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Pakistan is a patriarchal society where almost all fields of life are owned by men whether it is civil services or business.
And country’ northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province too is no exception, where women, even if permitted, opt for a teaching or nursing job. But things have changed over the years, tables have turned and women are seen progressing and rising to leading positions in politics, sports, army, bureaucracy and police. Approximately 600 women are working on various top administrative posts in the province.
The KP has established advanced training schools for the law enforcement agencies where police personnel are given state-of-the-art training to fight the menace of terrorism in the region. The KP was the first to induct females in the bomb disposal unit (BDU).
Recently, in Nowshera Police Training School, 24 commandos including 11 women got bomb disposal training. Among the women, there were three sisters – Pari Gul, Samina and Rukhsana – who are honoured to become Asia’s first BDS Elite Commandos. They did multiple courses like Civil Defence and Investigation, etc, other than BDS basic and advance courses.
Read more: Female commandos, SCU all set to kick off operations in KP
These three sisters were serving as elite commandos for the last five years in a sensitive area of Hangu and have participated in several search operations against the militants.
Why these girls decided to opt for a risky job of commando and how they overcame hurdles in the way – poverty, opposition from relatives and challenges during their training sessions - is an interesting story and a model for others.
Pari Gul
The commando sisters belong to Badin Khel, a small village of District Karak in the KPK. Their father Nooran Shah is a disabled person by birth while their mother is a simple housewife. In all, they are nine sisters and only one brother. Three sisters are married while the remaining sisters and brother are studying.
Speaking of their dark days, the commando sisters mentioned, “We have seen several of issues as our father was a labourer and worked in a coal mine. He worked day and night for providing us with the best of life. He was not only our pride but our inspiration, too. But, since we belonged to a middle class, we had to face deprivations.”
Speaking of their childhood, they continued, “father didn’t have many resources, so we never get to wear new clothes on Eid, in fact the money we used to get as our Eidi, we willingly handed to our father so that he can manage our household necessities.”
Read more: KP's first female elite force trains to fight terrorism
The father encountered immense pressure by the extended family for permitting his daughters to acquire education, elaborating the part, the sisters say, “back in attending school days, women of the family use to tear our books so we may get ourselves back from obtaining school education, if our father would not have supported us, we would have been working from home to home or labour work on fields. These problems were very tough but we are glad they have made us stronger over the time and now we have our head held high. If it was someone else instead of us, they won’t have put efforts due to the severe misfortune but we did not give up and our father endured support through time.”
The father is proud of his tiger daughters. Nooran Shah says: “I had to face much opposition from all my family members in getting my daughters educated. They boycotted and pressurized me but I remained firm on my decision. I never allowed anybody to do any harm to my daughters”.
Pari Gul, who is the eldest one of them, started off telling her journey to the KPK police saying, “I was never focused about studying. Hence, Samina and Rukhsana were more intelligent. I overly took interest in extracurricular activities. Samina and I wanted to be a nurse, while Rukhsana wanted to be a lawyer. But, we pursued our father’s dream and joined police force.”
Upon asking, if they would ever want to switch the field, for which Samina replied, “Never. Even if are offered with other job, we would want to stick to our profession. Our aim is not to earn money but to serve our country. If we have to lay our lives for our country, we will not withhold ourselves.”
Pari Gul and Rukhsana joined police force in 2011, whereas Samina joined in 2009, and all three of them are very satisfied with what they are doing.
Sharing about the problems they faced due to poverty, Pari said she had no money when she was to travel to Central Police Station Peshawar for the selection. ‘Hesitantly, I borrowed Rs500 from my sister but that were only enough for one way journey. Worrying what to do to reach home, I sat on the footpath and started crying. God bless the van driver who dropped me off to my village.’
She said they are religious minded and living a simple life at home. However, Rukhsana, the youngest one, is a bit stylish.
We are the only sisters in our locality who joined police. Since, we broke away from the local traditions, our relatives completely abandoned us on our own but we don’t care anymore, confident Rukhsana said.
The commando sisters went through many hardships in the field. Describing those, Rukhsana said that it was very difficult to become a commando as they had to bear various hurdles including hunger, thirst, summer heat and winter cold waves, etc.
She said: “Anyone becomes an elite commando only after going through the hardest training of seven months. We worked hard and succeeded. All three of us also did BDS training course and we performed the duty of bomb defusing by taking risk of life many times.
Recalling the day when she encountered a terrorist during a search operation in Hangu, Pari said we were on a hunt of militants who were hiding in a house when I saw a veiled women inside, who was actually the militant. When I entered the house, he trained the gun at me but I was quick to overcome him and the police shoot all of them down.
Rukhsana said: “We are not interested in politics nor we intend to enter in this field but Imran Khan is our favourite politician, he is an honest man. In sports, we like cricket and Shahid Afridi is the favourite of mine and Pari Gul, while Samina likes Shoaib Akhtar”.
Translated by Urooj Asif. The story originally published in Jang Sunday Magazine on 23rd April, 2017 here.
