Download Pakistan’s Swat Valley is famous for its traditional embroidery, but it was banned under the Taliban.

Handicraft centres were forced to close and women were warned not to leave their homes without a male family member.

The Taliban has gone and life is slowly changing, but poverty is still acute in many villages.

Some of the women making embroidery rely solely on their handicraft skill.

As Mudassar Shah reports, embroidery is empowering the women and helping to prevent the return of the Taliban.

Download Fashion shows are booming in Pakistan – including in Peshawar, one of the most conservative cities in the country.

There’s at least one fashion show there each month – which is a dream come true for aspiring models from the local Pashtun community.

But it’s not easy for women to step onto the catwalk here.

In 2002, when a conservative religious coalition ran the provincial legislature, images of women were banned from billboards.

Those parties lost power – but models still risk a public backlash.

Mudasssar Shah meets one of Peshawar’s young fashion hopefuls.

Download Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio still exists.

Last year 30 percent of global polio cases were recorded in Pakistan, but this year the number of incidents of polio has decreased, to only 56 cases.

But in the district of Charsadda, in Khyber Pakthunkhawa province, men on motorbikes shot dead a female health worker and her driver who were on their way to vaccinate children.

In total, 8 health volunteers have been shot and killed or severely injured in separate attacks during the United Nations-backed anti-polio drive.

Mudassar Shah meets a health worker who escaped the shooting near Peshawar in Khyber Pakthunkwa Province.

Download Afghan refugees in Pakistan make up the largest refugee community in the world.

But by the end of this year, they will all have to go back to their own country.

They have been living in Pakistan on extended visas or refugee permits – some have lived here for more than three decades.

The existing refugees are to return voluntarily to Afghanistan by December 31st. After that they will lose their refugee status.

But as Shabab-ur-Rahman reports, some are not ready to call Afghanistan their home.