PESHAWAR, Dec 9: The women were the worst victim of conflict in Swat as they were either forced to live in camps during displacement from the area or married off to Taliban and later abandoned by them, according to a study.

“The abandoned wives of Taliban in conflict-hit Swat now neither have Watan Card nor any Nadra card,” said women rights activist Rukhshinda Naz while sharing some details of the study conducted about those Swat girls, who were forcibly married to Taliban. Most of the Taliban have been either killed or arrested now.

“These girls had no choice as they were forced to marry militants,” said Ms Naz, who came to know while conducting the study that about 80 girls were married to Taliban during their rule in the valley at a collective wedding ceremony.

Reading excerpts from the study at a consultation on “Peace and violence against women” conducted by Aurat Foundation, she said that some of the girls were educated and belonged to middle class. “Some of the girls are widows now. All of them are suffering from mental trauma and anxiety,” she added.

Like those of Swat, women of about 15 families, who fled the conflict-hit Parachinar area of Kurram Agency, told the researcher that Sunni women took shelter in mosques and Shia women in Imambargah to avoid sexual assault during bloody clashes in the region during the last couple of years.

Women were traumatized as they could not believe that their own people could abuse them. The fear of rape was high among them during and after conflicts.

“There were many women in my home, my mother, my sisters-in-law and their daughters. I asked my brother to give me a hand-grenade so that I could blow us all if any militant entered our house and tried to rape anyone,” Ms Naz quoted a girl from Swat.

“Women still recall how they fled their homes without veil during conflict,” she said, adding a mother from Swat complained that she still could not sleep as she could still hear the cries of her son when he was executed in the nearby fields by militants.

Most of the representatives from non-governmental organisations, who were gathered to show their support for peace, summed up the consultation without suggesting any strategy to enhance the role of women in peace-building. The women rights activists expressed frustration at the growing violence against women. They regretted the fact that tolerance for violence was increased in society.

Shabina Naz, resident director of AF, said that a survey in conflict-hit Dera Ismail Khan also revealed that women suffered due to insecurity. Women had a role in peace-building but they had no representation in peace committees, she added. She said that media was also not giving enough coverage to cases of violence against women. Prof Ijaz Khattak, chairman International Relations department of University of Peshawar, said that violence had not only increased in society but its acceptance had also enhanced. As long as the elected government did not provide relief to people through good governance, socio-economic gaps would increase and violence would erupt from the frustrated society, he said.