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From riches to muddy rags: Noor Mohamed lives in a makeshift village near his home, Azakhel. He mourns the loss of their neighbourhood which had been reduced to scattered logs, shattered brick walls and a mish-mash of clothing, bedding and personal belongings. Photo: Mujahid Safodien
Devastated: Athar Gul, 14, in Peshawar, Pakistan. He lost his home and his older brother in the floods. Photo: Mujahid Safodien, The Star
A bright blue frame once held together a treasured picture which adorned the walls of the Gul family. Bright red tapestries lined the windows and the hand woven carpets for which the Pashtun are renowned adorned the polished floor of the house.
"We used to live here," said 14-year-old Athar Gul as he sifted through the remains of a neighbour's home.
This day was supposed to be one of the most joyous days for the young Muslim teenager - Eid Mubarak, the day the Qur'an was revealed to the prophet Mohamed. It is the holiest day on the Muslim calendar and is marked around the world with prayers, festivities, visiting among family and friends and the sharing of gifts.
But Athar has instead decided to walk the 5km from where his family live in a camp for displaced people and come to mourn the loss of their neighbourhood which had been reduced to scattered logs, shattered brick walls and a mish-mash of clothing, bedding and personal belongings caked in the clay which swallowed up everything around it.
Since the monsoon rains brought the might of the Indus River raging through much of Pakistan, more than 18 million people have been displaced and at least 1 700 killed in what the UN has termed the worst disaster of this century. Despite this, much of the world's attention has strayed from this continually unfolding tragedy, even as villages and towns get annihilated by the water still making its way through the country and finally into the Arabian Sea. More than a month ago, the destruction started here, in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province.
"The water took my brother," said Athar.
Like so many families here, his fled Afghanistan at the Soviet invasion more than 30 years ago and settled on the outskirts of Peshawar, part of the footprint of the Pashtun people. Even after all this time 17-year-old Khaiyl Gul still carried an identity card which marked him as an Afghan refugee, allowing him access to government institutions, like a school. Unlike many rural Pakistanis, Khaiyl was afforded the opportunity to go to school where he excelled and finished third in his class this year. He was soon inducted into the trade of tailoring and by June was regarded as a master tailor. With the position came responsibility as he was the main breadwinner in his family. He had also reached the age of manhood, entitled now to marry.
And so it was that Khaiyl would be matched with a neighbour's daughter, Zaynup. Three years older than him, Zaynup came from a respectable family of brick-makers. Like nearly all Pashtun marriages, the families had arranged the match and decided on a suitable dowry.
It would be up to Zaynup's father, Mastukhan, to decide how much of the dowry he would spend on helping to outfit the new couple's home.
When the water's of the Indus River started making its way towards the small village of Azakhel, 15km outside of Peshawar, Noor-Mohamed Gul sent three of his sons with the women to higher ground. They fled with the little they could carry. Seventeen-year-old Khaiyl would stay with his father to try and secure the family home and their possessions, even as the floodwaters raged around them. As the waters rose the house became flooded and familiar ground became treacherous. Noor-Mohamed climbed a tree in a desperate attempt to defy the surging tide. Khaiyl never made it into the tree, swept away in a river of flotsam.
For 35-hours Noor-Mohamed clung to the tree. When neighbours eventually rescued him, his hands were contorted in their desperate clutch.
Khaiyls body would be retrieved nine days later, washed 4km from his home and caught in the dense thorn trees.
It's been one month, 15 days since the floods started wreaking its havoc on Khyber Phuktunkhwa Province. Most people are still trapped in IDP camps, unable to return to homes destroyed in the floods. There will be no planting season this year. The government's promised 20 000 rupees (R2 000) per family to help this largely agricultural country get back on its feet has not arrived. Even if it did, it would do little to make up for what was lost.
Athar, starting to sport the first feint signs of a moustache, is weighed down by how the floods will change his world.
Like most Pashtun women, Zaynup remains out of sight. Those who do appear on the streets are either dressed in burkhas or have a scarf covering their face, moving briskly between places with their heads cast down. Rickshaws have their curtains drawn when transporting women.
Even here in the IDP camp, Zaynup, like the rest of the women-folk, is hidden behind an array of screens and the canvass of the UN-sponsored tents.
Questions about her well-being in the wake of her husband's death are met with startled looks by both her father and father-in-law. Women are not consulted on their emotions, it is explained.
"She belongs to this family now and will be with them until the end of her life. In a few years time she will become the wife of Athar," said Zaynup's father, Mastukhan.
News - World: Pashtun sinks from riches to muddy rags (Page 2 of 2)
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