tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40192340762541210252024-03-07T08:34:00.601+05:00Kalasha: The Sole Pagan Tribe of PakistanThis blog is to explore and preserve the Kalasha culture and society of PakistanKashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-24079002816749904312022-05-03T21:13:00.004+05:002022-05-03T21:20:32.403+05:00Cultural Heritage and Extremism in Pakistan: Re-focusing on the Kalasha of (Chitral) Pakistan<p>Cultural Heritage and Extremism in Pakistan: Re-focusing on the Kalasha of (Chitral) Pakistan</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Author: Dr. Muhammad </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kashif Ali</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Co-authors: Prof. Dr. Muhammad </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Iqbal Chawla </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">and Dr. Ghulam </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shabbir</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Abstract</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This study is an attempt to explore, investigate and analyse
threats of survival of the Kalasha people. Kalasha is the sole polytheist tribe
of the Hindu Kush region-Pakistan. Once in near history, the Kalasha was the
ruling tribe of whole Chitral valley for a long period. The Kalasha were raided
by the Muslims in the 14<sup>th</sup> century. The demarcation of Durand
Line (Pak-Afghan border) in 1893 became their lifeline when they fell to the
British Indian government while their tribe fellows at the other side of the Pak-Afghan
border in Afghanistan were forcefully converted as a whole in 1896. Somehow,
the Kalasha of Pakistan were leading their life according to
their dastoor (culture & religion) and then military coup of 1977
brought ill-fate for them under pseudo Islamization of military ruler Gen.
Zia-ul-Haq. The Talibanization/extremism suppressed the Kalasha indigenous
tribe. The event of 9/11 devastatingly hit the tribe for their faith and their
strategic location. As reactions and chain reactions of War on Terror many
extremists and terrorist groups mushroomed, especially in tribal agencies and
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan recently threatened the
Kalasha to convert their faith or to be ready for genocide. The Kalasha people
are seeking their survival through their unique identity. They could earn soft
image trait for Pakistan, but unfortunately, extremism, terrorism and
ill-governance of the state losing it for decades. If the government failed to
protect them, we will lose a unique tribe and culture.</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Keywords: </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kalasha tribe, minorities, pagan tribe, Talibanization,
extremism, cultural tourism, governance issues</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Journal: </span><i style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Pakistan Social Sciences Review</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>The full article can be downloaded from:</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://pssr.org.pk/issues/v4/1/cultural-heritage-and-extremism-in-pakistan-re-focusing-on-the-kalasha-of-chitral-pakistan.pdf" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Cultural Heritage and Extremism in Pakistan: Re-focusing on the Kalasha of (Chitral) Pakistan</a></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span><p></p>Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0Rumbur, Kalash, Chitrāl, Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan35.7002385 71.69260397.3900046638211521 36.536353899999995 64.01047233617885 106.8488539tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-75733581009794127162019-09-01T15:39:00.004+05:002019-09-01T15:42:37.080+05:00Socio-Cultural Life of the Kalasha People of Chitral: A Study of their Festivals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Socio-Cultural Life of the Kalasha People of
Chitral: A Study of their Festivals</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
By</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Muhammad Kashif Ali and Muhammad Iqbal Chawla</b></div>
<br />
<b>Abstract:</b><br />
<br />
The paper seeks to examine the cultural life of the Kalasha people
and their festivals. It particularly focuses on Joshi, Rat Nat &
Uchaw, Pul and Winter Solstice: the Chawmos festivals points out
their role in the lives of the Kalasha tribe. Primarily, the study is
based on documentary evidences recorded in secondary sources
and combined with the data collected by the current researcher
during various field visits and ethnographic surveys to the
Kalashdesh (Kalasha valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir). The
study probes the meanings of festivities and their cultural
significance among the Kalasha tribe.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Journal of Pakistan Vision<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Published by: Pakistan Study
Centre, University of the Punjab, Lahore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ISSN- 1681-5742<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vol. 20, No. 2, 2019<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Full article can be downloaded from:<br />
<a href="http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/4_v20_2_19.pdf" target="_blank">Socio-Cultural Life of the Kalasha People of Chitral: A Study of their Festivals</a></div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com2Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan31.5203696 74.358747331.0870516 73.7133003 31.9536876 75.004194300000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-65957535767474204842018-02-25T15:35:00.001+05:002018-02-25T15:35:38.158+05:00The Great Game & Alexander the Great: 19th century transformation in Kalasha material culture in northwest Pakistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Great Game & Alexander the Great: 19th century transformation in Kalasha material culture in northwest Pakistan</h1>
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To read the article please click the link below:</div>
<div>
http://thewonderhouse.co.uk/model-gandau-funerary-figurines-made-by-the-kalasha-people-in-chitral-district-pakistan</div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-12814940236844602562017-07-04T12:13:00.001+05:002017-07-04T12:14:55.945+05:00Rights activists highlight threats to existence of Kalash tribe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">Rights activists highlight threats to existence of Kalash tribe</span><br />
ISLAMABAD: `As members of the Kalash community we are facing threats to change our religion, our land is being occupied and the names of our places are being changed. However, the media is portraying only our dances rather than highlighting our issues.<br />
<br />
This was stated by Gul Nazar, a representative of the Kalash community in Chitral, at a seminar on Thursday. The `Consultation on challenges for the Kalash community: the way forward` was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at a local hotel.<br />
<br />
Ms Gul demanded that the Kalash area should be included in the World Heritage List in order to protect it.<br />
<br />
`Development work should be carried out in the area and basicfacilities such as healthcare and education should be provided to the community. The syllabus of education should be in the local language.<br />
<br />
Doctors come to the Kalash valleys during the summer season and go back as soon as the tourism season ends,` she said.`Kalash people are not aware of their rights. On the other hand, people from other areas are occupying their land. Dozens of Kalash people have been forced to change their religion. We have been trying to protect our graveyards as people even steal the bones of our deceased,` she alleged.<br />
<br />
Ms Gul, who also looks after a Kalash museum, said the museum had all the information about the Kalash people butaround three dozen officials of the elite force are now stationed there due to which the visitors are facing problems.<br />
<br />
`When we approached the police officer of the area to address the issue, he said we cannot teach him archaeology and he cannot not teach us security measures. So we had no option but to close the museum, she said. Luke Rehmat, another representative of the community, said the Kalasha religion was divided into pure and impure.<br />
<br />
`Men cannot go to places where children are born and those who go to the delivery places cannot enter the respective village for a certain period of time but tourists violate these restrictions due to which the community suffers mentally as there are a number of stories (superstitions) associated with it,` he said.<br />
<br />
`Our religious ways are being blocked and names of our places are being replaced with Muslim names such as Qaziabad and Ahmedabad,` he said.<br />
<br />
Ali Ahmad Jan, the director of a civil society organisation, sustainable solution, said outsiders should not have the right to purchase land in the Kalash valleys like people of Pakistan cannot purchase land in Kashmir.<br />
<br />
`Some religious groups have been working in the Kalash valleys and forcing people to convert to Islam. Once a Kalash person accepts Islam, they are not allowed to wear the traditional Kalash dress and even are suggested not to speak the locallanguage.<br />
<br />
There are also some religious scholars who say every Muslim should convince at least six non-Muslims to accept Islam. As a result, forced conversions are on the rise in the Kalash valleys,` he said.<br />
<br />
HRCP member Nasreen Azhar, who chaired the event, said the Kalash community land was being occupied by outsiders and a large number of constructions were underway in the area.<br />
<br />
`People from other areas also go there to build restaurants. There is a need to look into all these issues,` she said.<br />
<br />
Senator Farhatullah Babar said the Kalash community should move their case with the parliamentary committee on the marginalised people.<br />
<br />
He said every person had the right to live and practice their religion in Pakistan.<br />
<br />
Iftilcharuddin, Member National Assembly (MNA) from Chitral where the Kalash valleys are located, said there were severe security challenges in the area and the state had to fulfil its responsibility.<br />
Source: http://epaper.dawn.com/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=26_05_2017_152_003</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-86936640659419106052017-04-25T10:06:00.001+05:002017-04-25T10:06:32.165+05:00سپریم کورٹ نے پشاوراورسندھ ہائی کورٹس کی جانب سےاقلیتوں کےاندراج کیلئے فارم میں کالم کے اضافے کا فیصلہ بھی معطل کردیا<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 class="story__title size-ten mt-2" data-id="1056540" data-layout="story" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: NafeesWebNaskhRegular, "NafeesWebNaskhRegular,sans-serif"; font-size: 1.18182rem; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 13px !important; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.18em 0px 0.45em; text-align: right; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">
<a class="story__link" href="https://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1056540/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #414141; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">مردم شماری فارم میں سکھ مذہب کا خانہ شامل کرنے کا فیصلہ معطل</a></h2>
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اسلام آباد: سپریم کورٹ آف پاکستان نے ملک میں جاری حالیہ مردم شماری کے فارم پر سکھ مذہب کے خانے کو شامل کرنے کے حوالے سے پشاور ہائی کورٹ کے فیصلے کو معطل کردیا۔</div>
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پاکستان کی سرکاری نیوز ایجنسی اے پی پی کی رپورٹ کے مطابق چیف جسٹس میاں ثاقب نثار کی سربراہی میں سپریم کورٹ کے 3 رکنی بینچ نے پاکستان کے محکمہ شماریات (پی بی ایس) کے چیف کمشنر مردم شماری آصف باجوہ کی دائر کردہ پٹیشن کی سماعت کی، جس میں پشاور ہائی کورٹ کا فیصلہ چیلنج کیا گیا تھا۔</div>
