PukhtunWomen

Everyone has the desire to help their fellow human beings but few have had the driving force of Samar Minallah. She has dedicated her life to representing the most unrepresented people, and 2006 has been a busy and productive year for her. Facing death threats, she bravely continues championing the cause she belives in.

Samar has been given the honor of representing NWFP as one of five Board Members of PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority). These positions are appointed by the President of Pakistan.

This summer Samar was invited to Vienna by OSCE to screen her film Dar Pa Dar at Hofburg for UNHCR and other organizations that work with Afghan refugees. ‘Dar Pa Dar’ is Samar’s effort to take the voices of Afghan women and children (who are the victims of collateral damage of post 9-11 bombings in Afghanistan) to reach those high ups where policies are made.

Swara - The Human Shield

In 2005, in the village of Kas Koroona NWFP, Rubina Bibi (17) was found dead in the small dirt barn where her in laws forced her to live. She died under mysterious circumstances after eating a meal.
In June 2006 Gumbat Banda a newly wed Tayyaba (20) died under mysterious circumstances after enduring torture at the hand of her inlaws who the poisoned her.

In February 2006, Zarmina Bibi (19), got married and two months laters she was dead at the hands of her brother in law. Though the family claims that she accidently shot her self when she was cleaning the gun.

Diiferent villages, different ages, all three young women had a lot in common, they died very young, they died under mysterious circumstances, they all died in their in laws house, but they also had one more thing in common that ties all three together, all three were given in marriage to hostile families as compensation for a relative's crime in a practise called "swara"

Swara has been around for centuries and their fate was nothing more than humiliation and misery, but killing the unfortunate girls is something relatively new and the shifting trend has come to notice since 1998.

Samar who has been studying the custom since 2002, produced a documentary, 'A Bridge Over Troubled Waters' in 2003. Now she takes her research a step forward with her new project, 'Swara – The Human Shield'. It is a qualitative and a quantitative study on the custom of swara. the research was conducted in Mardan and Swabi. During her research she has met 60 swara women in the districts of Mardan and Swabi alone. 20 of these women had been swara for many years, but the rest were as recent and most were handed over in 2006.

Samar is the lead researcher and project coordinator but her team also consists of religious and legal experts, Dr Sherzam Taizi and many others have also contributed to it.
Swara- The Human Sheild is a 160 page published study and will be available for download from the newly launched Ethnomedia website.

The results are to be disseminated to various government and non government organizations. The aim is to gauge the prevalence of this custom. Nearly, 60 new cases were recorded during the three to four month research since it was launched at Peshawar Press Club Peshawar in November, 2006. The study will be launched in Islamabad in January 2007.

Samar recently finished another documentary called “'Bole'----Shades of Opinion”
The documentary brings forward different shades of opinion regarding Peace and Security in Pakistan. The aim of the documentary is to highlight the issue that basic human security is more important than border security. Experts like Professor Hoodbuoy, Abida Hussain, Kishwar Naheed, Rahimullah Yusufzai, senators from Baluchistan and NWFP, were interviewed for the documentary.

This is a 20 minute documentary that was launched in November at the Human Rights Commission Auditorium in Lahore for an audience of more than 250. It is to be screened in Islamabad as well.

Samar is in the process of producing yet another documentary, this one is on HIV/AIDS with special emphasis on Pukhtun migrant laborers or deportees from the Gulf. An alarming rate of HIV/AIDS is being detected in the tribal areas of NWFP. Through the documentary she aims to spread awareness and break certain myths related to HIV/AIDS. She recently returned from Kohat where she finished interviewing a person living with HIV. His wife and daughter to whom the infection had been passed on had developed AIDS and died from the disease in 2001.