Justice in Pakistan's tribal border areas is a contested issue. If someone kills, commits adultery or some other offence, they deserve to die," said Javaid Khan of the Utman Khel tribe in Bajaur Agency, one of seven tribal agencies districts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The less influential, he said, "would include women". Far-reaching influence The hold of tradition and "traditional justice" extends beyond the more legally autonomous tribal belts. In the remote Kohistan District of KP where, technically speaking at least, national law applies, three men were shot dead in January this year as a result of a long-standing tribal feud involving allegations their brothers had mingled with unrelated women. It is just something completely acceptable to them," said Farzana Bari, chairperson of the Women's Study Centre at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and a well-known women's rights activist who headed a Supreme Court inquiry into the case.

VLADIMIR GIRGA – Stoke-on-Trent



Girga Name Meaning & Girga Family History at tvoydom.info®
Every year, 12 million girls are married before the age of Millions of girls are missing out on their education and opportunities. They are exposed to health risks and violence and trapped in a cycle of poverty. But change is happening.


Women in bikinis
New York - The Afghan government should hold accountable those who seek to impose brutal customary punishments such as baad, where women and girls are given as compensation for crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. In order to eradicate such abusive practices, the government should strengthen implementation of the Elimination of Violence Against Women law, sending clear signals that such practices will no longer be tolerated by the state. Baad is one of the most abusive customary practices in Afghanistan, where girls or women are given to an aggrieved family to "compensate" for a crime, a punishment usually decided by a local jirga council.




Afghanistan has long held a tradition of assembly or jirga to discuss social and political issues in accordance with the teachings of the prophet Mohammad. However, with the recent establishment of a post-Taliban democratic government, the National Assembly adopted its current formalized structure. The shape of this new legislature was set out in a constitution approved by a meeting of provincial and district council leaders in January , called the loya jirga. With substantial power to check the president, the Assembly is an elected, bicameral parliament made up of a lower house — Wolesi Jirga, or House of People — and an upper house — Meshrano Jirga, or House of Elders.