Tribal elders from Azadkhel tribe of Kohistan have voiced intentions to sue Dr Farzana Bari and Afzal Kohistani for allegedly maligning the tribe through a baseless video scandal.
Speaking to the media at a news conference on Friday, tribal elders said human rights activist Dr Farzana Bari and Afzal Kohistani, brother of the boys filmed in the video, had disrespected Kohistani traditions by claiming the women in the video had been murdered by the tribe.
“They have used malicious propaganda to garner more money and attention from international NGOs,” alleged Maulvi Javed, an elder. “The activists have degraded and disrespected the entire Kohistani society.”
In 2012, four women of the Azadkhel tribe were filmed singing and clapping with two boys from the Salekhel tribe. When the video was leaked to the Azadkhel tribe, a jirga comprising 12 elders reportedly condemned the four women and another minor girl along with the two boys to death.
Later, it was reported that the four women and the minor girl were killed on May 30, 2012 in accordance with the jirga’s decree.
However, according to Javed, the women are very much alive and living a normal life in Kohistan. He said a fact-finding mission sent by the Supreme Court has already endorsed this claim and the women were produced in front of the female members of the mission. The apex court disposed of the case after the fact-finding mission’s report was released, he added.
However, Dr Farzana Bari and Afzal Kohistani then filed a petition in Kohistan’s district court to reopen the case. Javed condemned the activists for having “ill designs” and giving a bad name for the tribe.
According to another elder, Molvi Noorul Haq, there was no justification to file a petition after the apex court had already disposed of the case.
Both tribal elders insisted Bari and Kohistani have defamed girls of the tribe and pledged to take legal action and claim damages from them.
Stay order
On Thursday, a division bench of Peshawar High Court stayed further hearings by the sessions court in the case until the writ petition is disposed of.
In February, district and sessions Judge Sardar Muhammad Irshad had asked the district police officer (DPO) to produce the five girls in court if they were alive or to exhume their bodies and present them in court if they had been murdered. When the hearing began, Kohistan police produced a written statement of the parents of all five girls which said they were alive and living in Achar.
Sarfraz, who is the father of one of the women filmed in the video, had filed a joint writ petition with the High Court’s Abbottabad bench in March to bar the sessions court from summoning the women saying it was against Kohistani tribal traditions.
However, National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW)’s counsel Mazhar Akram Awan had termed the Supreme Court’s fact-finding mission report ‘mala fide’ and insisted the girls were murdered in the name of honour. He also accused the parents of producing three similar-looking girls before the mission rather than those who were allegedly murdered.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2014.
COMMENTS (4)
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@oBSERVER: If you had heard words "Development, Progress and Prosperity" then you would have never said that. To achieve these three goals, education and women education in particular is most important but elders of these areas will never let it happen. If you have any other method to develop these areas then please enlighten us.
@ oBSERVER. What difference does it make to the topic at hand whether "welfare persons are always females from a particular class....". What gives you the right to cast aspersions on the character of women working in NGOS or on their own who work or fight for the rights of disadvantaged persons, by insinuating that their lifestye is "totally western that includes drinking and the rest"? You seem to be a misogynt (a person who has a visceral hatred towards all women). Instead of giving cogent and reasonable arguments as to why you do not support Dr Farzana Bari and Afzal Kohistani's past actions and recent petition in trying to prevent similar horrible crimes against young girls from happening again in nsulated areas like Kohistan, you have instead tried to malign their character with baseless insinuation and hints. Besides indicating lack of character, your comment shows you have no worthwhile argument to present, but are merely resorting to an ad-hominem statement (when character assasination of a person is resorted to, when there is no justifiable and convincing reason for one's expressed views). As regards highlighting and fighting for the rights of disadvantaged persons, the women of Pakistan have possessed far more courage and accomplished considerably more than the "men" of Pakistan, whose "manhood" has been seriously wanting in this regard. It is the likes of Malala, Asma Jahangir, Dr. Farzana Bari, Samar Minallah and many others like them, including our devoted and under-paid women health workers, who have fought and spent time in safeguarding and highlighting the rights, health and livelihood of disadvantaged persons while facing serious threats to their lives from bigots and fanatics, who are our real heroes and a blessing to this Country and deserve our highest respect and regard.
Why are these so-called welfare persons always females from a particular class and representing some SHADY NGO. This needs to be investigated at the top level.The lifestyles of these NGO women is totally western that includes drinking and the rest.
I have personally visited the Kohistani belt. I wont comment on the video or the scandle but in general the situation is not much different from what was presented by the media. It is extremely hard for welfare workers to work there who are threatened by the locals and accused of being foreign agents. These people need to be educated, they are literally cut off from the rest of the world and living in their own little world. I hope govt promotes education in that area to free it from ignorance and illiteracy.