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پشاور ہائی کورٹ نے اپنے فیصلے میں پی بی ایس کو ہدایات جاری کی تھیں کہ مردم شماری کے فارم میں تبدیلی کرکے اس میں سکھ مذہب کے اندراج کیلئے ایک کالم کا اضافہ کیا جائے۔</div>
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مردم شماری چیف کمشنر آصف باجوہ کا کہنا تھا کہ ماضی میں مذکورہ فارم میں اس قسم کی کوئی چیز شامل نہیں کی گئی ہے، جس کی وجہ سے بینچ نے فارم میں مذکورہ ممکنہ اضافے کے حوالے سے سوالات اٹھائے ہیں جبکہ مردم شماری جاری ہے۔</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">مزید پڑھیں: <a href="https://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1054384" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; text-decoration: none;">مردم شماری:دوسرے مرحلے میں سکھ مذہب کا خانہ شامل کرنےکا حکم</a></span></div>
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ان کا کہنا تھا کہ 1981 میں ملک میں ہونے والی مردم شماری کے مطابق سکھ برادری سے تعلق رکھنے والے افراد کی تعداد 0.003 فیصد تھی، مردم شماری کے دوران اور خاص طور پر اس موقع پر فارم میں اس قسم کی تبدیلی ممکن نہیں ہے۔</div>
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سپریم کورٹ کے بینچ نے دلائل سننے کے بعد پشاور ہائی کورٹ کا فیصلہ معطل کرنے کا حکم جاری کیا اور کیس کی سماعت کو غیر معینہ مدت کیلئے ملتوی کردیا۔</div>
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عدالت کا کہنا تھا کہ مردم شماری 63 اضلاع میں مکمل ہونے جارہی ہے اور اس موقع پر مردم شماری کے فارم میں اس قسم کی تبدیلی کرنا نا ممکن ہے۔</div>
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اس کے علاوہ عدالت نے سندھ اور پشاور ہائی کورٹس کی جانب سے مردم شماری فارم میں اقلیتوں کیلئے علیحدہ کالم کے اضافے کے فیصلے کو بھی معطل کردیا۔</div>
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خیال رہے کہ 22 مارچ 2017 کو پشاور ہائی کورٹ نے محکمہ شماریات کو مردم شماری کے دوسرے مرحلے میں سکھ مذہب کا خانہ شامل کرنے کا حکم دیا تھا۔</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">یہ بھی پڑھیں: <a href="https://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1054417" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; text-decoration: none;">'مردم شماری والوں نے سکھوں کی پہچان کو ہی مٹا دیا'</a></span></div>
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سکھ برادری کی جانب سے دائر کی گئی پٹیشن کی سماعت چیف جسٹس پشاور ہائی کورٹ یحییٰ آفریدی کی سربراہی میں 2 رکنی بینچ نے کی تھی۔</div>
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محکمہ شماریات کی جانب سے ممبر حبیب اللہ عدالت میں پیش ہوئے اور عدالت عالیہ کو بتایا کہ مردم شماری کا پہلا مرحلہ جاری ہے جس کے باعث سکھ مذہب کا کالم فارم میں شامل نہیں کرسکتے۔</div>
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خیال رہے کہ پہلے مرحلے میں ملک کے 63 اضلاع میں جاری مردم شماری کے فارم میں سکھوں کی آبادی کا صحیح اندازہ لگانے کے لیے ’مذہب‘ کے خانے میں ’سکھ‘ کا آپشن نہ رکھنے پر سکھ برادری نالاں نظر آتی ہے۔</div>
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Source: https://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1056540/</div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-76128285953557818262017-04-21T19:15:00.001+05:002017-04-21T19:16:39.758+05:00Peshawar High Court orders govt to include Kalasha religion in census<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 class="story__title text--italic size-eleven " data-id="1324805" data-layout="story" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 1.42857rem; font-style: italic !important; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.18em 0px 0.45em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">
<a class="story__link" href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1324805/peshawar-high-court-orders-govt-to-include-kalasha-religion-in-census" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #000099; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Peshawar High Court orders govt to include Kalasha religion in census</a></h2>
<h2 class="story__title text--italic size-eleven " data-id="1324805" data-layout="story" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 1.42857rem; font-style: italic !important; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.18em 0px 0.45em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">
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<span class="story__byline caps text--gray size-three " style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; font-size: 0.85714rem !important; text-transform: uppercase !important;"><a href="https://www.dawn.com/authors/4396/ali-akbar" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">ALI AKBAR</a></span><span class="divider text--gray divider--hyphen" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(125, 125, 125) !important;"></span><span class="story__time size-three caps text--gray " style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #777777; font-size: 0.85714rem; overflow: hidden; text-transform: uppercase !important;"><span class="timestamp--label" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit;">UPDATED</span> <span class="timestamp--time timeago" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit;" title="Apr 04, 2017 01:16pm">APR 04, 2017 01:16PM</span></span></div>
</h2>
<h2 class="story__title text--italic size-eleven " data-id="1324805" data-layout="story" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 1.42857rem; font-style: italic !important; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.18em 0px 0.45em; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">
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The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to include the Kalasha religion on the national census form prior to the second phase of the exercise starting April 25.</div>
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A two-judge bench of the PHC announced the order while hearing a writ petition filed by members of the Kalash community. The government was represented in court by the deputy attorney general.</div>
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Sabir Awan, the petitioner's lawyer, informed the court that the Kalash people subscribe to one of the oldest known religions of the region, and that their members continue to live in three remote villages in district Chitral.</div>
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Awan cautioned that exclusion of the religion from the census form would be an injustice to the community and a violation of law, which guarantees equal rights to all its citizens. He pointed out that almost all major religions were included in the form except Kalash.</div>
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After hearing arguments from both sides, the court directed the government to include the Kalash religion on the census form before April 25.</div>
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Members of the Kalash community present at the court appreciated the decision.</div>
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"It's a landmark decision and is a victory for the people of Kalash," Wazir Zada, a member of Kalash told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dawn</em>.</div>
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Earlier in February, the people of Chitral had threatened to boycott the census for omitting the Kalasha religion and 13 other languages being spoken in the district from the enumeration form.</div>
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Representatives of the Kalash community were <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1317509" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; text-decoration: none;">reported to have warned</a> that the tribe was already endangered and their exclusion from the census database would create further complications, especially with regards to their size and strength.</div>
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Currently, the Kalash tribe is estimated to be around 3,500-4,000 strong.</div>
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<a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/744588/kalash-under-threat" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; text-decoration: none;">Described as an “anthropological enigma”</a>, the Kalash community is more than a magnet for local and international tourism.</div>
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Dwelling in the folds of the stony Hindu Kush mountains, the tribe draws its lineage from the ancient Middle East or even from soldiers of Alexander the Great's army, <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1251621" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; text-decoration: none;">academics have speculated</a>.</div>
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Kalasha, the religion followed by Kalash community, lies between Islam and and an ancient form of Hinduism.</div>
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Their ritualistic ceremonies serve as a potent reminder of the region's pre-Islamic past.</div>
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However, in recent years, there has been a sense of <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1319133" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4444aa; text-decoration: none;">existential insecurity</a> surrounding the tribe and its cultural identity.</div>
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Source:</div>
</h2>
<div>
https://www.dawn.com/news/1324805</div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-8020913926033386522017-04-21T19:09:00.000+05:002017-04-21T19:09:55.471+05:00Pakistan's Forgotten Pagans Get Their Due (Towards Cultural Identity)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Pakistan's Forgotten Pagans Get Their Due (Towards Cultural Identity)<br />
And finally the Kalasha people are on the move regarding their cultural identity<br />
Go to link for the story<br />
https://www.rferl.org/a/28439107.html</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-12493003126238959642016-12-28T14:51:00.001+05:002016-12-28T14:51:35.742+05:00Pakistan's Kalasha people fear for their way of life as climate changes for worse<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pakistan's
Kalasha people fear for their way of life as climate changes for worse</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Chitral,
Pakistan: For Akram Hussain, unprecedented monsoon floods that drenched his
Hindu Kush mountain valley this year were a danger to more than just homes and
crops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">His
4,000-strong Kalasha people, who live in three remote valleys in north-west
Pakistan, preserve an ancient way of life, including animist beliefs at odds
with Pakistan's dominant Islamic state religion. That has led to threats by the
Taliban, who call them kafirs, or non-believers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Outsiders,
looking for arable land, also have increasingly moved into their high mountain
valleys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Now,
worsening extreme weather linked to climate change is making efforts to
preserve the old ways even harder, the Kalasha say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">"Our
culture and language were already under threat and now these floods have
devastated half our valley," Hussain said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Torrential
rainfall in July in the district - an area that usually falls outside
Pakistan's monsoon belt - sent floodwater pouring down steep mountainsides,
damaging infrastructure in the valleys of Bumburet and Rumbur.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Birir,
the third valley inhabited by the Kalasha, was spared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The
floods damaged tourist hotels, shops and houses near the nullah (mountain
stream) on the valley floor and swept away crops of ripe maize and orchards
full of fruit trees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">"This
winter is going to be very difficult for us," Hussain said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Around
the world, extreme weather and rising seas linked to climate change are
presenting a growing threat not just to lives and homes but to cultures, from
