Lunch Discussion--Should Loud Women Be Dismissed?

We had another great lunch time discussion today with all of the staff--about 14 of us sitting around a big dining room table, eating and discussing the issues of the day. It appears that Karim is in charge of provocative topics. Today, he suggested that we debate the suspension of Malalai Joya from the Lower House of the Afghan Parliament.

Here is what one paper reported:
Joya, 28, enraged her colleagues by saying in a television interview that parliament was worse than a stable because in a stable, at least, there are "cows which provide milk and you have got donkeys which can carry loads." Go here for the story and a picture of this up and coming rabble rouser http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070525-025411-6644r

Among the comments made by the staff were:

• She is right--the Parliament is filled with killers and warlords who are doing nothing but lining their own pockets (there was near consensus on this).
• The only thing the Parliament has accomplished is to provide themselves special license plates that give them immunity from traffic offenses, become personally wealthy, and pass a law entitling their extended familes diplomatic passports, so that if the shit hits the fan, or they just get rich enough, the whole family can emigrate.
• She was right, but she was very impolite.
• She is an angry woman.
• She has been an angry woman for a long time.
• The rules say she can be suspended for criticizing the Parliament, and so they just followed the rules.
• There may some irony in the fact that murderers can be in the Parliament, but loud women cannot.
• There are no murderers in Parliament because it has never been proven in court, although everyone agrees that they really are murderers.

I asked for a vote, and the tally was about tied. There were still some wavering votes at the end. All 3 women voted that her supension was unreasonable, though one of the women stated that it was impolite and improper.

Another female staff member asked me later what I thought, and I mentioned that I thought she was elected, and that only her constituents should remove her if she is loud and annoying, but not her colleagues. I also said I thought it was a great quote, and that it made me laugh.