This chapter contains my semi-structured interviews’ content and themes analysis. This qualitative research approach involved seven in-depth semi-structured interviews (life stories) of (one each) women from seven tehsils (sub-districts) of the District Swat because my main objective was to carry forward the actual terrifying painful voices of the Pukhtun women in terror and displacement. Due to the sensitivity of the research topic, most of the Swat inhabitants till date are not comfortable conversing about the Taliban and armed conflict. I reassured my sample women that the content of the research exercise would be confidential, and their identity would not be revealed. Therefore, I gave fake names to my sample women to identify them throughout the research process. For the sample women, I randomly selected students from the University of Swat because they were students of secondary and higher secondary education at the time of conflict. All the interviews took place in the university premises; however, they were in touch till the end of postdoctoral studies completion. Thus, the study scrutinises the actual role of women in peace, terror and displacement during 2007–11.

I classified my sample women's experiences into three broad sections: pre-conflict, during the conflict and post-conflict, which are further classified as follows:

• • Education under Peace, Patriarchy and Pukhtunwali

• • Education under Armed Conflict

• • Education under Displacement

• • Education under Burnt Ashes

It is worthwhile to mention here that a comprehensive Appendix of my seven sample women's biographies is added in this book to understand women's own sentiments and voices. The contents and themes analysis evolve around gender dynamic roles, patriarchy and educational provisions under armed conflict. Terror in the valley brought two behavioural stances in my sample women; complete isolation from education and an act of challenging radical courage, ‘I must continue my education by any means’ (Kashmala) by putting life in a dangerous situation.

Education under Peace, Patriarchy and Pukhtunwali

As mentioned earlier the princely Swat state (1917–69) was founded on a modern social structure. The wali (ruler) introduced multiple customary and Islamic laws to maintain peace among the native Pukhtun tribes (Rome, 2008) and developed communication, education and health institutions for boys and girls.

Swat, ‘the Switzerland of the East’, connotes a remarkable geo-strategic location that adjoins South Asia, Central Asia and East Asia (China). The historical context traces back to 327 BCE, when the present-day Udigram (Ora) and Barikot (Bazira) were captured by Alexander (of Macedonia) (Rome, 2008). However, there is a negative account of the social status of women in the archaeological evidence of Buddhist remains in Swat, because his-story (history) followed the androcentric theories (women invisibility) to the negligence of women for their biological differences and allocation of duties that are predominantly patriarchal in nature. The concept of goddess in the Buddhist civilisation gradually declined, and women's status was followed eventually by the decline of goddesses and the rise to the supremacy of gods (Khan, 2014).

The Buddhist relics in Swat reveal the esteemed position of women in the region in ancient times. Archaeologists have suggested that the culture and society of Udyana and Suvastu (ancient names of Swat) were predominantly women-centred, as highlighted by the presence of mother-goddess figures in the Swat Museum. Buddhist artefacts testify to a gradual influence on surrounding civilisations, such as Gandhara. The excavated jewellery from the ancient sites of Udigram reflects women's wealth and chic lifestyle. However, the rule of the Hindu Shahis after the made women invisible in historical accounts until the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazna (AD 1000).

The Yusufzai Afghans occupied the land in the sixteenth century CE. However, they did not form a government but followed the centuries-old Pukhtu (honour) or Pukhtunwali. Their lifestyle remained tribal, divided into two blocks (dalah). After the Punjab occupation (1849) by the British, Sayyad Akbar Shah of Sitana was nominated as a king (1849–57). He was succeeded by his son, but he could not sustain his position for long, and hence the Swat state came to an end. In the course of time, the Khan of Dir occupied the right bank of Swat Valley. However, rebellion against his rule took place and a local jirgah (council) opted for Abdul Jabbar Shah (as king) in April 1915 with which Swat state again came into being, but he was removed by the same jirgah from his position after a short period of two years in 1917.

Nawal (Jinnah College)

Nawal was 18 years old. She was studying for her BSc (two years) at Jinnah College for Women. Her father was a doctor (general practitioner) while her mother was a housewife. She was living with her parents and grandparents. She has three brothers and two sisters. They resided in a luxurious bungalow in the University Town, one of the posh areas of Peshawar city. It is located opposite side of the University of Peshawar. Her family was Pukhtun, therefore Pukhtu was her mother tongue, but she was very fluent in English and Urdu languages as well. Apparently, they were liberal Pukhtun Muslims. She wore a loose shawl (three-quarters) like her mum to go out of her house. Most of her uncles and aunties were living in the same street as her house.

