Pakistan: Benhårde realiteter for piger, hvor Taliban har magten

PESHAWAR, 11 January 2012 (IRIN): In Bajaur Agency, one of seven tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan, very few girls go to school due to threats by the Taliban.

– When I hired a tutor (hjemmelærer) so my two older daughters could keep up their learning at home, I began receiving threats, explained Salim Jan from Khar, the agency’s main town. He is in a quandary about whether to leave.

– The militants are still here despite the military’s claims of victory in 2010, he said.

According to the autonomous Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), many girls in 2009-10 were forced to join seminaries due to fear of the Taliban.

“Not a single girl got admission to ninth class in Bajaur, FR (the Frontier Region) Kohat and FR Lakki Marwat during 2009-10 due to Taliban threats, and no girls went to college in Bajaur, FR Lakki Marwat or FR Peshawar either”, said the HRCP said in a September report.

Opposition by the Taliban to girls` education, propaganda against it through illegal FM radio channels, threats and the declaring of girls` education a “vulgarity” and un-Islamic, were preventing parents from sending their daughters to schools, it added.

Zuleikha Bibi* told IRIN from her village near the town of Wana that she had heard of women being mutilated (skamfere/lemlæste/mishandle) by militants, for “offences” such as venturing (færdes) outdoors without a male escort.

– Those who live outside the tribal areas cannot imagine what fear we women live in, she said, adding:

– Here, in South Waziristan, there have been cases of Taliban bursting into homes to `check’ on women’s morality. My teenage cousin had her hair chopped (skåret) off because her head was not properly covered, just a few months back.

Living in terror