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Female suicide rate high -letter2

Just yesterday I had a conversation with a woman priest at our church. She is a very kind and open person who was very interested in our affection for Pakistan and Chitral (Americans often lump the Afghan militants and Pakistanis together in one dreadful group and don't appreciate the subtle and important differences). She asked about our friends there and wanted to know about the condition of women. I tried to explain (I hope, correctly) that it was the elites of Chitral who promoted the education and respect of women in Chitral and some backward people who resisted it.

I acknowledged that there were still problems caused by lack of awareness and, in fact, lack of appreciation that a true understanding of Islam advocates good treatment of women, through equality, education, etc. I told her that my most educated Islamic friends had the most educated and happy daughters.

The article on Chitral News today absolutely confirmed the accuracy of what I told her, so I sent it to her. Bravo, for promoting awareness in this area.

Anita Christy,

New York.

Female suicide rate high -letter1
 

There might have been as many (may be more or may be less) suicide case of boys in Chitral as has been reported of girls in the Chitral News. An important question is why a woman body is always subjected to NGOs' suicide discourse. The question is important because it bears the whole burden of human history. But unfortunately the reporter has conventionally attempted to speak the language of social workers grown up in the lapse of NGOs, and parroting what they might have picked from development literature. We never gaze over the wall of the mysterious history of the ways in which a woman body has been subjected to the moral discourse, and the ways in which politics, development and even religion has been played on the bodies of women. Perhaps we cannot afford to directly venture into such unthought realm, given our restricted space of intellectual freedom, but there are ways to break it. One of the ways might be to look into the everyday life experiences of resistance and courage of oppressed people and to highlight them. Those who have died in suicide cases deserve our sympathies, but let us also count those girls (and boys) who have the power to stand against the set social conventions. We need to come out of the paradox of dancing around taking our so called ethics and morality on our head and weeping for those who become prey to it. 

Ali Sher,
Kuragh, Chitral.