Gulalai (Home Economics College)

The word ‘Gulalai’ means pretty like a flower. She was 19 years old and beautiful like her name. She was studying her BSc (two years) Home Economics in Home Management. Her father was a professor at the University of Peshawar. As mentioned earlier, the College of Home Economics is located within the premises of the University of Peshawar campus. They were living in the Professor Colony, a private residential area which was reserved only for the University of Peshawar professors. Gulalai was the only sister of three brothers. She belonged to a Pukhtu-speaking Pukhtun family, but her fluency was not limited to her mother tongue only; she was fluent in her second languages Urdu and English too. She was a Practising Muslimah of cultured Islam. Her family women were mostly educated but had limited Islamic knowledge.

Aiman (Frontier College)

Aiman was a slim and smart 18-year-old girl. She was a student of BA at Frontier College for Women. Her father was a shopkeeper and her mother was a housewife. Her mother was a famous tailor in her area. Therefore, lots of women gathered in her house to collect and drop their clothes for stitching. It is also an extra source of income for her family.

Gender comes from the French word ‘genre’. This, in turn, came from the Latin word ‘genus’. Both words mean ‘kind’, ‘type’ or ‘sort’. Sometimes the word ‘sex’ is used as an alternative to ‘gender’ in society, but feminist theory uses ‘sex’ to refer to our biological characteristics and ‘gender’ to our social roles. Thomas (1990: 17) argues that by the 1970s, radical feminists had begun using the word ‘gender’ to describe their theory of human nature, ‘because the term sex no longer sufficiently described the sociological aspect of gender and power relationships’.

By the end of the decade, there was an agreement among the radical feminists regarding their theory that

Furthermore, gender is the result of socially constructed ideas about the behaviour, actions and roles of a particular sex. The beliefs, values and attitudes adopted and exhibited by them are in line with the agreeable norms of society (Sandy, 1980: 347). Increasingly, scholars (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1997) have recognised that men and women do not need to submissively adopt their sex-associated gender characteristics because men and women are socialised due to social reproduction. In other words, under this non-essentialist view, gender is culturally constructed rather than being a biological or innate quality (Peach, 2000).

Bornstein (1994: 51–2) suggests that ‘gender can have ambiguity and fluidity’. She also suggests that society plays a vital role in assigning gender-specific roles and characteristics. ‘Gender indistinctness’ means that an individual has the freedom of choice to construct their own personality without being obligated to take up the characteristics traditionally assigned to their birth gender. While ‘gender fluidity’ is used to describe someone who does not accept the rigidly defined genders ‘male’ and ‘female’ and believes in the freedom to choose any kind of gender with no rules, no defined boundaries and no requirement to fulfil any expectations associated with any gender (Bornstein, 1994: 51–2). This idea is very foreign to the traditional society of Pukhtunkhwa, where both males and females have rigidly defined gender roles that limit their opportunities and expectations in social life.

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),

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.

This book is based on my two research studies conducted in my native province, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (hereafter Pukhtunkhwa), Pakistan. Both studies deal with women's struggle for empowerment and emancipation in the field of education in traditionalist Pukhtun society. The studies found that, given the prevailing patriarchal culture, Pukhtun women consider education a means of women's liberation and a tool of women empowerment. Higher education affords Pukhtun women a unique position in a male-dominated society. While higher education is accessible only to those who belong to the elite and upper socio-economic strata, women also face problems due to the particularly traditional mindset of the Pukhtuns. In the province, culture dominates the people's decision-making rather than the original teachings of Islam. A dominant argument in this book is that the strong roots of patriarchy reinforced religious misinterpretation that ‘culturalised’ Islam instead of Islamising the culture.