nomads in the drought-hit Sahel to Pacific Islanders who fear the loss of their
entire nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Descendants
of Alexander the great?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">For
Pakistan's Kalasha, struggling to preserve their culture is nothing new. They
are the last survivors of the people of Kafiristan, who were mostly converted
to Islam in the nineteenth century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Their
neighbours across the mountains, in the Afghan province of Nuristan, are the
Taliban, who hold sway in parts of that country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Among
the Kalasha, prayers are offered during festivities that commemorate the
changing seasons. Their elaborate rites demand the sacrifice of dozens of
goats, which is becoming increasingly expensive, particularly as crops are
destroyed by extreme weather.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">"When
the livestock comes down for the winter what are we going to feed them? If our
livestock goes, our culture goes," Hussain said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In Bumburet
Valley, the Kalasha Cultural Centre, built by the Greek government in 2004,
houses an impressive museum of Kalash artefacts, including colourful
embroidered clothes, musical instruments, jewellery and wooden sculptures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Greek
interest in the Kalasha stems from the belief that they are descendants of the
army of Alexander the Great which marched through these mountains centuries
ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The
centre was spared by the floods, thanks to a strong stone wall built around its
perimeters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">For
the most part, the effects of climate change simply compound other problems the
Kalasha have faced recently as migrants move into their valleys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">"Some
of these migrants are brainwashing the Kalash people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">There
have been several conversions to Islam this year alone," Hussain said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The
winter ahead - when the valleys are cut off from the rest of the country by
snow - will be long and hard this year, the Kalasha warn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In
the village of Krakal, Shahida, a young Kalash woman explains: "We live on
goat's milk, cheese and beans during the winter months. Now with our crops
washed away by the floods and no fodder for our livestock we are very
worried."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The
sturdy traditional construction of the Kalash homes helped them to survive the
7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck the Hindu Kush on 26 October, although
some have cracks that must be repaired before winter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Most
Kalash homes were also spared by the summer floods as they are built higher up
on the mountainsides. But some tourist hotels and other buildings were washed
away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Deforestation
problems<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">With
all the reconstruction that will take place before the winter snow arrives in
December, even more trees will be felled to rebuild hotels and houses. Shahida
feels that deforestation is a part of the problem in the Kalash valleys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">"I
think the main reason for the floods is the cutting of trees. There were so
many forests up in the high pastures and they are gone now. If the government
cannot control deforestation the floods will keep coming and become more
severe," she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The
Bumburet valley attracts thousands of tourists each year who come to see the
Kalasha, especially during their festivals, when there is dancing and mulberry
wine flows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">For
many years, Greek volunteers would travel to the Kalash valleys to help with
construction and other charitable work that contributed to their cultural
preservation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In
2009, one volunteer was kidnapped by the Taliban and released only after eight
months in captivity. No further volunteers have come from Greece since then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">"That
was a big blow to our community since he was doing good work for the Kalasha.
The second blow was when one of our shepherds was brutally murdered on the
border with Nuristan a few years ago. Luckily the army has moved in and we have
better security now," said Shahida.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">A
military camp and new police station have sprung up in the last couple of
years. The army is currently repairing roads and bridges destroyed by the
floods, and they also patrol the high mountain border with Nuristan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">But
"it's not the Taliban that is the main threat," said Quaid-e-Azam, a
Kalash community leader from Rumbur Valley. "It is climate change. We need
to start planning for future disasters, otherwise life is going to be very
difficult for us."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/pakistanafghanistan/358297/pakistan-s-kalasha-people-fear-for-their-way-of-life-as-climate-changes-for-worse</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</h2>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-76391895320567993172016-12-28T14:35:00.001+05:002016-12-28T14:35:31.748+05:00Fear the wrath of God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Fear the wrath of God<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">By <a href="http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/author/625/maria-kari/" title="Posts by Maria Kari">Maria Kari</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">What do women seeking <a href="http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/20882/ladies-dont-opt-for-abortions/">abortions</a>,
homosexuals in the US military, the animistic tribe of the <a href="http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/28415/the-women-of-kalash-are-a-tale-of-colours-simplicity-and-struggle/">Pakistani
Kalash</a>, and Christmas celebrating, non-vegetarians have in common?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Apparently, God hates them and so we all have to put
up with terrorists, strong winds and the earth splitting wide open.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">“Look what the Kalash have done now”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In the wake of November’s 7.5 magnitude <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/987907/as-floods-hit-kalasha-people-fear-for-their-way-of-life/">earthquake</a>,
a tragedy that left over 390 people dead, Pakistanis have descended into their
favourite game; the blame game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">It’s a familiar, age-old phenomenon. The <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/988585/earthquake-was-allahs-wrath-for-kalash-communitys-immoral-ways/">wrath
of God</a> has been a sound explanation for the cruel, unusual, confusing
and tragic since the inception of religion, and, perhaps, humankind. In the
aftermath of tragedy, our coalition of reasoning has a total breakdown. We
remember we are conquerable, mere mortals and this terrifies us, leaving us
with few answers and many fears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">And so, we turn on each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">After 9/11 an <a href="http://www.ijreview.com/2015/04/285689-college-speech-pastor-calls-911-gods-punishment-sin-abortion-america/">American
pastor</a> proposed that the terror acts happened because God was angry
with Americans over abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In 2005, in the wake of <a href="http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/1258/can-pakistan-learn-from-katrina/">Hurricane
Katrina</a>, one of five deadliest hurricanes in American history, a
televangelist observed God had let it happen because of America’s descent into
immorality. According to him the natural disaster was proof that the “<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/09/13/religious-conservatives-claim-katrina-was-gods/133804">judgment
of America (had) begun</a>”. The same year, a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/buddha-statues-survive-tsunami/">Buddhist
monk</a> blamed the Indian Ocean earthquake-generated tsunamis on the
Christians. According to the monk, the natural disaster had taken place the day
after Christmas because too many Christians had slaughtered animals and
consumed their meat for the holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake in which <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/12/haiti-quake-toll-idUSN1223196420110112#t0biTRjjTHPJqE9g.97">316,000
lives</a> were lost, a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043002116.html">prominent
rabbi</a> reasoned that God Almighty was obviously sending a message to
the gays in the US military. In 2011 the State of Virginia was struck by an
earthquake, which took no lives but caused <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/2011virginia/overview.php">$300
million dollars</a> in damage. The same rabbi again pinpointed
homosexuality as the cause. This time he was a tad bit more diplomatic by
specifically asking the “gays not to take it personally (because) this is just
God doing what God does”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The Blame Game<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In Pakistan, we like to rotate the scapegoats of our
blame game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Some of the favourite contestants favoured by
Pakistani conspiracy theorists are (in no particular order) the Indians, Amreekis (Americans),
religious fundamentalists, or, as seen in the recent case following this year’s
earthquake, the Kalash ‘kafirs’ infiltrating Pakistan who – despite being
a <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/674478/minorities-rights-top-court-takes-notice-of-threats-to-kalash/">minority
of 3,500</a> in a country of 182 million – are apparently capable of
bringing forth the scourge of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Or, I don’t know, maybe, there was an earthquake
because of an immense build-up of geologic pressure at a subduction zone
between two colliding tectonic plates or whatever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The average reader may not even know who or what a
Kalash is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">After all, they are fairly confined to their tribal
lifestyle centred in the northern valleys of Pakistan. Plus, there’s only like,
3,500 of them and Pakistan’s a fairly populated place so – unless you’ve <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/facedown-in-chitral-000273-v20n3">snuck up
to the mountains</a> for mini-Las Vegas style getaway with booze,
beautiful women, and dancing – chances are you don’t actually know a real life
Kalash outside of Google Images.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The Kalasha are Pakistan’s smallest non-Muslim
community. They reside primarily in the Chitral District of
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa(K-P). They are polytheists and nature is a big part of their
spiritual and daily life. A <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-glyn-williams/pagan-kalash-people-of-pakistan_b_4811627.html">recent
DNA analysis</a> has confirmed the Kalashas are likely descendants of
Alexander the Great’s soldiers. Their laws are highly unique compared to the
rest of Pakistan, which is predominantly governed by a combination of Shariah
and British common law. Alcohol is not forbidden to them. <a href="http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/16719/ask-sayeda-what-are-the-grounds-for-divorce/">Divorce</a> is
