PESHAWAR: Cut off from the outside world by high brick walls and iron gates, the inmates of Peshawar’s Central Jail offer an interesting study to the outsiders.

Surprises waited for this correspondent crossed the threshold of the prison recently and entered the secluded portion for women accused or convicted of murder, armed theft, drug smuggling, kidnapping etc.

One expected them to be distraught for being caged in a place dreaded by normal human beings. But it was shocking to find the woman prisoners listening to latest Indian songs on tape recorder, doing laundry, and, wrapped in quilts, reciting Quran or reciting special prayers on date seeds.

And everyone of the 40 or so female prisoners, including juveniles and women with infants, everyone has a story to tell.

Despite seeing or doing horrible things, they have yet not lost interest in life. They wear make-up, apply beauty products on their bodies and listen to music.

When Hira (name changed on request), who is convicted of armed theft, was telling her story of how her love marriage turned out to be a disaster and how she ended up in jail due to her husband’s wrongdoings, one could not help notice how she was in heavy make-up and wore trouser and long shirt, the in-thing of today.

“I buy magazines and watch the state-owned PTV (their biggest means of entertainment inside prison) to know what is in fashion,” says another inmate Saira (not her real name), who was first convicted of drug smuggling and then for kidnapping for ransom. She had worn make-up herself and dyed her hair very professionally.

The 35-year old from Multan and mother of teenaged sons said she began smuggling drugs to earn money as her husband was a poor labourer. She told a long story of how desire to earn money finally brought her in jail. She was once freed on bail but abused by the same man so she ended up in a family of kidnappers who used her as bait, too. She has been in prison for the last five year and only her sons have been waiting for her home.

“My husband sent me divorce papers when I was in jail,” said Hira, who was divorced by her husband when she landed in jail.The man got away with the crime.

Women, who end up in jail, mostly lose all their family support that leave them in despair. Such women make jail their home and inmates relatives.

“Those women who are accused or convicted of crimes of social nature have support of their families but mostly women facing charges of immorality lose all their family support,” said one jail official.

Another convict of drug smuggling said her husband was dead and two of her children were in an orphanage and one infant was with her in side the jail. She also attributes ger financial problems for her consent to smuggling drugs.

She said there was no family support as no one filed an appeal for her. She was on her own, she said.

Prison officials when asked what kind of support, whether psychological or legal was provided to the inmates said the government and non-governmental organisations provided help for rehabilitation of women prisoners. “We have psychologists to help inmates overcome depression and other problems they face but lack of family contact is a big problem.”

Samera (not her real name), who is hardly 13 and landed in prison recently, blamed all her misery on her step-mother saying, the woman filed a case against her and her uncle for having illicit relations.

“My stepmother was planning to sell me and when I tried to escape with my uncle. My step mother got filed a case against us,” says the teenager.

A senior prison official says that sometimes prison is the only safe place for women who are facing some danger.

“I feel more protected inside jail than when I was outside,” said Saira, who learned beauty tips and make-up skills from another inmate, Hira.

She said once out of jail, she would open up a beauty parlour and wanted non-governmental organisations working inside the prison for skill development to train her and women like her as a beautician.

Though abandoned by their families, female prisoners expressed the hope that they would soon get out of the prison to resume their lives. They said they had learned the lesson the hard way but would never repeat the mistakes that brought them to the prison.