PukhtunWomen

It serves the purpose well: add a dose of politics, shift the focus, create confusion and end the case as it begins

By Alefia T. Hussain & Delawar Jan

The grainy two-minute video that captures the flogging of the 17 year old Chaand Bibi, Swati girl, who is said to have received Taliban's wrath for alleged illicit relations, has brought to our homes a glimpse of savagery.

"Please stop it," she moans in pain. "Kill me or stop it now", she repeats in Pushto, at one point swearing on her father that she will not do it again. But the bearded, turbaned man stops only after his job is done - that is, lashing the girl 34 times. On-lookers stand back and watch, as if it's a spectacle.

In the country's major cities, though, the haunting scene filmed with a mobile phone and telecast on tv brought the rights' activists out on the streets on Saturday, April 4, 2009. They unanimously condemned Chaand Bibi's flogging, vowed to counter Talibanisation and urged the government to not surrender to terrorists. The large number of demonstrators and their angst testified that they stand together on this issue - that warped, misinterpretation of Islamisation is absolutely unpalatable, whether in Chaand Bibi's village of Kala Killay village in Kabal tehsil or elsewhere.

Amid this outrage and vehement condemnation of brutality committed on Chaand Bibi, doubts were created about the video's authenticity and the incident's timing. It was condemned as an act to sabotage the peace deal in Swat. Chaand Bibi's denial that she was not flogged made the situation more complex. One wondered if the victim confessed in duress. One also wondered if the incident is deliberately made so complex and murky that the clear picture is never visible. Never be told what the young girl's crime was, who the culprit was, and who deserved to be punished… What was an act of violence became a full-fledged controversy.

So, did the incident actually take place? Reportedly, the Swat Talibans deny the flogging took place at all. They term the video fake and allege that the video is a conspiracy to block the Swat peace agreement signed between the coalition government comprising the secular Awami National Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Maulana Fazlullah-led Islamic militants in February. Commissioner Malakand Syed Muhammad Javed endorses the Taliban claim.

Later, Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan, however, confirmed that flogging took place. His comment that the incident happened before the peace deal in February raised many eyebrows. Supposedly he confused this case with another one that took place on October 20, 2008, in Ser-Taligram village near Manglawar in Charbagh tehsil, in which a woman and her father-in-law were flogged.

Chaand Bibi's statement in which she denied being the girl in the video added yet another twist to the controversy. But that her statement may have been influenced by the domineering Taliban in her area is anyone's guess.

"I witnessed the flogging myself, so there is no reason to doubt its occurrence," says a resident of Kala Kallay. "At that time, about 200 militants and 130 villagers were present to see the flogging of the girl. The flogging was a shocking development for the villagers. They had assembled to watch the screaming girl but everyone was frightened and helpless while the militants were unmoved."

The resident says the lashes were awarded in the village in front of a medical store - Ayub Medical Store - which is near a mosque. He said people in his village, like the rest of Swat, were terrified by the Taliban. Even today when the issue has surfaced in the media, people do not have the courage to speak up.

"My sister started crying when she watched the clip on my mobile," says another resident of Dir. The man, who claims to have witnessed the flogging, does not remember the exact date but claims the incident occurred after the peace agreement. "The government is under an illusion if it thinks the militants have laid down their arms."

The man adds that two separate incidents of women being flogged have taken place in Nusrat Kallay and Dakorak, besides this one.

Locals say a man and his daughter-in-law were given 35 and 25 lashes each in Dakorak for going out of the house together. According to locals, the Taliban don't allow women to go out alone or with relatives other than their husbands, fathers and brothers.

When various spokesmen refute the occurrence of such a crime, or for that matter the timing of it or are hesitant to share facts, they sound nonsensical. We know how Taliban have used violence against women. Their ways are harsh and often horrific. Eyewitness accounts and newspaper reports clearly suggest that flogging has become a standard form of punishment in the region. Senior journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai, writes, "The Taliban in Swat awarded punishment of public flogging about 25 times to men and twice to women during the past two years as they consolidated their control in the valley and established their own courts." And must we be reminded of blasted girl schools, killed NGO female workers, bars on women's mobility …

Officials got some flak from Chief Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iftikhar during an eight-member hearing on April 6. He rebuked government officials, particularly Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa and Interior Secretary Kamal Shah. "Before the video became public, what were you doing, why couldn't you find out what had happened?" he asked Khosa.

At the start of the hearing, Khosa had requested that the hearing be held behind closed doors. But Chaudhry disallowed. Does it mean that the government is ashamed of making facts public? Why else would it ask for a closed doors hearing.

The point is that Chaand Bibi's is a human rights case not political, and must not be allowed to develop as such. Why should a person be subjected to such brutalities in the first place? It's typical of us to politicise the case to dilute the gravity of the crime. It serves the purpose well: add a dose of politics, shift the focus, create confusion and end the case as it begins. The perpetrators of crime sit back, smile and soon after carry on another act, un-relented, only braver each time. We are left with an unsolved case of violence, a mystery, and at best a controversy.