Tabassum Adnan was the target of a murder attempt. Unsubstantiated fatwas were issued against her. She was accused of spreading obscenity and labelled a prostitute. But she did not back away from her goal: forming the first women’s jirga for the Pashtun community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat Valley.
“My fault is that I talk about women’s rights, question their oppression, and raise my voice for them. Whoever takes up this task in a patriarchal society antagonises the whole society,” she says.
Tabassum, 44, hails from Saidu Sharif in Swat and has been voluntarily working for women’s rights for years. She was 14 when her parents married her to a man 20 years her senior. They had four children, but largely due to the age difference, the marriage did not last long. Tabassum then decided to dedicate the rest of her life to women's rights and joined a women’s nongovernmental organisation (NGO) in Swat.
Tabassam with Malala Yousafzai
Council Of Common Interests
Tabassum Adnan recalls the time when the Taliban ruled the valley, and the magnitude of problems faced by women, especially working women. “They could not get out of the house. Their education was banned. But even today, when extremists no longer exist in Swat, women’s problems haven’t reduced, and in fact have remained the same,” she asserts.
Soon Tabassum realised that since the Pashtun society is more traditional and conservative towards women, there is a greater need to work within the community. With this goal in mind, in 2010 she founded her own NGO in Swat Khwendo Jirga (sisters’ council).
According to Tabassum, Khwendo Jirga is the first such organisation, not only in KP but across Pakistan, that is exclusively dedicated to solving the problems of women.
“Jirgas carry immense significance in Pashtun society, but are usually held by men. In these male-dominated jirgas, which don’t have female representation, decisions are taken over women’s lives without even asking them. So we women had to form a jirga, where we not only make our own decisions, but also give the affected women a chance to be a part of the consultation,” she says.
Khwendo Jirga covers all issues related to women, who are provided all kinds of legal aid without any discrimination. After forming Khwendo Jirga, Tabassum realised how difficult it is to raise the voice for women’s rights in a patriarchal society.
“In 2017, my house was targeted by gunfire. In response, my bodyguards also opened fire. However, the attackers fled. By the grace of Allah Almighty, I survived,” she recalls, adding that she didn’t know who the perpetrators were.
“They might have been extremists. But we have also made enemies owing to the legal assistance that we’ve been providing women, especially in cases where the victims were murdered and the culprits were punished. When a man is punished owing to a woman, it is considered a matter of honour, in which case the perpetrators lose their minds.”
Tabassum Adnan has received many national and international honours for speaking up for women in a war-torn region like Swat. Among her 15 awards, the most notable are the International Women of Courage Award given by the US State Department and the Nelson Mandela Award.
“People have been making all sorts of accusations against me: ‘she is spoiling our women’, ‘she is a prostitute’, ‘she should be beheaded’. When a mufti in Lahore issued a fatwa against me, it made my whole family extremely anxious. I kept comforting them not to worry, saying ‘they want to suppress my voice, but they will never succeed in their goal,’” she says.
Thousands of men went missing or were killed during the Swat operation. Their wives and children are still struggling for sustenance, years later. Dozens of such women, whose husbands were involved in the Taliban movement, go to Tabassum. These women are facing immense difficulties and have no support system. Many of them are young, and those who have children find no school in Swat willing to admit them.
“When I spoke for the admission of a few such children in Mingora, the school authorities refused, saying ‘we do not admit the children of the dishonoured’. I even asked them that even if their father was actually guilty, what is the fault of the children,” recalls Tabassum.
Radio Check
When the extremist movement began in Swat in 2004-05, Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah used an FM radio channel to preach and propagate his ideology. Initially he banked on exaggeration, especially regarding the rights of women, which soon made him popular among women in Swat. Then came a time when Fazlullah’s speeches became so popular that women would leave their housework and sit in front of the radio, listening to him for hours.
