Chapter 1 - Contextualisation of the Pukhtunkhwa Society: Women and Education Perspectives

Summary

The inhabitants of Pukhtunkhwa, the Pukhtuns/Pashtuns, also called ‘Afghans’ and ‘Pathans’ by Western historians (Caroe, 1957) are traditionalist people, who follow their centuries-old customs and traditions. They are famous for refusing to be dominated by foreign powers. This might be one of the reasons why the British imperialists intervened very little in Pukhtunkhwa and kept it as ‘a land without law’ till 1901 (Rittenberg, 1988). However, in 1932 the province was given a status equal to the other provinces of British India. The Pukhtuns were divided first by the Durand Line (an international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan).

The British acknowledged the importance of the territory, as whoever held this strategic area could easily challenge British imperial authority (Kureshy, 1991). Therefore, they implemented a policy of ‘divide and rule’ that allowed them to have more control over the freedom-loving Pukhtuns. Furthermore, to strengthen their hold over the area, the Pukhtuns were divided into ‘Settled Districts,’ ‘Tribal Areas’ and ‘Princely States’.

According to Johnson and Mason (2008: 53),

Pukhtuns are born as rebels and that they never compromise with any kind of hegemony, supremacy, slavery or subjugation. Interestingly, one aspect of male hegemony in the area is the increasing subjugation of Pukhtun women. The British unleashed anti-Pukhtun propaganda and conducted a character assassination, dubbing them as barbarous, hostile, mischievous, ill-mannered and wily people.

The British wanted to suppress the freedom-loving Pukhtuns, and therefore they launched this rigorous campaign and deliberately kept them uneducated. They intended to move forward towards Russia without the Pukhtun belt disrupting them, and they wanted to justify to the rest of the world that their policy of humiliating innocent Pukhtuns was within their ‘divine right’ ( Johnson and Mason (2008); for more details, see Rome, 2008).

For many centuries, Pukhtunkhwa has been a place of conflict; the Pukhtun fought many battles against invaders who approached the country through the Khyber Pass. Women were involved in these wars, and it appears that women suffered the most as a result of the wars. This is due to the norm that a family's honour is linked with the chastity of the women of that family. As a consequence of this norm, Pukhtuns were and are overprotective towards their women.