July 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 11, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 14: About 80 per cent of the handicraft centres in parts of upper Swat have been closed due to pressure from militants, people in the business told Dawn.

A number of embroidery centres, being supervised by non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations, were closed in Khwazakhela when the organisers received threatening letters from unidentified militants, a source said. In the letters, the women were warned to avoid coming out of their houses without male family members. Thus many of the women preferred to stay at home instead of taking risk of life, she added.

“Most of the girls had stopped visiting the centres when they frequently heard the warnings from the radical Maulana Fazalullah on his illegal FM radio, as their parents and brothers also forced them to confine themselves to the houses,” she said.

A man, who used to supply raw material from the local market to the home-based workers and handicraft centres, on condition of anonymity, said that over 80 per cent handicraft centres in Matta, Khwazakhela, Madyan, Behrain, Shanguatai, and other villages had been closed during the past two years. Earlier, he said, the women used to come to the China Market Mingora city to purchase raw material but now they were avoiding doing so as the situation had become dangerous for them. He said there was no hope of improvement in the situation.

A source in the social welfare department said that the centres at Kokarai, Kabal and Alam Ganj were closed, while four centres in the lower parts of Swat like Barikot, Gogdara, Mingora and Landikas were functional to some extent.

Ghani Raziq, a social worker, said that some of the centres in lowers parts of Swat were somehow functional, but those in the upper part of the valley were completely closed due to militancy. Even men fear attacks how could they allow their women to visit the centres, he said and added that some activists of the Labour Education Foundation had visited Swat to collect data about the centres.

While talking about the problems of the home-based workers, he said that most of women complained about the increasing militancy. He said 100 per cent centres at Sinpura, Baidara, Peer Kalay and other areas had been closed many months ago. “How the handicraft centres will run in the areas where schools and hospitals have closed,” he said.

Ms Bibi, from Behrain, said that local militants had created hurdles in the way to her handicraft centre but despite that some of the girls were coming to learn sewing, stitching and embroidery. The women could not freely move the areas and feared for lives.

They were being compelled to stay home but most of them earned their livelihood through the handicrafts, she said and demanded provision of sewing machines to the centre, saying that non-governmental organisations had also stopped funding the centres in the rural areas due to militancy.

Ms Nelofer, Saidu Sharif, said that at least five centres had been closed in the Mingora. “I also stopped running the handicraft centre due to peculiar situation as the girls were also not taking interests to come regularly,” she said by phone, adding that about 60 women workers were deprived of the facility. She said that contacts with the donor agencies had also become very difficult in the region and it had become impossible to afford the expenditures.

Most of the women, she said, were belonging to poor families, who had turned the handicraft centres as a source of income, and many of them were coming with the aim to mange dowry for their marriages.