Mir Ali, Waziristan: people staging a sit-in protest with the bodies of children martyred in drone strikes.
I raise my voice today not just as a Pashtun woman, but as a witness to the unspoken suffering of my people.
Between April 22 and May 18, 2025, dozens of Pashtun women and children were killed, maimed, and silenced by mortar shelling and drone bombings across the Pashtun regions Bajaur, Bannu, Tirah, North and South Waziristan, and District Tank in Pakistan. These are not isolated incidents—they are a continued pattern of violence, destruction, and silence.
Girls as young as one year old have been injured. Women in their homes, children in mosques, and elders on their doorsteps—none were spared.
From 6-year-old Nisa in Bajaur to 1-year-old Sherbano in Sherani, from the targeted bombing of a mosque to entire families being wiped out in North Waziristan—where is the outrage?
Why are international human rights bodies silent when it comes to Pashtun lives?
The state denies us peace. The media denies us coverage. The world denies us humanity.
We demand accountability.
We demand global attention.
We demand an end to the militarization of our lands and the slaughter of our children.
To every woman reading this: your voice matters. Raise it for the silenced. Let’s make sure the names of our lost ones are not buried under headlines that never came.
