IN a small shabby room, a thin girl appears. Veiled, she throws a cold glance at her audience, a group of 17 men who have come to watch her dance.
One of them is Mohammad Khan, a local landlord of Swat and a frequent visitor who stares down her. “Naheed,” he calls the girl as he commands her to have a seat close to him on the shabby old sofa. After settling down, she puffs on hash, offered to her by one of her visitors. After gossiping for a while, Naheed gets up for a special dance for her special fans.
“Naheed performs in front of large gatherings at weddings and other such celebrations. But when her ‘special’ and ‘close’ fans come to her house, for an exclusive show, she doesn’t disappoint them,” her 60-year-old mother, Gango, revealed as she joined the gathering.
Naheed switched on the cassette player and started shuffling to the tunes of a Pashto song. She moved with the music with an expressionless face. Soon, her fans joined her and started showering her with money and as soon as a few thousand had been collected, she stopped dancing. The show was over and it was time for her fans to leave.
Mohammad Khan loves to watch the dancing girls perform. He is Naheed’s landlord as well as one of her boyfriends. He has rented his two-room house to Naheed and her family of a mother and a brother, for Rs1000 per month.
“There is no other entertainment here for us. It’s an old tradition that people call dancing girls when festivity is in the air,” says Khan.
Malak Iqbal Rawan, 60, an elder of Swat said that the institution of ‘dancing’ was on the decline because the modern dancing girls called ‘Damma’, in Pashto, lacked mannerism and artistic qualities.
“These present dancing girls cannot sing or dance like those who were famous all over Swat for their lovely voice and dances, some thirty years ago,” he says. He compares the dancers of the present age and those of Swat state, when Walis (traditional rulers) ruled the state.
Hayat Khan, a 70-year-old of Mingawara (Swat) of recalls the good old days of Wali-e-Swat. He remembers the time when the institution of dancing and singing, flourished. Dancers, experienced in the art of dancing and singing, elegantly gave performances not only in front of dignitaries, including the Wali, but also in front of the masses. Then, after a festive occasion like Eid, a fair used to be held along the Swat river called Sind Mela (river fair).
“Dancing girls used to sing old songs and perform traditional dances in front of the Wali and the masses. After the performance, the Wali would bestow them with prizes whereas the poor would watch the performances free of charge,” an old-timer recalled.
“The dancers and singers of the past were talented and they showed respect to their fans and in return the dancers and singers were respected. They were charming and talented, may be that is why one of the rulers of the Swat even offered to marry one of the most famous dancing girls of that time. She married the king and they lived happy life,” Hayat Khan recalled.
However, those were the days. After the fall of the Walis, official patronage to the dancing girls of Swat disappeared and so began the downfall of the dancing girls.
The people of Swat miss the times when the Walis ruled the area and everyone was prosperous. People enjoyed freedom and felt secure.
“(Today) if I want to arrange a musical evening to entertain my friends I have to do so behind closed doors because the religious groups meddle too much in our affairs. We cannot enjoy ourselves,” complains Malak Iqbal Rawan.
The dancing girls of yesteryear also feel deprived and remember the times of Swat State as the golden times. Dancing girls used to earn a lot of prizes and gifts from dignitaries who frequently arranged festivals and gatherings where dancing girls sang and danced.
“Those were the good old days, now things are different and the dancing girls are slowly losing their charm,” Kango lamented. The 60-year-old runs her own dancing business and has had her daughters dance in weddings and other gatherings for the last 18 years. She lives in a dingy house in Band, a well known dancing girls locality. There are about 30 other families of dancing girls in the area.
Kango has two daughters; one married while her youngest, Naheed, is a dancing girl and it is on her dancing skills that financially supports the whole family.
However, there are rules to the game, as Kango explains. “They just don’t go anywhere without knowing the inviting party too well. We take the ID Card of the inviting party and also take transportation charges (Rs2000) first. Then whatever amount we get through our performance on the dance floor depends on our luck.”
The dancing girls while performing don’t allow any spectator to touch them. Still, many now think that now it’s more vulgar than anything.
“Dancing girls are more like seductress than artistes. They use cheap tactics instead of giving a good performance of their art just to take all your money,” Ghaffar Hussain, an old fan of dancing girls, complains. “The dancing girls of today are not melodious, their lyrics disappear in the loud music which is not enjoyable” he says.
Some of the famous dancing girls of Swat include Bibi, Shenogay, Iqbal, Khurshaida and Shamim. “Things have changed now. Many good dancing girls have married into noble families and those who are left don’t know this art. Dancing gatherings have become vulgar now,” says Ghaffar Hussain.
Malak Zaman, a local noble, thinks that social changes and the availability of various means of entertainment like cable TV, have affected the business of dancing girls. That’s why Naheed, like other dancing girls, has also started working in the private video films that are produced by local producers and played on the local cable. “It is easy to perform on a song in a video,” Naheed says. Her 10 video performances earned her Rs5000 per day. However, one thing that Naheed vehemently denies is sleeping with her fans. Though she confesses to smoking and drinking with her permanent clients, even dancing with her exclusive clients. Still, Mohammad Khan thinks that since she offered ‘more than just her art’ to her customers, is the reason why the institution of dancing has deteriorated so much.
IN a small shabby room, a thin girl appears. Veiled, she throws a cold glance at her audience, a group of 17 men who have come to watch her dance.