In Pukhtunkhwa, co-education and the institution of purdah (veiling and segregation) are defined in cultural terms despite being couched in religious terminology. This has further marginalised women's access to higher education. Both studies found that the patriarchal culture present in the region not only serves as a barrier preventing women from accessing higher education but also has provided a fertile ground for the Taliban's efforts to completely ban women's education in Swat Valley in the name of their extremist version of Islam. However, the Taliban's plans in the education sector have failed to fully materialise. The book argues that patriarchy and militarisation have been used as tools of cultural governance of identity and maintenance of gender stratification (Sjoberg et al., 2010). Thus, the main argument in the first story evolved around gender dynamics and women's epistemology under liberal, radical Marxist/socialist and Islamic feminism; and structured-functionalism/functionalism and feminist peace and conflict theories of women security in the second one. All these feminist approaches are concerned with unequal opportunities in higher education that challenge the propagation of male experience and knowledge. For instance, Marxists/socialists struggled for equal power relations for both genders in the Pukhtun society. At the same time, my studies rejected the liberal feminists’ stance to remove inequality by political, social and economic movement under the state law because law cannot bring equality in Pakistan in general and in the Pukhtun society in particular.

As mentioned earlier, this chapter is constructed according to the emerging themes and content analysis that provide a sharper and more explicit focus on women's own voices, which is the central aim of this book. Most of the extracts in this chapter are derived from focused interviews and all the different data sets that were used in the discussion. The research process for this study was as follows:

Thus, the four randomly selected colleges were best divided into four economic classes: upper, upper-middle, lower-middle and working. The focused group interview women sample did not allow me to mention their real names in this study. Therefore, I used fake names: Nawal (from Jinnah (upper class), Gulalai (from Home Economics (upper-middle), Aiman (from Frontier (lower-middle) and Kiran (from City (working); however, the director of education allowed me to mention the real names of the colleges (see Appendix I for their brief social background information). It is important to emphasise here that to gain deeper insights, I conducted the interviews in local languages, and I translated them verbatim, as one of the central aims of this book is to allow women's voices to be heard. Three of the interviews took place in their college and one at the sample woman's house; the selection for the interview was purely on a voluntary basis from the initial Survey sample.

Methodological Aspects of This Study

It is unlikely that women's colleges in Peshawar would allow male researchers access to female students’ experiences and thoughts. Hence, my gender, religion, nationality and education were important factors that made this study possible. Due to the then political situation of Pukhtunkhwa, the administrators of educational institutions were reluctant to share information about the educational institutes. Therefore, the principals of the girls’ colleges were understandably cautious about my research and did further security checks before allowing me to commence my study, because they feared that collecting young women's (20–25 years old) thoughts and ideas would probably have a negative influence on the women students themselves. Thus, I selected both quantitative and qualitative methods, as both methods can be used to enhance the findings.

Dr Shabana Shamaas Gul Khattak is the proud daughter of a proud and noble people. Her tribe, the Khattak, belongs to one of the largest and most celebrated ethnic groups in the world, the Pukhtun. They live in one of the most inaccessible areas of the world, yet in terms of geo-political location a vital region of Asia. The Pukhtun have produced ruling dynasties and in modern times presidents of major nations like India and Pakistan. The region has invariably attracted high-quality writing. From the very start of the British-Pukhtun encounter, there was a detailed study by Mountstuart Elphinstone. Other colonial officers fascinated by the Pukhtun wrote monographs that have lasted, and these include names like Sir Evelyn Howell and Sir Olaf Caroe. There were of course novelists writing about this area and its people. Rudyard Kipling's Kim features a dashing, though stereotypical, Pukhtun horse trader, and the novels of John Masters feature Pukhtun tribesmen. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, this region continued to attract fine writers. Leading anthropologists like Frederick Barth, Andre Singer and Charles Lindholm contributed to Pukhtun studies. There is the popular Pashtun Tales from the Pakistan-Afghan frontier by Aisha Ahmad and Roger Boase. Sahibzada Riaz Noor and Ijaz Rahim, two outstanding officers and poets, have written extensively on the people and area. Another civil servant, Gulam Qadir Khan Daur, has written a powerful book on his tribe in Waziristan.

In spite of limited access to educational facilities and living in a patriarchal society, the area has also recently produced some high-quality scholarship by female Pukhtuna associated with the region. Dr Amineh Hoti obtained her PhD from Cambridge University studying Yusufzai women in Swat and Mardan, and Dr Faryal Leghari recently got her PhD from Oxford University based on her work in Waziristan. Amineh is the great-granddaughter of the Wali of Swat, and Faryal's mother was from Mardan. Malala Yusufzai, is also from Swat and has written and spoken extensively about the area.

