Will this week be Yale’s reality check? From Fund:

Malalai Joya, a 27-year-old member of Afghanistan’s parliament, is coming to Yale this Thursday to speak about women’s rights and the growing power of both the Northern Alliance warlords and the Taliban in her country. She is harshly critical of President Hamid Karzai’s government, which she says is infiltrated by warlords, and of the U.S. for supporting it. But she is also appalled that many people have forgotten the crimes of the Taliban. She was surprised to hear that Mr. Rahmatullah was attending Yale. “He should apologize to my people and expose what he and others did under the Taliban,” she told me. “He knew very well what criminal acts they committed; he was not too young to know. He should give interviews so we know what he thinks now. It would be better if he faced a court of justice than be a student at Yale University.” Somehow I doubt Mr. Rahmatullah will be attending her lecture on Thursday.
Here’s hoping that Ms. Joya’s visit to Yale will touch off a full-fledged debate about the Taliban propagandist. At the same time it might be useful for Yalies to discuss how his case is both different from and similar to those of Vladimir Sokolov and Paul de Man, the Nazi propagandists in Yale’s past.