easy enough for Kalasha women looking to change spouses. They must simply write
a letter to the prospective new spouse offering herself in marriage and ask
that the prospective purchase her at a higher price than the current spouse.
Gender segregation is not a part of the daily life of the Kalash. Neither is
veiling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The Kalash are a unique and fascinating people. They
are capable of many things. They make their own wine (known as <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/facedown-in-chitral-000273-v20n3">tara</a>), their
own recreational drugs (nazar, an opiate-based chewing tobacco is a
favourite), they have their own music and even their own set of laws (meaning
they are outside the ambit of Shariah law which controls the rest of us
Pakistanis).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">What the Kalash are not capable of is
singlehandedly inviting the wrath of any particular deity or God. And they
certainly do not have control of the three colliding tectonic plates (<a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v1/n1/full/ngeo.2007.56.html">Indian,
Eurasian and Arabian</a>) that Pakistan sits on top of and frequently is
destroyed by.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Divine Intervention not Divine Retribution<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Natural disasters are disruptive. And with this
physical disruption comes the disruption of people’s worldviews. The weak,
vulnerable and scared are the perfect target for theological institutions
looking to win new believers. Combine a vulnerable population with the
double-edged sword that is social media and what you have is a platform
allowing aggressive, fanatic, and downright lunatic religious zealots to
circulate their inflammatory ‘this is God’s wrath’ and ‘they caused this
earthquake because they drink and party’ slogans. With emotions already high
following the <a href="http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/16284/when-a-loved-one-dies/">loss of
loved ones</a> and destruction of homes and livelihoods, it becomes too
easy for a select few incendiaries to drive the country and its otherwise sane
citizens towards irrational hysteria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">This unrelenting routine is now the unfortunate
norm, which unfolds in Pakistan following a mass-scale tragedy. Instead of
endeavouring to repair broken communities, the rhetoric that arises by the
right-wing, hardliners results in a damaging blowback, which only leaves
already-shattered communities further fragmented and striated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Instead of a coherent analysis of what happened (an
earthquake), and a reasonable response (rally together as a nation, help one
another out), we’re left with a gang of bullies – ideologically incompetents
hell bent on insisting that the earth’s inevitable shifting process is actually
a frightening display of the powers of an evil, angry God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">The valley of the Kalash was once dominated by
mostly the Kalash and moderate Ismailis. Today, as a result of migration and
forced conversion, the Kalash are few in number compared to a flourishing Sunni
majority.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Absolute domination by the majority has left newer
generation of the Kalash <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/152253/the-kalash-struggle-to-preserve-their-culture/">slowly
losing a rich culture</a> and unique religion. The handful left behind
face a daily conundrum; convert to Islam or face death, stop production of your
wine or be sent to hell by the will of God, cover your women or face hell fire
for all of eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Yes, there are faults in the earth’s crust. Yes,
weather patterns cause torrential rains and winds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Yes, this is not Pakistan’s first devastating
earthquake. And, yes, sadly this is likely not her last.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">In the meantime, as winter fast approaches with both the
Kalash and Muslims of Chitral currently exposed to the elements, let’s open our
wallets, our hearts, and our homes. And, this time, let’s aim at seeking divine
intervention instead of divine retribution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/30316/fear-the-wrath-of-god/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-49357450895085236672016-12-28T14:29:00.002+05:002016-12-28T14:29:34.470+05:00The Rustam of Kalash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 class="title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", times-roman, serif; font-size: 34px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 6px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1002594/the-rustam-of-kalash/" style="border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Rustam of Kalash</a></h1>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">By </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/author/4995/huma-choudhary/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666699; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Huma Choudhary">Huma Choudhary</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> / </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/author/4974/photo-huma-choudhary/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666699; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Photo: Huma Choudhary">Photo: Huma Choudhary</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> / </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/author/4778/creative-sanober-ahmed/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666699; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Creative: Sanober Ahmed">Creative: Sanober Ahmed</a><br />
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Rustam Shah and Clark Kent, aka Superman, have a lot in common. They both use their abilities to improve the lives of others. Born in a tiny hamlet in Kalash Valley, Shah used the power of altruism to transform the fabric of life in his village and secure a safe future for its residents.</div>
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Commonly referred to as Luke Rehmat, Shah was destined for greatness. Regardless of his father’s insistence that Shah assist him on the family lands, Shah’s mother moved him to a secondary school in Peshawar where he completed his matriculation and later, higher education.</div>
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Disheartened and laden with responsibility, Shah attended college intermittently and eventually, had to drop out. “It was then that I decided to try and change things for people like myself,” he says. Pakistan’s education system may have evolved in many ways but Shah believes there ought to be a way for students in remote areas to access lectures and take exams online. “Many people are passionate about studying but cannot stay away from their families due to certain difficulties,” he adds.After college, Shah decided to relocate to Islamabad to pursue a bachelor’s degree in governance and organisational sciences. Unfortunately, halfway through his degree, Shah’s sister was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder and as the only brother to seven sisters he had to return to the valley and take the reins from his parents. Desperate to complete his education, Shah tried to shift his entire family to Peshawar but was unable to do so due to financial constraints.</div>
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Upon his return to the village, Shah launched a couple of initiatives. The first was a news blog entitled <i>The Kalasha Times</i> which offers information regarding the region’s weather, culture and prominent tourist spots. It served as a makeshift pamphlet for the region and also reported on issues such as health and education. Soon enough, the blog took off and put Shah’s hometown on the national map. “Back in 2013, a wealthy cattleman was murdered here and hundreds of his sheep were stolen,” shares Shah. “Fortunately, as a result of our follow up, the government not only compensated his family for the loss but also gave them jobs.”</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">The </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">overwhelming responses received by his first two initiatives purred Shah on. Shortly after, he established his very own non-profit organisation called the Kalash People’s Development Network (KPDN) in the hopes to expedite the changing process. With a hint of pride and nostalgia, Shah shares how KPDN immediately launched relief efforts when the Kalash Valley was afflicted with floods earlier this year. “Floods are not new to Kalash but the recent ones were catastrophic and took many liv</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">es,” he says. “There are just 4,000 people in all of the 12 villages of Kalash. I was afraid if we do not help the people, we might become one of those races that existed once upon a time.”During the same year, Shah introduced a regional news portal called </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">Ishpata News, </i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">a Twitter and Facebook-based news service. “The world is moving towards online media and I wanted people to stay updated on what is happening in Kalash,” says Shah. “People are now more inclined towards visuals and storytelling. So we began producing documentaries, video clips and photographs.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">KPDN </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">also houses the Kalash Health and Development Programme that grants the locals regular access to basic health check-ups by way of medical camps. Other sundry projects include the Forest Conservation and Development Programme that works to curtail deforestation in the valley. Another one of Shah’s premiere ventures is the Traditional Sports Development Programme which organises a 12-day sports festival during winter every year with the aim of promoting Kalash’s traditional games, such as </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">ghal</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;"> (snow golf).Over the years, KPDN has incorporated many other progressive projects under its banner of which the Women’s Welfare Development Programme is the most prominent. Under this, Kalasha women are given vocational training and medical assistance. “We have been displaying the products made in vocational centres at exhibitions across Pakistan,” says Shah. “Some of them are sent to the UK and we are currently in talks with a university in Australia too.” Recently, Shah and his team managed to raise funds to purchase ultrasound equipment for the local hospital as well.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">Other </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">than this, Shah and KPDN are currently involved in negotiations with the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) to issue locals official CNICs. The matter was actually resolved back in February this year but according to officials, the implementation can take up to six months or more. Adding to the variety of KPDN’s undertakings, Shah constructed a small room back in March where the Kalasha Academy of Computer Sciences (KACS) has been set up. Microsoft Word, Excel and other basic computer courses are taught here at bargain prices. “We charge a fee of Rs400,” says Shah. “Women and children are especially encouraged to join KACS.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">A </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">trailblazer </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.19px;">in every sense of the word, Shah has gone above and beyond to serve the people of Kalash and will continue to do so with his feet firmly on the ground.</span></div>
