Video footage of the flogging of a 17-year-old girl by bearded Taliban extremists in volatile Swat Valley, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), has sent shockwaves across Pakistan and highlighted the issue of violence against women.
Like millions of others, Uzma Khan (not her real name), 16, watched the public flogging of the girl in the village of Kala Killay in Swat’s Kabal Tehsil area, and wept. “The screams of that poor girl were just unbearable. She was treated like an animal. Now I want to leave Swat for ever,” Uzma told IRIN on the phone.
The case of the teenager, identified as Chand Bibi, hit the headlines after private TV channels repeatedly played a low quality video of her being held down in a blue `burqa’ and flogged in a street by the Pakistani Taliban.
Protests have been held in all major cities; the president and prime minister have demanded an inquiry.
The story being circulated in the media is that the girl had been spotted with a man unrelated to her. The local Taliban ordered that both Chand Bibi and Adalat Khan, with whom she was spotted, be flogged 30 times for “immoral” behaviour.
“The media is not telling the whole story. The girl alone is being shown. The man with her was also suitably punished,” Muslim Khan, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in Swat, told IRIN, adding that the video footage was nine months old and shot during the government’s military operation against militants in Swat.
“Warning”
“This is not just about flogging. It is a warning of what could be in store for all of us,” prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir told the media in the eastern city of Lahore where she participated - along with hundreds of others - in a protest rally against what happened. “Taliban have to be resisted,” she said.
Ali Dayan Hassan, senior South Asia researcher for the US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, said: “This is just one incidence of the wider violence against women in the country. Particularly under the Taliban, women have faced brutality.”
“This kind of incident should simply not take place under a democratic government,” Sherry Rehman, a former federal minister and member of parliament, said.
Various Taliban atrocities in Swat have surfaced from time to time, and media reports say at least 25 men and two women apart from Chand Bibi have been flogged in public over the past few months, but violence against women is commonplace.
Quoting the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Amnesty International said in a 2002 report that “over 90 percent of married women report being kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused when husbands were dissatisfied by their cooking or cleaning, or when the women had 'failed' to bear a child or had given birth to a girl instead of a boy.”
Meanwhile, the sense of fear is growing. Sumaira Ijaz (not her real name) told IRIN in Peshawar: “We are all afraid this incident could give ideas to extremists in other places... We are already far too afraid to even talk to a male cousin in public because of what could happen. Now perhaps we won’t even chat on email or messaging services because of what the consequences could be.”
Female NGO workers killed
On 6 April three female NGO workers and their driver were shot dead near Mansehra, in a part of the NWFP where Islamists have attacked aid groups, Reuters reported.
They all worked for Rise International, an NGO which works in the education sector in collaboration with the government and with the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The NGO workers had been meeting parents to persuade them to enrol their children, especially daughters, in schools.
“Everyone is just shocked,” Shezad Ahmed, project coordinator of Rise International, told IRIN, adding that Rise had not received “any kind of threat”.
Since the October 2005 earthquake which killed at least 72,000 in the NWFP and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Mansehra has served as a hub for NGOs with many setting up offices there as the town offers easy access to many northern areas.
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Like millions of others, Uzma Khan (not her real name), 16, watched the public flogging of the girl in the village of Kala Killay in Swat’s Kabal Tehsil area, and wept. “The screams of that poor girl were just unbearable. She was treated like an animal. Now I want to leave Swat for ever,” Uzma told IRIN on the phone.
The case of the teenager, identified as Chand Bibi, hit the headlines after private TV channels repeatedly played a low quality video of her being held down in a blue `burqa’ and flogged in a street by the Pakistani Taliban.
Protests have been held in all major cities; the president and prime minister have demanded an inquiry.
The story being circulated in the media is that the girl had been spotted with a man unrelated to her. The local Taliban ordered that both Chand Bibi and Adalat Khan, with whom she was spotted, be flogged 30 times for “immoral” behaviour.
“The media is not telling the whole story. The girl alone is being shown. The man with her was also suitably punished,” Muslim Khan, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in Swat, told IRIN, adding that the video footage was nine months old and shot during the government’s military operation against militants in Swat.
“Warning”
“This is not just about flogging. It is a warning of what could be in store for all of us,” prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir told the media in the eastern city of Lahore where she participated - along with hundreds of others - in a protest rally against what happened. “Taliban have to be resisted,” she said.
Ali Dayan Hassan, senior South Asia researcher for the US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, said: “This is just one incidence of the wider violence against women in the country. Particularly under the Taliban, women have faced brutality.”
“This kind of incident should simply not take place under a democratic government,” Sherry Rehman, a former federal minister and member of parliament, said.
Various Taliban atrocities in Swat have surfaced from time to time, and media reports say at least 25 men and two women apart from Chand Bibi have been flogged in public over the past few months, but violence against women is commonplace.
Quoting the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Amnesty International said in a 2002 report that “over 90 percent of married women report being kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused when husbands were dissatisfied by their cooking or cleaning, or when the women had 'failed' to bear a child or had given birth to a girl instead of a boy.”
Meanwhile, the sense of fear is growing. Sumaira Ijaz (not her real name) told IRIN in Peshawar: “We are all afraid this incident could give ideas to extremists in other places... We are already far too afraid to even talk to a male cousin in public because of what could happen. Now perhaps we won’t even chat on email or messaging services because of what the consequences could be.”
Female NGO workers killed
On 6 April three female NGO workers and their driver were shot dead near Mansehra, in a part of the NWFP where Islamists have attacked aid groups, Reuters reported.
They all worked for Rise International, an NGO which works in the education sector in collaboration with the government and with the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The NGO workers had been meeting parents to persuade them to enrol their children, especially daughters, in schools.
“Everyone is just shocked,” Shezad Ahmed, project coordinator of Rise International, told IRIN, adding that Rise had not received “any kind of threat”.
Since the October 2005 earthquake which killed at least 72,000 in the NWFP and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Mansehra has served as a hub for NGOs with many setting up offices there as the town offers easy access to many northern areas.
kh/at/cb
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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