Political awareness campaign for women of Dir, Malakand launched

Islamabad
In a formal function arranged at a local hotel, the Association for Behaviour and Knowledge Transformation (ABKT) launched what Ms Shad Begum, an internationally acclaimed female rights’ activist and the executive director of ABKT, said was the second phase of a specific project aimed at creating awareness amongst women about their political rights.
Ms Shad Begum said that the second phase of this project, titled ‘Jamhori Maidan Programme’ (JMP) is aimed at strengthening the efforts already made for creating political awareness among the female population of KPK. This time the target areas would be Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Malakand, which are believed to be ‘hostile’ towards girls and women who dare to break the traditional and cultural barriers.
And there was a brilliant example, a role model, present in the ceremony in shape of Ms Saira Shams, a special young woman, who belongs to Timergrah in Lower Dir. Saira Shams, evidently a polio victim not only did her masters from the Peshawar University in 2012 but also contested the recently held local body elections in KPK and won to become the woman councillor from Balambat Union Council of Malakand.
Mehreen Afridi, the chairperson of Fata Youth forum spoke at length about the social conditions and the role of women in Fata. She claimed that poverty is one big issue and the whole of Fata is poverty stricken. She claimed that the women in Fata do everything, from domestic chores to tilling in fields, to cattle herding, and what not but lack education.
“It is only because of lack of education that these Fata women cannot use their full potential and claim their rightful place in the society. The women in Fata need to be educated and told about their rights and the role they can play in politics at local level as well as national level,” Mehreen Afridi stressed.
However, she conceded that it would be too long a wait to bring about a change if efforts were launched to educate the young generation and look up to them to be able to achieve the desired results because it would take over a decade to educate them.
“And even to start this effort we would be required to launch a community mobilization campaign, convince the influential players in the society, especially the elders and seek their support for promotion of female education, which again will be a time consuming process,” Mehreen Afridi pointed out.
“But there are educated female with Fata background and they should be taken on-board in decision making as early as possible instead of waiting for the next generation of females to get educated and start struggling to get their rights,” she said. She also demanded setting up a ‘Commission for the Status of Women in Fata’.
Marvi Sirmad, a well-known political analyst and social activist, while speaking on the occasion said that it was crucial that the opportunities and advantages for the youth, particularly the female youth of Fata be guaranteed.
“The female youth of Fata in particular is being deprived of these opportunities. The most worrying point is that our youth is already getting disenfranchised, especially the female youth in Fata and the latest and most noticeable incident was depriving them of their right to cast vote in the recently held local body elections in the KPK,” Marvi Sirmad said.
She said that there were hardly any education facilities for female in Fata. The existing education facilities, specifically for girls are less than 10 per cent, leave alone other basic rights.
“The people in Fata are perpetually living in a war zone for the last three decades. At least one generation of Fata has grown old over these three decades while another two generations have born and have grown to become adults. And one of these two generations born in war-time has already started their downhill journey of life in this war like situation,” Marvi Sirmad added.
“We need to make a commitment to achieve our objectives. And just commitment is not enough. We need action to transform our dreams of commitments into realities. For this the females of Fata have to become part of a political party of their own liking. They have to get closer to the party leadership. Try not to be confined to the ‘women wings’ of these political parties but try to remain in the mainstream politics and contribute their share in political struggle,” Marvi Sirmad said.
She even suggested to form a female political party and make sure to create a ‘Men’s Wing’ to make sure not to leave the men out of the national politics.
Ms Meraj Humyun, a Member of Provincial Assembly from the KPK said that participating in such events is reinvigorating for her that makes her think as to what she had been doing, what she is doing at present and what she is supposed and required to do for the future.
“There may be assertions about political backwardness of female in KPK and Fata. But I assure you that the change is coming over and it has already started showing with my own presence here in this function as well as through the presence of female like Mehreen Afridi, Shad Begum, Shaheen Begum and Saira Shams sitting here and so many of you sitting there in front!” Meraj Humyun said.
“So, we have already succeeded to some extent that we have got reserved seats but that has not been of much benefit because this has made us politically inactive. We sit back and wait for the men to select us. But the situation is not all that bleak and dismal because women are contesting and winning on the general seats and in each election their number on general seats is growing,” she said.
She also took time to highlight as to what caucus is and why it is essential for female politicians and female parliamentarians to establish female caucus in the assemblies.
Also present at the function were Sumaira Ashfaq, the spokesperson for ABKT, Ali Salman, Amjad Hussain and Shaheen Begum.