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Source:</div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, times-roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px; letter-spacing: 0.19px;">http://tribune.com.pk/story/1002594/the-rustam-of-kalash/</span></span></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-67002952734503628402016-12-28T14:16:00.002+05:002016-12-28T14:16:26.907+05:00Stories of conversion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Stories of conversion</h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: merriweatherregular; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold;">By </span><a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/writer/rahimullah-yusufzai" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Rahimullah Yusufzai</a></div>
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The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar.</div>
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Three Kalash girls converted to Islam in the Chitral district in the last one month, but 15-year-old Reena’s conversion on June 16 made media headlines, generating controversy and leading to tensions among the peace-loving Kalash and Muslim communities in the Bamburet valley.</div>
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Before Reena, two other girls Shaira and Karishma had embraced Islam as well, but the news remained confined to the three Kalash valleys of Bamburet, Rumbur and Birir where the Kalash, or Kalasha, peacefully coexist with their Muslim neighbours.</div>
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Reena’s conversion too would have remained unknown outside her native Aneesh village if there had been no protests (including stone-throwing) by Muslims at the house of a Kalash family that was allegedly helping her to revert to her religion. This case attracted attention all over Pakistan and abroad and almost every Pakistani politician and party gave statements condemning her ‘forced’ conversion. No attempt was made to get the details of Reena’s story and find out the truth. Reena too complained that nobody asked her about the reasons for her change of religion and instead a law and order situation was created in Bamburet out of ignorance or by those with vested interests.</div>
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Reena had approached Qari Maqbool, the peshimam of the mosque and administrator of the adjoining madressah in her village to formalise her conversion to Islam. The prayer leader did the needful. Imams, as we all know, are eager to oversee conversions as they see this as a means to seek Allah’s blessings and a vindication of the truthfulness of their religion.</div>
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It isn’t clear yet what really motivated Reena to abandon her animist set of Kalash religious rituals and become a Muslims at such a young age. Her uncle Sher Jehan and her aunt, who had embraced Islam earlier, are believed to have influenced her decision. Her father Ghulam Mohammad was visibly unhappy over Reena’s conversion when they travelled to Chitral town along with their relatives and Kalash and Muslim elders, under arrangements made by the local administration, to appear in a court and later address a news conference. However, he refrained from criticising her publicly. Instead, he pleaded that they be allowed to live peacefully as they had done all these years with their Muslim neighbours.</div>
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The issue was seen as resolved when Reena recorded her statement before Judicial Magistrate Fazal Wadood Jan under section 164 that she had embraced Islam of her own choice and not under any pressure. At the press conference, she declared that Islam was a religion of peace and love and condemned the propaganda that the local Muslim community had forced her to convert. This was a mature statement from a seemingly immature girl from a remote corner of northwestern Pakistan.</div>
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Reena was sent to her uncle’s house, the same place where the couple had reportedly influenced her to abandon her Kalash roots and become a Muslim. For now the situation has calmed down, but Reena’s conversion will continue to haunt the Kalash community, which is dwindling in numbers and influence, and will also likely mark its relations with the Muslims living in the three valleys that were originally Kalash.</div>
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It is unusual for the pagan Kalash minority or the Muslim community in Bamburet, Rumbur or Birir to confront each other the way they did in the aftermath of Reena’s conversion to Islam. Muslims gathered outside the house of Zareen, a Kalash whose wife has converted to Christianity and had reportedly tried to persuade Reena to abandon Islam and revert to her Kalash way of life. The mob of angry Muslims pelted the house with stones and demanded action against the family for misleading Reena. They could have burnt down the house, but the police reached the spot and managed to disperse the protesters through teargas and negotiations. Mercifully, there were no human or material losses.</div>
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On the persuasion of Osama Warraich, the deputy commissioner of Chitral, the Kalash and Muslim elders agreed to let Reena speak her mind before a court of law and accept her choice. As promised, the elders from the two communities have accepted Reena’s choice that she is now a Muslim.</div>
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The incident has renewed the debate about conversion of non-Muslims, including Hindu girls in Sindh, to Islam and raised questions whether these girls are converting willingly or under coercion. The fact that three Kalash girls converted to Islam in one month has been alarming news for the Kalash community. It is not only girls who are converting; many Kalash men, including an elderly 70-year old, have also converted to Islam.</div>
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In fact, some of the Kalash are also converting to Christianity. A prominent Kalash elder often quoted in the media has also become Christian. So both tableeghis, the Muslim preachers and the Christian missionaries, are at work as they try to attract the mostly poor Kalash community members to Islam and Christianity.</div>
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According to local officials, marriage with Muslim boys from the down districts, and money were the two major attractions for the Kalash to convert to Islam. In the case of the Kalash girls, marriage to Muslim boys was stated to be the reason for 90 percent of the conversions to Islam. They expressed doubt that the teenager Reena had studied enough of Islam to become a Muslim. However, in her case no definite reason is known yet that prompted her to convert. Probably, her uncle and aunt who had converted to Islam earlier played a key role in changing her mind and religion.</div>
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With around 4,000 Kalash left in Chitral following the growing conversions, the government needs to take a few steps to protect the community. As certain local officials pointed out, the costly religious and cultural festivals of the Kalash people have become unbearable for them and some of them convert to escape these unaffordable customs. The Kalash celebrate death and the three-day celebrations that follow may cost up to Rs800,000 as the mourners have to be fed and feted. The Chilumjusht spring festival in May is another costly affair because the Kalash wear new clothes, drink local wine, and contribute to preparing food for every member of the community.</div>
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There is no real government assistance to the Kalash to keep alive their religious and cultural traditions. The Kalash religious elders are paid a measly Rs1800 annually by the government as an upkeep allowance. Government and the non-governmental organisations have executed some development projects in the Kalash valleys, but the impact isn’t deep and sustained.</div>
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Another problem is the growing presence of non-locals running hotels and other businesses in the Kalash valleys. As a step towards empowerment of the Kalash and also the local Muslims, only locals should be allowed to establish businesses in the area. The Kalash have no special job quotas and this smallest minority in Pakistan is lumped together with other non-Muslims to unfairly compete for government jobs. They deserve to have special job quotas and educational stipends and their unique way of life and architecturally delightful houses should be preserved.</div>
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The road from Chitral town via Ayun to the Kalash valleys ought to be repaired and metalled and guided tours could be arranged for tourists to observe the Kalash culture in an orderly manner. Someone suggested a chairlift could be installed from Ayun to Bamburet on the five kilo9metres distance to enjoy the sights and sounds of these enchanting valleys and generate employment and business opportunities for the Kalash as well as for the Muslims living in the area.</div>
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Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com</div>
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Source:</div>
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<a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/129435-Stories-of-conversion" target="_blank">https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/129435-Stories-of-conversion</a></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-26128039851633259632016-12-28T14:04:00.001+05:002016-12-28T14:04:16.057+05:00No Relief for Kalash in Pakistan’s Valley of Infidels<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 36.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">No Relief for
Kalash in Pakistan’s Valley of Infidels<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By: <span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ayaz Gul</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;">ISLAMABAD — </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Years
of economic pressures and alleged forced conversions to Islam continue to pose
a threat to Pakistan’s tiny Kalash minority, the only pagans in the Islamic
republic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once a
large community that for many centuries ruled the scenic northern Pakistani district
of Chitral and adjoining border areas of Afghanistan, the Kalash minority tribe
has shrunk to around 4,000 people. They speak the Kalasha language and are now
confined to three small valleys (Rumbur, Brumbret and Birir), high up in the
Hindu Kush mountains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critics
say successive Pakistani governments have done little to address the extinction
threat to the Kalash and have failed to develop their poverty-stricken area to
make it accessible for tourism to boost local economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bleak future, festivals still popular</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
despite the challenges, celebration mood and excitement remains undeterred at
annual Kalash festivals where men and women, wearing traditional colorful
dresses, dance and sing to entertain tourists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kalasha
women mingle easily with male members of the society and are free to move on to
new partners should the new lovers, under local customs, be willing to pay the
price.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Such an
act is condemned as against family honor in many other parts of Pakistan, where
families adhere to a strict religious and cultural code.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
community member, Mohammad Ali, says tourism is now the only source of income
for the cash-strapped Kalash families. He cites repeated natural disasters in
recent years such as rain-triggered floods and earthquakes that have immensely
