PukhtunWomen

This is the unabridged documentary on the practice of Swara.

Swara is the Pukhtun tradition of giving (and in most cases an unwilling) daughter/female of the clan to the enemy in order to end an old rivalry. It is actually more like blood money/price where a girl is substituted for money. If scrutinized, this barbaric tradition is also against the faith of the people who practice it, since according to Islamic jurisprudence; a girl or a woman cannot be given as a trade agreement. A tribal custom which forces families to give their daughters away in marriage as "compensation" to aggrieved parties is deeply entrenched in local culture and needs to be handled very carefully, according to analysts and rights activists.

The centuries old Pukhtun code of conduct or Pukhtunwali found Swara to be a means to stop bloodshed among rival clans. Traditionally it is thought that the children born to the girls from the rival warring faction belong to both families, thus the feuding will definitely stop in the next generation.