Swat’s Imam Dheri area used to be Mullah Fazlullah’s hub. A massive religious seminary was built there by Fazlullah at the time. Most of the funding for the madrassa came from the locals’ donations, for which FM radio was also effectively used. A large amount was donated by Swat’s women for the construction of the madrassa, with many even donating their jewellery.
Swat’s Imam Dheri area used to be Mullah Fazlullah’s hub. A massive religious seminary was built there by Fazlullah at the time. Most of the funding for the madrassa came from the locals’ donations, for which FM radio was also effectively used. A large amount was donated by Swat’s women for the construction of the madrassa, with many even donating their jewellery.
However, in 2009, when militants took over most of Swat, women were the first to be targeted. In addition to being barred from going out, women were even publically flogged, causing widespread fear in the valley. In those days women, especially teachers and NGO workers, were the primary victims of the Taliban. During the militancy in Swat, around 500 educational institutions were targeted in Taliban attacks, most of which were girls’ schools.
Huma Shakir heads PAKWIN (Pakistan Women Integration Network), a women’s NGO in Swat. In addition to working in the development sector, she is also an educator. Huma, along with her sister, founded PAKWIN in 1998 in Swat’s Bahrain town. The organisation's main goal was to empower women and enable them to play an active role in society. In this regard, the organisation set up an educational institution in an underprivileged area. The first women's computer centre in Bahrain was also established through PAKWIN’s efforts. At the same time, several vocational centers were set up for women, where hundreds of girls were taught embroidery and other skills enabling them to start a profession.
According to Huma Shakir, when extremism spread in Swat, just as women could no longer step outside their homes, her NGO’s centers in Bahrain also had to be closed.
“We lived in the Upper Swat region, and were cut off from other parts of the valley. We could not leave the place because we were surrounded on all sides,” she narrates, describing the horrors faced at the time.
Huma’s brother was taken away by the Taliban, after he engaged in a verbal brawl with them. He was released after protests from the community, especially schoolgirls.
“It’s still scary to describe the hardships we endured. We ran out of food. We used to boil rice in water for several days and survive on it.”
Huma Shakir has remained associated with the Red Crescent since the fall of the Taliban in Swat and worked on the stories of children affected by the war.
“We have worked on cases of many children whose fathers were killed during the war or are still missing. Our research has uncovered hundreds of traumatic events,” she reveals.
“We now know of the families of the militants that died during the Swat tensions, whose young wives have been left abandoned and their children orphaned. Such families have no one to turn to. All of them are living in dire straits.”
“We now know of the families of the militants that died during the Swat tensions, whose young wives have been left abandoned and their children orphaned. Such families have no one to turn to. All of them are living in dire straits.”
One noteworthy case is that of a textbook prosperous family, living in a luxurious bungalow with happy and healthy children. The head of the household joined the Taliban and was killed in an operation. His house was destroyed in an explosive attack. The orphans and the widow are now striving to survive. The daughters managed to study till matriculation and, after much struggle, found employment in a local school, which is now the source of the entire family’s livelihood.
“This is not the story of one family, but that of dozens or perhaps hundreds of families who have no one to turn to and are living a life of abandonment,” Huma Shakir says.
Alien Invasion
By 2009, militants had seized most of Swat Valley. This was a time when the extremists issued new orders from their FM radio channel every day. In January of that year, the Taliban announced a ban on girls going to school in Swat. Speaking on the radio, Amir Shah Durrani, the Taliban's deputy in Swat, said that no girl would go to school from January 15 and that anyone who violated the verdict would be responsible for the consequences. He warned that whoever opened the school would be inviting bombs. With this announcement, great fear and panic spread among parents.
This was the time when 13-year-old Malala Yousafzai spoke out for girls’ education for the first time and started writing diaries for BBC Urdu service under the pseudonym Gul Makai. She would write a diary every week or two, mostly about Taliban atrocities and the plight of girls and teachers, especially in the realm of education. After a while, Malala's blogs gained popularity all over the world and took her to the heights of fame.
By that time 15 to 20 percent of the financially well-off people from the valley had already moved to safer places due to fear and uncertainty.