damaged the centuries old traditional livelihood of livestock and agriculture
farming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“There
are no other sources of earning for us but tourism. A large number of our young
people are jobless and annually some of them also convert to the Muslim faith [in
exchange for jobs],” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ali
complained that absence of a proper road to link the valleys to the rest of the
country has over the years discouraged local and foreign tourists to show up in
large numbers at their annual festivals. It also makes at extremely difficult
for the community to transport patients to hospitals in Chitral for treatment
in emergency, he says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Government says little they can do</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pakistani
officials acknowledge the “sorry and sad” situation facing the Kalash and also
admit nothing is being done to reverse it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“A lot
of people are leaving their culture and their religion because of a lot of
immense social pressure and there are forced conversions,” warns Fouzia Saeed,
head of the national institute called Lok Virsa, which focuses on promoting and
raising awareness about traditional Pakistani cultures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Activists
and researchers note the Kalash settlements are being rapidly encircled by the
growing Muslim population because over the years the improvised pagan community
has lost control of large parts of their lands to Muslims through sale or
mortgage in exchange for paltry loans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One God</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Community
leaders dismiss as “incorrect” many writings on the Kalash culture that suggest
the tribe believes in twelve gods and goddesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
say the tribe believes in “a single, creative God” and is referred to as
Dezauc. But the Kalash does not believe in divine books and messengers. That
belief makes them “kafirs” or infidels in the eyes of Muslim communities, say
critics, which has triggered the race for converting them to Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rich
Muslim neighbors also keep up the social pressure by offering incentives such
as good jobs and better marriage prospects for Kalash girls to encourage
conversions, says Saeed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
think that this whole focus of a lot of religious groups hovering around them,
this whole trend should have been stopped. There should have been a national
level responsibility. It is not just the government I think that the whole
society does not realize that these are our treasures,” she lamented.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pakistan
has seen a rise in Islamist militancy in recent years and extremist attacks
have frequently hit parts of the country. Analysts and even officials admit
fears of an Islamist backlash and losing support of religious parties in
elections play a role in discouraging political leaders from publicly
condemning and speaking against the conversion campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Origin still a mystery</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
mystery about the history and origin of the Kalash people, or Kalashas, remains
unresolved. While some historians say they are indigenous people, others point
to the fair skin, light eyes and brown hair of the Kalash, saying the tribe
might have descended from the armies of Alexander the Great, which conquered
this area in the fourth century B.C.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
belief in purity and impurity is deeply rooted in the Kalash society. Women are
considered “impure” during their menstrual cycle and childbirth, and are not
allowed to touch anyone. They are forced to spend their days in an isolated
building called Bashali, which is off limits to men, and family members deliver
food at the doorstep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
are no routine daily prayers, like the Muslim communities in the valleys. The
Kalash do pray whenever they initiate any activities like harvesting, plowing,
construction and whenever the favor and honor of Dezau is needed,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Kalash tribe welcomes local and foreign tourists to their four main seasonal
festivals that some observers say mirror the old pagan festivals of Europe. The
celebrations involve rituals and sacrifices, dances, songs, feasts and alcohol,
which the Kalash brew themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Kalash break all ties to those who convert to Islam and do not accept them back
in the society, nor do they resort to violent means to discourage conversions.
Although, abandoning Islam in favor of another religion elsewhere in Pakistan
could trigger a fatal mob attack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Activists
also complain the rate of conversions is increasing by the year because in the
absence of a curriculum for the minority community in government schools,
Kalasha students are forced to opt for Islamic studies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critics
believe urgent legal and administrative actions are required to effectively
document and preserve the Kalash culture and bring investment to the area to
improve lives of the pagans and protect them against forced conversions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Provincial authorities say
they plan to convene a donors conference on development projects and
persevering the Kalash. The regional government says it will require huge funds
because officials are unable to allocate public money with their limited
budget.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Source:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.voanews.com/a/no-relief-for-kalash-in-pakistan-valley-of-kafirs/3446943.html" target="_blank">http://www.voanews.com/a/no-relief-for-kalash-in-pakistan-valley-of-kafirs/3446943.html</a></div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-63421296183105818332016-12-28T13:58:00.000+05:002016-12-28T13:58:05.650+05:00Peace-loving Kalash Threatened by Violence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peace-loving Kalash Threatened by Violence<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By <a href="http://newslinemagazine.com/contributor/fatima-najim/" title="Posts by Fatima Najm">Fatima Najm</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the last day of the Shandur Polo festival, Akram and
Waris realised something had gone horribly wrong near the border where they
ordinarily worked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The terrorists timed their attack on the Kalasha
perfectly,” One of the policemen said. “Our minds were occupied with the
task of keeping Shandur safe, all police forces had been diverted there, no one
was thinking of the border or the Kalasha. Their harvest festival was weeks
away, and thats when we normally go in to protect them.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On July 30, a band of foreign militant crossed over from
Afghanistan, ate meals with Nuristani shepherds, broke bread with Gujjar goat
herders and then killed two Kalasha shepherds in a brazen pre-dawn attack.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the 31st, while Raheel Sharif, chief of army staff, made
statements about how “the people (of Pakistan) could now breathe freely…
(because) the noose is tightening around terrorists,” the Kalash found
themselves suffocating with fright and grief over the news of their recently
killed relatives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Kalasha, an animist tribe whose population has dwindled
down to just 3,700 people spread across the valleys of Bamburet, Brir and
Rumbur must now confront the reality that militants and their local sympathiser
threaten their right to exist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One policeman who asked for anonymity said, “They didn’t
kill any of the Muslim shepherds they met, they were waiting for the big kill,
the kafirs, the Kalasha, it was targeted. Also they allowed the two other
shepherds to escape, the two others were Kalasha who have converted to Islam.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The first news was that there had been a theft of a large
amount of cattle, and we concentrated on securing Shandur. It was the
last day of the Shandur festival, and then the army announced to all forces
that there had been a terrorist attack. But it takes a day to get back from
Shandur.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The policemen huddled over a cigarette they were sharing,
each dragging hard on it before flicking it into the ravine below. They explain
that it doesn’t matter how hard you ride or how fast you drive, the precarious
mountain bends and rugged terrain will slow you down.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“So the attackers had time to get across the border to
safety but they were so sure no one would come after them, that they would be
able to hide, that they remained in the area. Inki himat daykho, zara
jurrat ka andaza karo – imagine the audacity. Do you begin to see the
complicity they have with the Nuristani people, they are now sunni and
sympathise with the killing of kafirs, so they knew they could count on people
to hide them. But they didn’t count on how enraged the army was.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The shepherds, Khush Wali and Noor Ahmed, had taken their
cattle to graze in the higher pastures, beyond the army checkpoints positioned
to protect the region.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“This is what the <a href="http://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/kalash-people-tribe-lost-found/">Kalash</a> do,
we take our animals to graze in the pastures high above the valleys. Tthis is
our way of life, so now every family is filled with fear. When the bodies
were brought back, the mourning began and a silence came with it. We are a joyous
people but the religious extremists see no merit in our singing and dancing,
they label us indecent,” said Quaideazam, a Kalasha who works at Hindukush
Heights. This is a boutique hotel in Chitral which also manages a
fund, providing bright Kalasha youth with scholarships to pursue their
dreams.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just before the festival of Uchaw begins, the Kalash
community leaders from Bamburet advised the families, whose loved
ones had been butchered by the militants, to end their mourning
and return to participate in welcoming the harvest season.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A procession of town folk from Bamburet begins the walk to
Krakaal early in the morning, trekking past idyllic looking pastures, gurgling
mountain streams and little waterfalls. Several others come later piled into
jeep taxis. The Kalasha ‘Qazi’ or religious leaders carry tiny flowers
picked from nearby meadows in plastic bags.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is impossible to discern what is being said among the
gentle muttering of the religious leaders as they hand out the minuscule
offerings to the people waiting for them in the home of the deceased. “Hum
yahaan soog khatam karnay ka liyay aain hain…We are here to end the period of
mourning, and to put the pain in these flowers,” explains one religious leader.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The mourners take the flowers in their hands, some inhale
the non-existent fragrance, and then tuck the flower into their headdresses and
caps in a gesture that they accept the offering. They will move towards the
healing process, helping their community embrace the harvest ahead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amid a kaleidescope of colours, and silent bent heads, a
girl introduces herself, telling us she is an engineering student. “I am
Nooria, daughter of the deceased. You are our guests, please eat something.
