Pashtunwali Review of Related Backgrounds
States attacked Afghanistan and demolished Afghan Taliban. Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda hid and created their headquarter in the mountain that was located in the
border area of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Because of this condition, Mullah Fazlullah as the veteran who also fought in Afghanistan created a group which
was led by him. It was well-known as Pakistani Taliban. This group was similar to Afghan Taliban because it was the offspring of the Afghan Taliban and they also
had the same ideology which was defending Islam by fighting the western. The thing that made this two Taliban different was how they were formed. Afghan
Taliban was formed by America and ISI while Pakistani Taliban was not. The question would be how did Mullah Fazlullah get their followers in
Swat? He got them by gaining society’s trust. For example, the policy of land’s
distribution in Swat was very problematic so it made the khan or land owner became powerful and rich but common society lived under poverty. In this case,
they fought against the khan by making a slogan “equal distribution authority”
and they would pay PKR 10,000-15,000 US 100-150 for a young man who wanted to join their group. Another example, because the society in Swat was still
under patriarchal mindset, so Pakistani Taliban utilized that mindset to gain society’s trust. How? They said that women should live in the four walls of home
and do their traditional roles on the reproductive sphere as a form of keeping their honor. If bad things happened to them they should make direct call to Pakistani
Taliban Elahi, 2015: 233. Because of their action in defeating khan and helping the women, people in Swat started to become their followers.
However, after Pakistani Taliban got society’s trust, they created rules that
were extremely harsh and discriminatory toward women Akhtar, 2008: 60. One of the examples was the rules on ideal Muslim women. According to Zoya as
cited by Juan R. I. Cole in The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere, women were banned from appearing on the balconies of their houses. They should
not go outside only if they are accompanied by a mahram all the time. They were banned from working. They should not go to school. They are not allowed to
laugh or speak loudly because it risked sexually exciting males. Women who failed to respect the rules will be beaten, whipped, or stone to death Cole, 2003:
797. Not to mention, this report was added by Latifa if women under Pakistani Taliban should wear burqa Cole, 2003: 799. Besides imposing the strict rules,
they also attacked and killed the member of security office, civil society members, the local leaders, the elected representatives of district government, and destroyed
government buildings, like schools and hospitals Elahi, 2015: 226. Later on in the analysis, the writer will use the term “Taliban” instead of “Pakistani Taliban”.