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Protect daughters

I just want to share with the readers an event or incident that occurred with me while I was coming from Islamabad. A lady dressed up in an ubaya holding a six month old baby girl approached us. She could not understand even a single word of Urdu or any other language apart from Khowar/Chitrali. Her husband had left her at the airport and went back to his home a few Km from Islamabad in a village. After a cancellation of flight, we came outside to find that her husband was nowhere to be seen, on inquiring from the women about him as we being Chitrali could not have left her there alone. She even did not know his name instead had a chit on which a few telephone numbers were written, so we started dialing the numbers and luckily found her husband at one of the numbers. So he was called and asked to come to the airport to pick his wife , on which he showed up after two hours, so we stayed with her all that time at the airport.

This lady was married to a widower in village in the suburb of Islamabad thrice her age with grown up children. This woman was lucky that the man allows her to come to her home and visit her family in Chitral.

Social environment and structure of the society keeps on changing everyday and so has the attitude of the society and family changed towards girls. However, the change of attitude of the majority of the society has not been positive. Neglect of daughters is considered to a preconceived notion. The destiny of girls is fixed right from the day they are born. There are very few daughters who enjoy the support of the family and are able to grow on their own and make a position for themselves in the society and are able to contribute to the society significantly-becoming personalities whom the family and nation can be proud of. Alas, such opportunities should have been were available to all the girls!

An unknown trafficker as I want to call him comes to the area posing as a suitable bridegroom who is looking for a suitable bride. With the help of a local broker, he hunts for his prey. The parents are only too happy and relieved to hand their daughters. The parents are happy to let rid off their burden. The parents do not even bother to find out with whom they are agreeing to marry off their daughter or where she will go after marriage. As a result thousands of girls are taken away in the name of marriage and some are traceless. The society and the parents do not feel the need to find out where they have gone. Due to lack of concern displayed by the society or any adequate opposition, the traffickers are having a field day in the region and have managed to pick victims at their will.

It is pertinent to ask who is responsible for this plight of the daughters. There can be only one answer-all of us. We cannot escape taking responsibility for this.

Our society is passing through an epidemic phase, old traditions are dying. While age old values are becoming dying, new values and constructive traditions are yet to formulize. This has led to fast growth of social abnormalities.
Our aim is to make the parents and the society believe that daughters are not burdens but are assets for the family and society provided they are given opportunities and proper grooming. All this may sound like tall claims or even hollow slogans or day dreaming given our limited sources. But we believe that every section of the society has got a role to play. We expect everybody-politicians, administrators, media persons, social reformers, police, judiciary and every other section of the society to contribute to this cause and change the fate of the daughters.


Falak Naz Taj
Chitral.