Thank you for coming today. We will now look again in the mirror, cut our nails
and put on our headdresses. Please do not feel any distress, we must go back to
working to making life better, safer for others.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Men emerge from the kitchen carrying platters of tea and
biscuits that are distributed to the guests. Nooria speaks to us about broken
bridges, the lack of road access, and the damage from floods, “That is what we
must concentrate on. We see our hostels, modern and clean, and we wonder why we
cannot bring that change to our village. But you have seen our bridges and
roads, its hard to bring anything here. And hard to get out, and now these
attacks… We are under threat all the time, from all angles.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Uchaw begins the picturesque valley of Rumbur, we
watch the simple shuffling motion of dancers that the militants have declared
“indecent.” The dancers move in semi circles. With their arms across each
others shoulders, they reverse, stepping in tiny shuffles, then rush forward,
depending on the drumbeat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Kalash activist disentangles himself from the dancing and
leans over the railing at Grom, where the dancers have amassed on a platform
perched over 120 steps cut into the mountain. He asks, “What is wrong with
this? From the point of view of terrorists, everything is wrong, our girls are
unveiled and confident, men and women mix freely. They threaten these
freedoms, these simple basic rights of ours. If we send our girls to government
schools, they feel pressure to cover up. They are told the Kalasha dress tempts
the eyes of men, but it is long and covered. Perhaps it is colourful, but is
that worth killing our culture, murdering our people?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A group of elderly men in brocade robes in gold and burgundy
are chanting in the midst of the young throng of dancers, recounting folk
tales they feel the younger generation should internalise as part of their
culture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A middle aged Kalasha woman says, “This culture is dying and
the Muslims are interested in converting us, we don’t mind if Kalash want to
convert they should, but when they are forced we feel fear…” Her voice drops a
notch and she continues, “It’s not just Taliban, we are scared of strict and
angry Muslims who just decide someone is converted to Islam. Two youth from
Rumbur were said to have been converted. The Muslims insisted they were
converts but they were able to go to court and say they wanted to remain
Kalash. Thankfully, the judge decided it was their right… but Rani was not so
lucky.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just before the killings of the two shepherds in the
pastures, Rani, a Kalasha girl was taken to a madrassa, made to recite the
kalma, given a shalwar kameez to wear, and told she was now Muslim. When she
returned to her home and put on her Kalash clothing, Muslim mobs showed up
outside her home, pelting her house with stones in protest, insisting that she
must remain Muslim.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a meeting of Muslim leaders and Kalasha elders, the
girl’s mother demanded that her daughter should be allowed to choose whether
she is Muslim or Kalasha, but the gathering refused, saying they had witnesses
to Rani’s recitation of the calm. She must now continue her life as a Muslim or
prepare to face the consequences. In a few hours, 700 muslims from across the
three valleys had amassed at her home, and began to hurl stones at hers and
neighbouring houses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It felt like there was gun fire and explosions, the sound
of stones on tin roofs is really scary. We realised there were no guns
later but the mob looked like they were out for blood. We saw her uncle
dragging her out. He said she is the sacrifice. They couldn’t endanger the
whole village to protect her,” said a witness to the events.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Several Kalash youth and member of the press, particularly
the Ishpata news filmed the stoning on their phones. Rani then made a statement
to the press and police, saying she had converted of her own free will.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luke Rehmat, founder of the Ishpata news was particularly
concerned about the scale of the violence and the speed with which the mob had
amassed. “Their numbers are swelling, while our population is shrinking.
They are strong and they know how to get what they want. We are not weak, but
we prefer peace as a community so we step back,” says Luke. “We are
outnumbered here now, so the survival of our culture is tough. Up in the high
pastures we must live in fear of those who sympathise with the Taliban and
other foreign and local extremists. Here in the valley we live among those who
dislike our culture and want to see us converted and assimilated.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A three hour bone-rattling, knuckle-whitening drive from the
valley of Bamburet, Quaideazam checks in people who want to work with the
Kalasha. This is what he says to them: “Help the Kalash lead
themselves, help them develop networks and systems which allow the Kalash to
make their own decisions and govern their own existence. What we need most
is schools where our children are not being brainwashed against our culture.
