Interview: Maryam Bibi Fights To Empower Women In Dangerous Northwest Pakistan

By Farzana Ali, guest blogger in Peshawar, Pakistan

Website:  hotfrontiers.net

I was just a student in 1996 when I heard about Maryam Bibi’s activities in the press. Her mission as founder of Khwendo Kor, meaning “Sisters’ Home” and the threats she was receiving were known throughout Pakistan.  Most of her community centers for women were under attack and her colleagues under fire.

“The vast majority of tribal females are still deprived of the basic rights of education, health, and clean drinking water.”

After 9/11 when I was a working journalist, Maryam BiBi was considered on the side of the U.S. against Muslims during the war on terror. Then I had a chance to meet her, talk to her and watch her leading the womenfolk during the rule of the six religious parties-based alliance MMA.

Maryam protesting for peace/2010

This self-made woman from Waziristan had no family, society, government or community support in the beginning, but now the world supports her. She has an important story to tell, and I found myself the best listener and transmitter for this iron lady of the region…

Interview: Farzana Ali On Reporting From The Danger Zone In Northwest Pakistan

Farzana Ali covering the Af-Pak peace talks in Kabul/April 2011

By Pamela Burke

UPDATE: 5/2/11 with Osama Bin Laden’s Death

EYE:  Are you shocked at the killing of Bin Laden?

FARZANA ALI:  Nobody would believe it, but history shows that Al-Qaida’s top leaders tried to hide themselves in such safer urban places.  Almost three months earlier Umar Patek, alleged Bali bombing plotter, was captured from this city but the news was made public only in March.  Likewise, the city is on the Silk Route, a road to China.  So we journalists are expecting more news like this in the future.

EYE:  Are people surprised that he was living in Abbottabad?

FARZANA ALI:  Yes, of course.  There is an atmosphere of uncertainty throughout the country’s urban areas.

EYE:  Will this make your country a safer place?

FARZANA ALI:  As far as Al-Qaeda, yes.  I think they are no more of a threat, but the situation now is different.  We have a lot of problems regarding extremism not terrorism.  Likewise we have a lot of geo-economic, geo-strategic, and geo-political crises added by the offspring of Al-Qaeda.  So I expect worst days coming  ahead.

EYE:  Do you see a change now in the power of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in your country?

FARZANA ALI:  Yes, but who will fill the vacuum is the big question.

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When journalist Farzana Ali leaves her home in the morning, she says she doesn’t know whether she will see her family again.   The territory she covers in Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous in the world.

“I want to be a hope for present and future female journalists as well as a symbol of courage…”  Farzana Ali

She has seen it all reporting for newspapers and television in this northwestern region for the past 14 years.   From the caves in Kotkai where the head of the suicide bombers is reported to have lived to Tank and South Waziristan covering the case of a future bride who was allegedly killed for cutting her hair, she has traveled all over in search of important stories.

Reporting in Bajaur Agency at a girls' degree college/2010

Farzana reached out to The Women’s Eye recently after reading the website.   She thought it might connect the women of her region to the outer world.    Her desire is that her voice be heard, and we wanted to listen.  Here is our candid exchange… 

Interview: Kim Barker On “The Taliban Shuffle”— Her Candid And Witty Memoir

Kim Barker in Khost police truck: Photo by Kuni Takahashi

By Pamela Burke

Kim’s ProPublica Article
on BP Oil Spill–4/13/11
Twitter: Kim_Barker

Kim Barker chronicles her exciting career as a foreign correspondent doing “The Taliban Shuffle” between Afghanistan and Pakistan in a new book published this week.   If you like insightful and darkly funny tales of modern warfare, this is the book for you.

“You have to weigh the benefits with the potential for danger. It was always worth it.”   Kim

As South Asia Bureau Chief for the Chicago Tribune, Kim was based in this volatile region for five years from 2004-2009.    With a self-described wicked sense of humor, she gives an insider’s view of the horror, adsurdities, and realities of her life as an intrepid reporter who grew to love her war zones.

It is a brutally honest book  for those who want a no holds barred account of a reporter’s life in this infinitely complex region.  Once I read it,  I couldn’t wait to talk to Kim, an incomparable adventure junkie, whose opening line is “I had always wanted to meet a warlord.”    

Interview: Gayle Lemmon On The Remarkable Fighting Women Of Afghanistan

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a seasoned journalist who has been reporting and researching the economic and living conditions of women in Afghanistan since 2005.  I read her heartbreaking story in “The Daily Beast” recently about Bibi Aisha, an Afghan teenager whose nose and ears were cut off by an uncle when she tried to escape from an intolerable marriage.    Another article about an 11-year-old bride who was sold to a Kabul family and escaped was equally powerful and disturbing.

Gayle was a producer with ABC News for nearly ten years, a Fulbright scholar, and is the Deputy Director of the Women and  Foreign Policy Program.    Next year her book about women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and other war-torn countries will be published.  To find out more about Gayle’s background, visit her website.

“People do not often hear stories about how hard women are fighting to create something better for the next generation.” Gayle Lemmon

Recently  Gayle responded to my questions  about her reports from Afghanistan and her own career in journalism…