Safeguarding women: In focus: Men who challenge swara

At documentary screening, stories of change agents.

ISLAMABAD:

A tribute was paid to men who challenge patriarchal customs and stand up for their sisters and daughters at a screening of short documentaries at Kuch Khaas on Saturday.

The event was held in connection with the International Women’s Day. “These short documentaries celebrate men who are change agents,” said Samar Minallah Khan, an anthropologist and filmmaker.

Three documentaries showcased on the occasion highlighted stories of men who stood against discriminatory customary practices like swara, vani or sang chatti and the challenges they had to face because of this courageous step.

“It is my life’s mission to do all that I can do to prevent this custom. I have overturned many a jirga decision in favour of Swara, and helped reach a financial settlement. It is my life’s goal to bring this practice to an end,” said Hafeez in a documentary shot in Dir, KP.

It revolves around his four-year-old sister who wants to become a doctor so that she can give free-of- cost medicines to all the girls and boys in her area. When she was being forced in to swara, a term she had never even heard of, their father refused.  Because of his decision he was murdered. Despite death threats, Hafeez filed a case against the perpetrator and saved his sister.

The second documentary highlighted the story of seven-year-old Izzo Bibi from Panu Aqil who became a victim of swara in a decision given by a local jirga.

“When my friends told me I was engaged, I wept and hid in my home. I didn’t want to get married. I wanted to go to school like other girls,” she said in the documentary.

Due to her parents’ persistence, the Sindh Police arrested the jirga members and Izzo is able to pursue her dream to go to school.

The third documentary tells the story of Ali Khan from Mianwali who is shown to suffer from feelings of regret. He handed over to the enemy’s family as compensation. “I had to do or they would have killed me. We were coerced into it by people who were armed,” he said in the documentary. Now he is struggling to save other girls in his area from becoming a victim of swara.

Speaking on the occasion, Humaira Masiuddin said in our society girls remain malnourished throughout their lives and are usually deprived of their share in the family’s resources and assets.

Former state minister Dr Attiya Inayatullah said, “Jirga destroy the lives of girls who pay the price of their male family members’ decisions.”

In Pakistan, unfortunately, pro-women bills are not effectively implemented. Even law enforcement agencies are unaware of all the new pro-women laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2014.