Tonåring och gift med en pashtun
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(English presentation below. An unlikely rebellion
Novel to be released in August 17-2015, initially in Swedish)
Året är 1971, Magdalena är 17 år och på väg till
Indien för att hitta en guru. Hon stannar till i
norra Pakistan, där hon blir inbjuden till en
pashtun-familj. Sonen i huset och Magdalena
förälskar sig i varandra och Magdalena flyttar
in i hans familj i huset i byn.
Franciska von Koch berättar här om hur hon levde som ung hustru till en pashtun, med allt vad det innebar av kärlek, kulturkrockar, naturupplevelser och umbäranden. Detta är en genuin och unik skildring av en ung svensk flickas liv som hustru till en pakistanier i en hederskultur.
Franciska von Koch berättar här om hur hon levde som ung hustru till en pashtun, med allt vad det innebar av kärlek, kulturkrockar, naturupplevelser och umbäranden. Detta är en genuin och unik skildring av en ung svensk flickas liv som hustru till en pakistanier i en hederskultur.
© Franciska von Koch 2015-03-09
Författarsida på Facebook - klicka här!
An unlikely rebellion
Novel to be released in August 17-2015 (initially in Swedish)
Franciska von Koch
Novel to be released in August 17-2015 (initially in Swedish)
Franciska von Koch
I was 17 years old and married to a Pashtun man in Pakistan
This is a story about my experiences in the 70’s, an era of free love, a wild renaissance that defined the decade. My true account, as I hitch-hiked to find God. Trekking, from Sweden, through all of Europe, to Pakistan, on a spiritual quest, for meaning to my life.
Growing up, my parents were living a promiscuous life, they gave me no rules, or structure to follow. Inasmuch as this was my reality, I was easily influenced and fell in love and when I did my life changed forever. The search for God was put on hold or so it seemed.
Experiencing the lifestyle of a conservative village life in Northern Pakistan, I had to cook on an open fire, eat with my hands and live by the rules women did. Covering my head was the least of it as I had no freedom as a wife.
My husband was engaged before we met, which put our life in jeopardy. His culture demanded revenge when someone was disgraced therefor, marrying me, was a crime in their eyes. When the demands of the culture, and there were many, we decided to move to my homeland of Sweden. Here, the cultural problems, we had to live by, became impossible. We became isolated.
Excerpts from the book:
It was less than five months since we left Pakistan and fall was turning into winter. Maybe it was because I did not want to have sex, or because he couldn’t adapt to the lifestyle, or perhaps my growing sense of independence made him feel less than he thought he was. I only know that I had to rebel. A deep sense of survival started to wake up coming from a place deep inside me, after a long winter's sleep. Out from the cave came the female bear in spring, hungry, easily angered and dangerous.
It had definitely been true love, when I as a seventeen-year-old, met a traditional Muslim man, in northern Pakistan. We fell instantly in love and instantly … the entire world was against us.
“It won't work, in the long run," said my family. “Its dangerous," his father warned. “You are crazy," came from my sister. “You can get murdered," from his brothers. I still just could not understand why
anyone would want to murder us.
I was raised freely with no one insisting on anything and everybody adapting themselves to most any situation. I know now, that no one today could hitchhike to Pakistan, get together with a man of the Pashtun people without being stoned to death by Taliban’s.
We did live under a certain threat, but it was far from the world we live in today. The letters I wrote home from 1972-74 were saved by my mother.
Deeply influenced by Bible texts, yet at the same time, I believed in other faiths as well like Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Growing up, my parents were living a promiscuous life, they gave me no rules, or structure to follow. Inasmuch as this was my reality, I was easily influenced and fell in love and when I did my life changed forever. The search for God was put on hold or so it seemed.
Experiencing the lifestyle of a conservative village life in Northern Pakistan, I had to cook on an open fire, eat with my hands and live by the rules women did. Covering my head was the least of it as I had no freedom as a wife.
My husband was engaged before we met, which put our life in jeopardy. His culture demanded revenge when someone was disgraced therefor, marrying me, was a crime in their eyes. When the demands of the culture, and there were many, we decided to move to my homeland of Sweden. Here, the cultural problems, we had to live by, became impossible. We became isolated.
Excerpts from the book:
It was less than five months since we left Pakistan and fall was turning into winter. Maybe it was because I did not want to have sex, or because he couldn’t adapt to the lifestyle, or perhaps my growing sense of independence made him feel less than he thought he was. I only know that I had to rebel. A deep sense of survival started to wake up coming from a place deep inside me, after a long winter's sleep. Out from the cave came the female bear in spring, hungry, easily angered and dangerous.
It had definitely been true love, when I as a seventeen-year-old, met a traditional Muslim man, in northern Pakistan. We fell instantly in love and instantly … the entire world was against us.
“It won't work, in the long run," said my family. “Its dangerous," his father warned. “You are crazy," came from my sister. “You can get murdered," from his brothers. I still just could not understand why
anyone would want to murder us.
I was raised freely with no one insisting on anything and everybody adapting themselves to most any situation. I know now, that no one today could hitchhike to Pakistan, get together with a man of the Pashtun people without being stoned to death by Taliban’s.
We did live under a certain threat, but it was far from the world we live in today. The letters I wrote home from 1972-74 were saved by my mother.
Deeply influenced by Bible texts, yet at the same time, I believed in other faiths as well like Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Authentic photographs and letters are seen in the book.

