First practicing female lawyer from Swat...

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First practicing female lawyer from Swat...

MINGORA: The 26-year-old Saima Anwar began practicing law in May 2011 but her case is unique as she is the first practicing female lawyer from Swat.

“I liked this profession since childhood and it was my passion to become a lawyer even though female education was a taboo in our family,” she said while sitting alongside her male colleagues in the lawyers’ lounge in Mingora, Swat.

Her parents encouraged her even though uncles and other relatives put up resistance, she said. “The resistance grew intense when I completed my school studies and got admission in a local college,” she recalled. “The plight of Pakhtun women pushed me to take up this profession,” she said, explaining that in Pakhtun society the women lack legal rights.

Saima Anwar’s determination proved strong as she continued her studies even when female education was banned by the militants during 2007-2009 in Swat. “That was a very tough time for all of us,” she said, recalling how the women were flogged in Swat for perceived crimes and Shabana, a dancer, was executed in Mingora in 2009 for defying the ban on dancing.

She added that when the military launched operation in Swat, she and her three classmates were appearing in their LLB final year examination. “Everybody, even the administration of our institution, advised us against appearing in the examination as curfew was in place and the streets in Mingora used to reverberate with heavy gunfire,” she recalled.

“Now the attitude of my family members has changed and they encourage me and my sisters to study and take up decent professions,” she said. Saima Anwar said she made the right career choice as female litigants feel at ease discussing personal matters with her. Her workload usually involves cases of divorce, shares in ancestral property, child custody and sexual harassment. Women’s grievances generally go unreported, she said, since Pakhtun women are reluctant to discuss them with male lawyers. “Though at present I am assisting my senior male colleagues in both criminal and civil cases, in the future I would concentrate more on cases related to women’s rights and their issues,” she explained.

She won a case of share in ancestral property for two sons of a 90-year-old widow. The case languished for seven years before she won the settlement in less than two months, she said, expressing regret that the widow died before the court ruled in her favour.

Saima also won custody rights for a woman whose former husband took away her two children after divorcing her. “The Pakhtun women can accomplish any goal if given a chance,” she said.“Despite strict cultural taboos and excesses by the extremist elements, the morale of Swat’s women is very high as we have lady teachers, doctors, nurses and female bankers in Swat,” she pointed out.