by ISSAM AHMED
Mussarat Ahmedzeb, whose father-in-law once ruled Swat Valley, returned home at the height of gruesome Pakistan Taliban rule to open an embroidery program. Today, more than 500 women go there to earn money and escape the dangers of daily life.
When the Pakistan Taliban’s campaign of terror arrived in the land formerly ruled by her late husband’s family, homemaker Mussarat Ahmedzeb decided she could no longer remain a bystander.
During visits to her native Swat Valley, the gray-haired mother of four had witnessed the astonishing rise of an Islamic insurgency under the charismatic leadership of Pakistan Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, whose denunciations of American forces in Afghanistan and calls for Islamic law had galvanized thousands of young men to take control of the district and drive out local politicians, security personnel, and everyone else who dared oppose them.
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(Submitted by reader)