Zubair Torwali

It is as if we—the marginalized communities of northern Pakistan—are made to stand in the dock for crimes the Pakistani state and its establishment have been committing. “Yes, but you have also girls as teachers at your school who mix with your male colleagues,” Moamber, a Talib, who was my former schoolmate, told me. By then, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had captured the entire district of Swat, after the failed peace deal between the government and Taliban in February 2009. In a preemptive attempt I had approached my former classmate in the hopes of protecting a co-ed school where I worked as school coordinator. The school, called Mhoon School, had been founded in August 2008 by Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT), a Swat-based non-profit where I was the Executive Director. Instead, Moamber warned me to keep the female teachers away from the school because the ‘case’ was being discussed by the Taliban at their local headquarters. Out of a staff of 6 teachers, four were female. I asked them to come to school fully-veiled hoping that this would be sufficient to detract the Taliban. We took a stand and decided to keep the school open. The TTP had already closed three […]