Chitral — The recent case of a teen age girl drowning herself in the river in Koghuzi village of Chitral has again highlighted the high rate of suicides in Chitral district, specially among young female gender group. This phenomenon is going on for a long time but has been largely ignored and needs thorough research and scientific investigation to ascertain the causes and find remedial measures for it.
One factor that is acknowledged by all is the fact that girls reaching adolescence have not much space to live their lives express themselves and show their self worth. Parents are all the time worrying about their marriage (getting rid of them) and in this obsession many girls are wed off post-haste to unsuitable matches which often end up in tragic eventualities like act of suicide by the girl.
Girls only have the opening of going out of the house to school/college/madrassa or hospital as an outing and houses are getting smaller and more and more cramped up. They can’t shop in the bazaars, they can’t eat outside, there are no sports activities or  outings/picnics etc for girls. All these are considered taboo in the Chitrali society. Only watching TV and witnessing the outside world on screen while themselves unable to be part of the world frustrates them and causes extreme reactions.
More facilities for women folk in the form of communal, vocational/recreational centers need to be set up and women folk encouraged to project themselves as active and useful part of the society instead of a burden as they largely feel now. Such steps will definitely change the defeatist mindset of the female population. Directing the efforts of all NGOs working in Chitral, towards improving the condition of women folk can be a fair beginning in this direction.— CN report, 10 Nov 2016