Afghan woman MP assaulted in Parliament.

An outspoken and extraordinaryily brave female legislator was physically and verbally attacked by her colleagues after saying on the parliament floor that some of Afghanistan's mujahedeen leaders were criminals who shouldn't now be lawmakers, officials said Monday.AP

Malalai Joya, (website)elected to the Afghan Parliament for the remote western area of Farah said when elected "When those people put their trust in me and elected me as their representative, I decided to bring their suffering to the world's attention - so that the world would know that even though the men and women of Afghanistan have had to live in ignorance and poverty for many years, they don't trust the mujahideen."

Ms Joya said the government with the support of international forces should "tackle the warlords with great determination".

Yesterday she was physically and verbally attacked after saying on the parliament floor that some of Afghanistan's mujahedeen leaders were criminals who shouldn't allowed to be lawamakers. The Times reports that Omid Yakmanish, a television cameraman, was hit as he filmed the uproar, and dropped his camera. He said: “The MP (Al-haj Khyal Mohammad Husaini, from Ghazni) said in an interview, ‘I have the right to beat people up if I want to’.”

Parwin Durranai, a woman MP for the nomadic Kuchi people, who charged at her, said: “I am not regretful. She spoke against 90 per cent of Afghanistan’s people. She is rude in the way she speaks.”

Several female lawmakers hit her with empty plastic water bottles and male lawmakers made death threats and lobbed insults at her after her speech on Sunday.

"I said there are two kinds of mujahedeen in Afghanistan. One kind fought for independence, which I respect, but the other kind destroyed the country and killed 60,000 people," Joya told AP.

This is not the first time (nor will it be the last) that Joya, has spoken out against warlords and drug lords . At the first loya jirga, a council of leaders that helped establish the interim government in 2002 after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 and in December at the full first session of parliament (Wolesi Jirgashe) called for all of Afghanistan's human rights abusers and "criminal warlords" to be brought to justice. Delegates responded by pounding their fists on the tables to demand she sit down. But she refused, shouting that she had a right as an elected official to speak her mind.

On Monday, she again said Afghanistan's parliament has former warlords and members loyal to the Taliban. She said death threats would not quiet her.

"They may kill me, they may slash my neck. I will never stop my words against the criminals, against the drug dealers," she said.

The spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, Karim Rahimi,said , "The lawmakers are the representatives of the Afghan people. We are sure they will solve their own difficulties," and then sneaked off..

Ms Joya has argued against the former rulers of Afghanistan - last year she, together with a delegation of 50 tribal elders, persuaded President Hamid Karzai to dismiss Bashir Baghlani as the governor of Farah province by him as he was a well-known criminal commander of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and a former Taliban leader (and man with close contacts with the CIA) . Diplomats see her very vocal and expressive interventions as unhelpful... which is hardly surprising.

Assassination attempted

She has survived at least 4 assassination attempts since her speech at the constitutional convention. Ms Joya employs armed guards and travels incognito where possible.

"I know that if not today, then probably tomorrow, I will be physically annihilated," Ms Joya told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

Ms Joya has said she is used to intimidation after being threatened "again and again" by the Taleban when she started her work in the country in 1998 after returning from Pakistan and Iran where her family had emigrated during the civil war.

During that time she established an orphanage and health clinic, and was soon a vocal opponent of the Taleban.

"These people are snakes in the sleeves of the government. Only if the government tackles them head-on will we see a brighter future." says this remarkable woman,"If they don't there will be more bitter and dark days ahead."

Malalai Joya, recently visited Yale University in the US to speak on foreign policy. At the end of her lecture, she criticized Harvard for admitting Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi as a special student. Hashemi was the deputy foreign minister for the Taliban at the time of the September 11th attacks.He was the chief translator for Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. Harvard apologists said and that excluding him would “ takes us one step closer into the Taliban-like suppression of views that challenge the party line.”

Malalai Joya has received a 1/2 share in the S Korean annual Human rights 2006 Gwangju Prize for human rights.(Pic Hamburg 2002)

Elsewhere in Afghanistan today the U.S. reported airstrikes on a cave complex near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan killed four Taliban militants and destroyed a truck loaded with rockets.