Spalmai (Tehsil Kabal)

Spalmai was 24 years sweet-voiced girl. Her father was working in Dubai, while her mother was a local primary school teacher. She was the eldest among her five siblings (three brothers and two sisters). Her primary education was at a local non-elite private English-medium school, followed by her middle school.

Her shift from a non-elite private English-medium school to a government school was due to her Quran memorization. She was a practising Muslimah and she requested a break for prayer during her interview.

She was living peacefully in her village before the rise of the Taliban in the valley. She was in Year 8 and enjoying those school days when the Taliban came on the scenario. They shut the government schools for girls, but being a student at a private school she continued her education under tremendous fear and threats. Later, she studied BSc at the main city college of Saidu Sharief. At the time of the interview, she was a final-year MSc Microbiology student at the University of Swat.

This chapter will first discuss some theoretical aspects of terrorism in Swat society with special reference to structural functionalism or functionalist theories that created a space for the rise of Taliban, because it explores a set of human behaviour and complexities of a society to maintain harmony and peace (Ritzer, 2010). Second, it will discuss the conceptualisation of women and education in armed conflicts. The chapter then ends with some reflections about the suitability of feminists’ peace and conflict theories in Swat context.

According to the theory, every society has its stable social structure. This social structure has its own harmonious way of functioning that is acceptable and recognised for a society. However, as time passes, changes occur in a society's setup, and people try to change or modify their old-fashioned functions. Thus, societies accept or reject new social functions based on their suitability or unsuitability within their cultural and societal norms. However, if the new functions are disapproved by a group, known as ‘dysfunctional group’, or the concept of ‘dysfunction’, whereas functions contribute to the adjustment of the system, dysfunctions are those consequences that lead to instability and ultimately change (Elwell, 2013: 1). The change bearer group in the social structure continues their struggle within society. This tussle always creates clashes and conflicts within a society when the functions of social structure are unacceptable for the changing group, and the existing functions holder rejects the new social structure changes. This tug of war between the societal structural functional and dysfunctional forces (groups) is a continuous process throughout human history. However, Merton asserts that institutional structures and cultural elements are interrelated and mutually supporting and that the dominant orientation of socio-cultural systems is stability (Elwell, 2013: 1).

Restructuring an existing society with social mechanisms adjusts the new acceptable social functions with existing social norms; otherwise, the society repulses it.

In this chapter, I discuss the stories of courageous women who have struggled for education, peace and prosperity in Swat Valley. In addition, I analyse the Swat women's unending hope and efforts for peacekeeping and peacebuilding, where education for all and everyone gained momentum nowadays.

Pakistan is one of the world's most populous countries where the struggle for socio-economic development, education and the redefinition of religion and cultural discourses are challenging dynamics. It has the least gender equitable measures among South Asian countries. There are many challenges for women in the country, but the vanguard one is targeting and attacking education and women to deprive them of their fundamental rights of education, work and to make personal decisions about their life.

The analysis in the second story about the educated women of Swat highlights the most disastrous time of their life, gender issues and the unequal power relation of gender in conflicts they went through. Their life stories give us their diverse life experiences of torture, fear and oppression yet with hope, optimism and peace too. They demonstrated their experiences during three phases: terrorism, counter-insurgency destructions and their forced displacement that all considered more gendered episodes.

As mentioned, the tragic story of Swat commenced with unjust social and legislature of the prevailing law that exploited their fundamental rights since the merger (1969) (Sultan-i-Rome, 2008). These circumstances were well prepared ground for TNSM, which was a peaceful restoration of Sharia law by Sufi Muhammad against the corrupt and inefficient judicial system (Hussain, 2001) that later became the root cause of the rise of militancy (Majeed 2016 and Rome, 2008). Thus, the discourse constructed by Fazlullah was based on Wahabism, revolving around jihad, extremism, anti-modernism, anti-state and anti-women (Hussain et al., 2011; cited in Majeed, 2016: 97). To suppress the Taliban's conservative barbaric ideology, which I am not calling Islam because it has nothing to do with the peaceful philosophy of Islam, they reached their extreme form of violence and aggression for political empowerment.

For centuries, in Pukhtun society, lack of education deprived women of their socio-political and economic participation which is considered the main impediment to their empowerment (Naz and Chaudhry, 2011).