanitarian and political issues there. it seemed the media coverage wasn't enough. i was right. malalai joya, born and raised in afganistan and pakistan, began her political life by running for The Loya Jirga (an elected committee to form a constitution) in 2003. you can watch a pbs documentary about it here. since then her life has been turned upside down and sacrificed for her people of afganistan. she is either always with bodyguards or travels in disguise because of all the death threats and assassination attempts. her crime? speaking up for the women, children, and all suffering people in afganistan by exposing their puppet government and countries that back their warlords. she is not affiliated with any political party, so you'll read no endorsements. it's mostly a history lesson, jam packed with heart wrenching facts that consistently brought tears to my eyes. she lets you form your own opinion.

it truly opened my eyes. it completely changed the way i view our government and the war/situation/government over there. i found myself asking what i could do to help a suffering nation halfway across the world. one way is to spread the word and that's why i'm blogging about it. since all proceeds of her book go directly to an orphanage/hospital clinic she used to run, i think i'll buy her book, too. here is her website. check out the book from your library. they don't have it? request it. buy her book to donate money. watch the documentary on pbs. tell a friend. perhaps most importantly? stay educated and vote educated so we can all do our part to end their oppression and help them gain dignity by standing on their own two feet.