Swat, Women, Terror, Peshawar, Pakistan

Friends, Two months ago the weak government of Pakistan capitulated to the demands of the Taliban! In the Swat valley, which was once a posh ski resort located just 100 miles from the capital, the Pakistan government agreed to allow the Taliban to implement Sharia Law. Two months later terror has free reign. Death and oppression have become the order of the day and as always those who suffer the most are women. Islam holds that women are chattel, there bodies to be “tilled” as men see fit, the Taliban are fully implementing that Islamic command given to them by the pathetic, camel herding, pedophilic depraved human being they call “Al-Insan…AlKami”, ‘the perfect man’! And since he is “Insanoul Kamel” …’an excellent model of human conduct’ all is right with the world in the Swat valley! Regards The Unbeliever LAN ASTASLEM

‫لن استسلم‬ I will not submit: “To Islam!” PESHAWAR: Terrified, locked up at home and courting death if they go out alone, women oppressed by extremists in Swat have nothing to celebrate on International Women’s Day. Nearly 100 years after the annual day was created to mark the struggle for equal rights for half the world’s population, most women in Swat look blank and go silent when asked about gender rights and discrimination. They’re too frightened to speak in public. They can only leave the confines of their homes accompanied by a male relative, their bodies hidden in veils. ‘How can I tell you my name, are you crazy? I was told not to give my name to anyone because the Taliban could hurt me,’ one girl in the ninth grade told AFP by telephone from the former ski resort. The girl’s dreams of becoming a doctor are over. She worries the Taliban will stop her finishing school, regardless of her parents’ support. ‘My mother told me I can do anything, but my inner soul is shattered.’ ‘Tell me if you stop women getting an education where will a sick woman go? Do you want her to go to a male doctor? I was told that education is compulsory for every man and woman in Islam but the Taliban destroyed our schools.’ Militants have destroyed 191 schools in the valley, 122 of them for girls, leaving 62,000 pupils with nowhere to study, local officials say. Huma Batool – not her real name – is a 42-year-old mother of two who dices with death to teach girls at a private school in the region’s main town Mingora. ‘We have to veil ourselves and wear shuttlecock burqas. We are not safe even at home. We fear the Taliban all the time. Life is becoming worse and worse for women in

Swat,’ she told AFP by telephone. Educated and financially self-sufficient, she cannot even pop to the shops without a male relative, leaving her frequently couped up at home for hours, waiting for a suitable escort to become available. ‘You cannot imagine how I manage to get to school, practically every day I think about leaving the job and sitting at home.’ ‘Life bores us to tears. There is no entertainment. We can’t even think about cable TV, cinema, film and music. Imagine I can’t even go shopping or to the bazaar as women are banned by Taliban.’ Salma Javed, 35, is a nurse at a local hospital, where women – however sick – can only be admitted if accompanied by a male relative. ‘Every woman fears she will be killed if she comes out, so even sick and pregnant women have to visit hospital with their husbands.’ Salma would love to leave, but she cannot scrape together the money to set herself up in Peshawar. ‘Now we are waiting to see what will happen after the peace deal, but let me tell you things will not change for women,’ she said. The only light in Shahnaz Kousar’s life is that the Taliban – at least for now – are allowing her to go to school in Mingora. But outside her 10th grade classroom, the daily pleasures of shopping and make-up are gone. ‘We are now totally depending on Taliban. There’s not a single shop left where I can go and buy cosmetics, all shops selling women’s things are either closed or empty.’ ‘I remember when I used to go to this market with my mother and sisters, but now it seems like a dream.’ http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/nw fp/fear-of-death-stalks-women-in-swat-ha Copyright © 2009 - Dawn Media Group