Malalai Joya is interviewed by a journalist in her office in Farah province, August 2005, ahead of the 18 September 2005 election in which she won a seat in the country's new parliament. Only 25 years old and little known outside her home district in the far west of the country, Joya caused an uproar when she stood up to powerful warlords responsible for years of brutal civil war and told them what no one else dared: that they deserved punishment.