Steps of girls at the bicycle pedal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Landi Kotal have rattled the Jamaat-e-Islami, prompting the religious party to protest, condemn, and described it as a “foreign agenda”.

Around a hundred supporters of JI gathered at the Bacha Khan Chowk on Sunday to protest against the first-ever girls’ cycle rally in the city that was held on December 9.

Over a dozen girls participated in the one-day training to learn the art of cycling, which was organised under the Global Sports Mentoring Programme—an international leadership development program that focuses on advancing gender equality (ie, empowering women through sports programme) and disability rights.

“This is a propagation of foreign NGO agenda,” former JI general secretary Murad Hussain told Aaj News. “There are more issues in the city. Why don’t they highlight those.”

Some of the placards hold by JI supporters read, “Aurat ka asal muqam uska ghar [The real destination of women is her house]”, Humein pani aur bijli do cycle nahi [Give us water and electricity, not cycle], and “Qabaili riwayat ki pamali na manzoor, na manzoor [Violation of tribal tradition is not approved].

However, speakers admitted that in tribal areas women were deprived of basic rights and stressed the need for focusing on women’s education instead of cycling. They alleged that encouraging immorality instead of rights was a western agenda and against Islamic principles.

Interestingly, the tehsil saw its first girls’ degree college two months ago. It offers two years graduation degree.

Landi Kotal is said to be a “conservative area” where women are limited to the role of housewives. But, they almost perform all the physical tasks that men do like going to the mountains to get twigs for starting the fire.

Girls’ cycle rally

Social activist Jamima Afridi, who organised the training camp, did not make an announcement about the event because sharing any such idea would have ended with a negative reply.

“But, I think it was important as the image about our area that it is conservative, it is not like that. There is so much talent but opportunities are fewer,” she told Independent Urdu on December 9.

Girls practicing cycling on the ground near the house of Jamaima in Sadokhel, an area where people belonging to the Afridi tribe live. Shinwari, Mulagori, and Shalmani are the other three tribes in Landi Kotal.

She contacted international woman cyclist Samar Khan for the idea when she got full support from her family.

“We found it quite to what we had heard about tribal women and culture. There is a lot of talent among the women here and providing facilities to them is an important need,” Samar told Aaj News.

Such healthy activities for women would also be organized in the future so that tribal women get an opportunity to showcase their potential, she added.