Girls in Pakistan Escape Taliban for a Short While

A group of girls from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, who often have to hide their textbooks in their shawls and refrain from wearing their school uniforms, are spending 10 days in the country's capital Islamabad, free from the specter of the Taliban.

Despite claims from the authorities in Pakistan that they have driven most of the Taliban fighters out of the Swat Valley, a region within the North-West Frontier Province, the relative freedom the population enjoyed before militants gained control of much of the area last December has reportedly not returned. With the Taliban imposing its own particularly harsh version of Sharia law in the Swat, at one stage the authorities even consented to the Taliban taking control in one part of the region in return for the militants declaring a ceasefire, the female population found its movements and activities severely restricted. Many girls were banned from attending schools and, in spite of the Taliban's influence being greatly reduced, apparently many are still not receiving an education. It might be because their schools have been bombed or it might be because the books that they need in order to learn have been burnt by those who believe that a woman neither needs or is entitled to an education. But now a group of students whose families have their origins in Pakistan have come together to run a program which allows, in the first instance, groups of girls to spend time away from the Swat in the much safer environment of Islamabad. There the girls, and a similar project for boys is planned, can talk about their hopes and dreams, build their confidence and take part in activities that might be frowned upon, or simply be banned, back in the areas where they live. The program, named Shajar-e-llm, or Tree of Knowledge, is very careful to ensure that the girls' Islamic culture is at the forefront of everything they do or learn and it is designed to run for a total of ten days. Shiza Shahid, aged 20 and a student at Stanford University in California, is one of the students running the program, described by CNN as "well-intentioned" but seemingly "disorganized" at times, and she spoke of the reasons why the program was launched and what obstacles it had encountered. Ms Shahid said:

I think we were so angry, upset and emotional that we decided we have to do something. We need support. We need unfortunately more organization, more of the bureaucratic nitty-gritty that you don't want to do, but you have to. We are young, and that does come with the burden as not being equally trusted or seen as capable

There are 26 girls between the ages of 11 and 14 in the first group to attend the program and as they talked about their ambitions for the future one 12-year-old girl, Malila, announced that she wanted to be the president of her country. Still, the CNN report observed, knowledge of the restricted lives they would lead once they returned home seemed to be a constant presence in the girls' minds. When the Pakistani authorities ordered the military in to the Swat during the spring to confront the Taliban, they faced pressure to do so from an international community concerned that once established in the region the militants would look to seize control of adjoining areas, large sections of the population fled the fighting. And whilst many of the estimated 375,000 who left have now gone back to their homes, their original exodus started a much greater displacement of people in Pakistan as a whole, there still appears to be a great deal of uncertainty and instability. Nevertheless if a program such as Shajar-e-llm can inspire those who take part in it to pursue their education then in time they may be able to lead the Swat Valley and areas like it to a brighter future. Madihah Akhter, one of the volunteers at the program, may have been thinking along those lines herself, and indulging in a little cautious optimism, when she said:

There were tears and there were tough moments. But the girls surprised me. They were really resilient. They were beyond their years