In post-insurgency Swat, women forced to wear the pants in the family

Many had lost their husbands and fathers to the conflict.

Nisa Bibi, 40, carries a mobile phone on an orange ribbon around her neck in the hope that her sister — Shahina Bibi who recently returned to their native village in Kabal, Swat valley — will call.

Bibi, 35, had lived with Nisa and her family for nearly two and half a years after the war between militants and the Pakistan Army began in 2007 in Swat valley.

Recently, she decided to return home to try and revive the farm that she and her four children now manage after her husband was killed in the insurgency in 2009, reports Irin, the UN information unit.

“I do not see how my sister can work on the farm. Her eldest son is only 12 and cannot help her much,” said Nisa.

According to a study commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the problems faced by women like Shahina in post-conflict Swat have not been documented.

The report by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences says the approach to post-conflict problems in Swat has been narrow, focusing primarily on security issues.

It notes that in many cases due consideration has not been given to the devastating 2010 floods in Swat which aggravated problems for households headed by women.

A limited assessment carried out in 2009 in 10 union councils in Swat by Save the Children found that women headed around 4 per cent of the households surveyed. Swat valley has a population of around 1,257,600 according to official figures.

Many of these women had lost their husbands and fathers to the conflict which has raged over a prolonged period as militants launched offensives in the mid-1990s.

“Many people feel they have received too little help from the government,” said Faisal Khan who works for a local NGO in Mingora. “A significant number of women have been left on their own, post-insurgency, which is unique in the history of Swat.”

“I had to ask my widowed sister-in-law to go back home with her daughters, as my small hotel was washed away in the 2010 floods and I had no means to earn a livelihood. I felt terrible, but there was no choice,” said Azam Khan, who is now trying to rebuild his hotel in Kalam.

“I know I can live with my sister in Peshawar. But it is important for me that my children grow up in their own home and I learn to become independent,” said Shahina.

She gained support from other women and was able to seek help from the village jirga by asking a neighbour to represent her.

In some villages, a group of women represent the concerns of others at the jirga, which are traditionally all-male, according to the Norad study.

Bibi’s husband has been missing for the past two years, and she does not know whether he is alive. “I wait each day in the hope that he will return,” she said share her story from her village near Mingora.

“It is possible he was captured by the army or by militants, though he had nothing to do with the insurgency.” While Bibi was able to send her three small children back to school and earn a living by sewing clothes, she finds it difficult to take vegetables and eggs to the marketplace, which would significantly augment her income.

Other women live with a sense of insecurity lurking over them. “We were very badly treated by the Taliban,”said Yasmeen Bibi, 25, who supports her elderly parents by working at a cosmetics factory.

“They seem to have gone for now, but we do not know when they may return and once again target women, she added. “We would not be able to step out of our homes.”

Yasmeen was forced to give up work for two years, while the Taliban had gained control of the area. “It took a lot of courage to go back to work in 2011, but I had no choice since I have no brothers and my sisters are married.” There is no one else to bring in money to pay for my parents’ medical bills, she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2012.