A tale of loyalty: The tribal woman who defied her family

Refusing to walk out of a commitment, Runaqqa married the man her family said no to.

DI KHAN:

There is no one in South Waziristan who has been part of a gathering and not heard the tale of Runaqqa, a woman who struggled till her last breath to stay true to a marriage arranged and later opposed by her family.

Runnaqa was born to a family of Burki tribe in Kaniguram, South Waziristan. She was only an infant when her family got her engaged to Aman Khan alias Maynal, who was older than her, a former political agent who served in Razmak during the early 2000s tells The Express Tribune.

However, Maynal who belonged to the Mehsud tribe developed physical and mental disabilities as he grew older. Seeing the mismatch Runaqqa and Maynal were becoming for each other and the age gap between them, her family decided to annul the engagement. But by that time, Runaqqa had accepted Maynal as her prospective spouse so she refused to walk out of the commitment.

She married Maynal in Badar, South Waziristan in 1980 and began living away from her native area in a small house made of clay on the mountains in Sinna Tezha.

Although Runaqqa had begun a new life, the ramifications of her rebellion kept haunting her. She always carried a gun with her, lest someone from her tribe found her and punished her for going against her family and the jirga’s decision. The gun would be attached to a belt on her waist even when she stepped out of the house for daily chores. However, her fears came to life when one day her house came under attack and she had to face 17 tribesmen. Being the rebel she was, Runaqqa managed to shoot dead three of her attackers.

She was attacked once again and decided to find a safe haven for herself and her husband. They shifted to Makin, a small town in South Waziristan. But she still felt unsafe and finally decided to leave the agency altogether.

In 2001, the couple moved to Razmak, North Waziristan and began searching for a house. However, this was around the time, the Taliban began settling in the area as well and locals being wary of the potential danger were not welcoming towards newcomers. Nevertheless, Runaqqa managed to find a house for her family in Razmak and later gave birth to two daughters.

However, her hostile neighbours became another group of potential assailants on her list of enemies. According to the former political agent, Runaqqa’s house in Razmak also came under attack by armed men; whether they belonged to her tribe from back home or were locals from North Waziristan remains a mystery.

But this time she didn’t have to fight alone. Mehsud tribesmen who lived between the two agencies got news of the attack on her house, says Anwar Mehsud, a social activist and a journalist who belongs to a sub-clan of Mehsuds. According to Anwar, the tribe rushed to her aid.

However, she got injured in the attack and was taken to District Headquarters Hospital in DI Khan. The brave Runaqqa who had dared to defy her family in the conservative tribal belt breathed her last in the hospital at the young age of 45, bringing her struggle to uphold a commitment to an end.

Ironically, after she married Maynal, she never set foot in her hometown Kaniguram, but her death brought her back.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2015.