According to various reports, the total population of Swat in 2008-09 was 1.7 million, of which about 100,000 girls were studying in government schools. However, when the wave of terrorism arrived and the Taliban began to inflict atrocities on the people, thousands of girls left Swat and either moved to safer areas or stopped going to school altogether, leaving thousands of girls deprived of education.
When the ban on girls’ education was announced, there were about 40,000 girls studying in educational institutions across Swat.
Mussarat Ahmadzeb is an active female political leader in Swat and a daughter-in-law of the royal family. She was elected to the National Assembly on a reserved seat for women on a Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket in 2013. However, due to differences with the party, she left the PTI in 2018 and joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Mussarat Amirzeb. Photo: Rifatullah Orkzai
When the situation in Swat deteriorated, Mussarat was living in Islamabad. She realised the Swati people desperately needed her in this difficult time.
“I asked myself, if I don’t help then now, then when? So I returned to Swat without worrying about the consequences,” she says.
Mussarat Ahmadzeb’s own nephew Asfandyar Amir Zeb was killed in a 2007 Taliban bombing. He was affiliated with the PML-N and was elected a member of the provincial assembly from Swat.
Even in those turbulent times, Mussarat set up five help centres to facilitate women in becoming independent, without any financial support from any organisation. Women from all walks of life are trained in these centres, many of whom started their own businesses after receiving training from the centres which provided employment to many families.
Mussarat Ahmadzeb maintains Swat has always been a progressive region. “Here women had complete freedom of education. There was no undue restriction on them. People were financially prosperous,” she says.
“However, Talibanisation devoured our entire society like termites. The progress that was made was reversed. Backwardness besieged the area. It caused irreparable damage to our culture, way of life, dress and manners,” she adds, reiterating she still does not know how Talibanisation came to Swat, since the locals weren’t extremists and did not adhere to radical ideologies.
“Extremism came from the outside,” Mussarat claims.
Broken Peace
There are various organisations working for women’s rights and welfare in Swat, but when the influence of extremists increased in the area, almost all of them became inactive. Most of them either moved to bigger cities to continue their activities, or shut down all their operations altogether. However, there were some NGOs that continued to operate covertly even during the insurgency.
Such organisations include the Women's Welfare & Development Organisation (WWDO), which has been educating widows and orphans in the valley and teaching handicrafts to help them sustain themselves.
WWDO Head Gul-e-Khandana also recalls how women suffered the most during the Swat turbulence, owing to various bans, and perpetuation of violence against them. In addition to bans on female education and flogging, the Taliban had issued a decree that any woman who leaves the house without a man will become the wife of the man who finds her.
Gul says even though she has continued to face threats for her work, and still does, nothing has changed.
“Sometimes threats are received on the telephone and sometimes threatening letters come via post. There is peace in Swat only in name. Is it peace if you feel insecure when you go out of the house? What kind of peace is this? Did the locals sacrifice so much for this peace?” she asks.
The WWDO head reiterates that many locals have been against NGOs from the onset. “What to say about others, my own brothers disapprove of NGOs. I don't know what is there in their minds that makes them look at welfare work with suspicion,” she says.
According to Gul-e-Khandana, in this patriarchal society, even if a woman performs what are universally considered good deeds, but simultaneously fights for women’s rights, the men would not approve of her. “What exactly is evil in welfare work that continues to be opposed?” she asks.
According to Gul-e-Khandana, in this patriarchal society, even if a woman performs what are universally considered good deeds, but simultaneously fights for women’s rights, the men would not approve of her. “What exactly is evil in welfare work that continues to be opposed?” she asks.
During operations in Swat, Gul-e-Khandana’s house was struck by mortar shells, injuring her sister-in-law and children. At that time, the injured could not be taken to hospital due to the ongoing operation. One of her nephews lost a hand.
“There are hundreds of stories in which the people of Swat faced immense hardships. They even offered their lives, sacrificed their wealth, but unfortunately they did not get what they deserved,” Gul maintains.