Then we need improvement of our infrastructure so the Kalasha can get in and
out of the valleys, work and earn, facilitate trade. And we need to stop
struggling to justify the ‘decency’ of our culture. Until the local residents
respect our existence, our culture is doomed to die out.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But another activist says there is an institutionalised lack
of respect or recognition for the Kalasha culture: “When you go to make a
passport or Nadra identity card, you’re told there is no such thing as Kalash
religion. Of ourse there is, we have minority status and this is what I
practice so how can our officials says that. So then I went to the passport
office and I was told, no there is no Kalash religion, you’re a sect. A sect of
what? We are Kalash.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a country like Pakistan that is burdened by multiple
conflicts, the Kalash represent an oasis of peace. A serene people with
a unique culture that prioritises festivity and joy, they must be given
every protection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Source:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://newslinemagazine.com/peace-loving-kalash-threatened-violence/" target="_blank">http://newslinemagazine.com/peace-loving-kalash-threatened-violence/</a></div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-80470798093098880712016-12-28T12:11:00.001+05:002016-12-28T12:11:35.982+05:00Kalasha Festival of Fire and Ice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here you can read description of winter festival of the Kalasha people:<br />
<a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1295478/a-festival-of-fire-and-ice" target="_blank">Kalasha Winter Festival of Fire and Ice (Cawmos Festival)</a></div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-68536396618544645092016-12-28T11:14:00.004+05:002016-12-28T11:27:26.189+05:00قدرت کے قریب رہنے والا کیلاش دیسی قبیلہ زمانے کے رحم و کرم پر<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 align="right" style="background: white; line-height: 40.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #404040;">قدرت کے قریب رہنے والا کیلاش دیسی قبیلہ زمانے کے رحم و کرم پر</span></span></h1>
<h1 align="right" style="background: white; line-height: 40.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt;">تحریر:
ابراش پاشا</span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div>
<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div align="right" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">صوبہ
خیبر پختونخوا کے ضلع چترال کی وادی کیلاش، جس میں کیلاش قبیلہ کےلوگ رہتے
ہیں ۔ یہ ضلع چترال کے مغرب میں پاک افغان سرحد [ڈیورنڈلایئن]
پر واقع ہیں۔ کیلاش تین مزید چھوٹے چھوٹے علاقوں میں تقسیم ہیں جس کو
بیریر، رمبور اور بمبوریت کہا جاتا ہے۔ ان کے شناخت کے حوالے سے متضاد دعوے موجود
ہیں کہ یہ سکندر اعظم سے رہ گئے تھے، کوئی کہتے ہیں ان کا یونان کے میسیڈونیا سے
تعلق تو کوئی ایرانی تعلق کو ظاہر کرتے ہیں۔ کہا جاتا ہے کہ کیلاش قوم کے لوگوں نے
چترال پر بھی حکومت کی ہے۔ میں اس وقت اس بحث میں نہیں پڑنا
چاہتا کہ انکا اصل تعلق کہاں سے ہے بلکہ یہ ڈھونڈنا ماہرین کا کام ہے۔
یہاں پر میں اپنے خیالات و مشاہدات کا اظہار کرنا چاہوں گا جو میرے اس وادی
کے لوگوں کے ساتھ پچھلے پندرہ سالوں کے چار/پانچ دوروں کے دوران میں
نے محسوس کئے ۔ میرے اس علاقے میں جانا تحقیقی اور معلوماتی
مقاصد کے لئے تھا۔ اور لوگوں سے معلومات لینے کے علاوہ میں نے دیگر موجود ثانوی
ذرائع سے بھی معلومات اکھٹی کیں ہیں۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div align="right" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; outline: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">پاکستان
بننے کے بعد جب پہلی مردوم شماری1951 میں ہوئی تو کیلاش قبیلہ سے تعلق رکھنے والوں
کی آبادی تقریباً دس ہزار تھی۔ جبکہ 1896 میں ان کی آبادی ایک لاکھ سے زیادہ
تھی۔ لیکن موجودہ اندازوں کے مطابق ان کی آبادی 4500 کے لگ بھگ ہوگی۔ اس
مخصوص قبیلہ/ مذہب کے پیروکاروں کی تعداد کم سے کم ہوتی جارہی ہے
حالانکہ یہاں پر بچوں کی شرح پیدائش عموماً ذیادہ ہوتی ہے۔
باوجود اس کہ ان کی آبادی روز بروز تیزی سے گھٹ رہی ہے اور وجہ صاف
ظاہر ہے کہ اکثریت کو تبلیغ کھلی اجازت ہے اور انکی حفاظت کے لئے
اور ان کی قدیم اور مخصوص روایات کو محفوظ کرنے کے لئے کوئی خاطر خواہ
اقدامات نہیں کئے جا رہے ہیں۔ مختلف مسلکی ، تبلیغی جماعتوں اور جہادی
تنظیموں نے ان کو مسلمان کرنے کا بیڑا اٹھا رکھا ہے جن کواپنی مشن
میں کافی حد تک کامیابیاں ملی ہیں ۔ا س وادی میں پاکستان کے
مختلف مذہبی مدار س کی شاخیں کام کر تی نظر آرہی ہیں۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ا
س وادی میں ملکی و غیر ملکی غیر سرکاری ادارے علاقے اور اس کےمکینوں
کے فلاح و بہبود کے لئے سرگرم عمل ہیں۔ ان میں سب سے مشہور
یونان کا ادارہ ہے جو کیلاش کلچر کے حفاظت کے لئےسرگرم تھا مگر حالات کی
خرابی کی وجہ سے اب غیر فعال ہے۔یونانی رضاکار اتھا نوسیوس لیرونس نے
2011 میں طالبان کے ہاتھوں اغوا ہونے سے پہلے کیلاش قبیلہ کے لئے 22 منصوبے مکمل
کئے۔ انہوں نے جو سرگرمیاں سر انجام دئے ہیں ان میں کیلاش مذہب کے عبادت
گاہوں کی تعمیر، کیلاشہ دور[کلچر سنٹر ]کی تعمیر، میٹرنٹی ہوم، واٹر سپلائی
، کیلاش سکول و کیلاش قاعدہ کی ترتیب و تدوین شامل ہیں۔ کچھ اور ادارے
ڈسپنسری، واٹر سپلائ، پن بجلی گھر کی تعمیر، میں لگے ۔ وہاں جا کر ترقیا تی کاموں
کےسائین بورڈز تو بہت لگے ہوئے ہیں مگر کام کم دیکھائی دیتا ہے ۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">کیلاش
کلچر کو دیکھنے کے لئے ہر سال بہت سارے ملکی و غیر ملکی سیاح آتے ہیں۔
کچھ لوگ تو سمجھنے اور تحقیق کی غرض سے آتے ہیں اور کچھ صرف شغل،
محظوظ ہونےاور گھومنے کے لئے آتے ہیں۔ کیلاشی لوگ چونکہ پر امن ہیں، آپ ان
کے گھر جا سکتے ہیں، وہ اپنی بساط کے مطابق آپکو چھوٹی گفٹ دیتے ہیں، آپ کو موجود
میوہ جات خواہ خشک ہو یا تازہ پیش کرتے ہیں۔ یہ ساری چیزیں بہت سارے ‘سیاحوں ‘ کو
پہلی مرتبہ دیکھنے کو ملتی ہیں۔ ہمارے ‘سیاح ‘ بھی اپنے آپ کو سارے حدود و قیود سے
ماورا سمجھنے لگتے ہیں۔ جو حرکات وہ اپنے گھر، حجرہ، گاوں یا ادارہ میں نہیں کر سکتے
وہ یہاں پر سارے حدود و قیود پار کرنے کی کو شش کرتے ہیں۔ ‘سیاح ‘ مقامی
کلچر، مذہب اور روایات کا خیال نہیں رکھتے اور کیلاش لوگوں کے
لئے پریشانی کا باعث بنتے ہیں۔ کیلاش قبیلے کے افراد ا س
حوالے سے کافی حسا س واقع ہوئے ہیں اور ا س بات کا اظہار بھی کرتے
ہیں۔ ‘سیاح ‘لباس اور دیگر حرکات و سکنات کا بھی خیال نہیں
رکھتے ، علاقے میں کچرا پھیلانا، کیلاش مذہب کے عبادت خانوں کے تقدس کو
پامال کرنا عام دیکھنے کو ملتا ہے۔ لیکن کوئی بھی ریاستی ادارہ دفعہ 295 کا
استعمال نہیں کرتا اور نہ بے لگام سیاحوں کو روکنے کی کوشش کرتے ہیں
۔ کچھ ‘سیاح ‘تو اونی چترالی ٹوپی کے اوپر لگے ہوئے پرندہ کے پر
کو غیر اسلامی قرار دیتے ہیں اور دوسرے سیاحوں کو بھی اسے پہننے سے منع کرنے
کی کو شش کرتے ہیں۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">کیلاش
قوم کے لوگ چونکہ قدرت کے قریب تر واقع ہیں۔ اپنا کھانا سادہ
رکھتے ہیں، مال مویشی، کاشت کاری اور سادہ طرز زندگی گذارتے ہیں۔ گھر کی تعمیر،
میں لکڑی ، مٹی اور پتھر کا استعمال کرتے ہیں۔ اپنے تہواروں میں اپنے میوہ
جات، دودھ، اپنے پالے ہوئے بکروں کا گوشت استعمال کرتے ہیں۔ اون
سے بنی ٹوپی، اور ٹوپی کے اوپر پرندے کا پر لگاتے ہیں۔ کیلاش دیسی قبیلہ
کےمختلف رسومات ہیں اور چونکہ یہ لوگ قدرت اور ماحول کے بہت قریب ہیں لہذا موسم
ان کے طرز زندگی پر بہت حد تک اثر انداز ہوتا ہے۔ یہ لوگ پہاڑوں
کے تنگ وادی میں زندگی گذار رہے ہیں، سردیاں خاصی شدید ہوتیں ہیں۔ بہار اور گر می
کا موسم بڑا خشگوار ہوتا ہے۔ اسی حساب سے یہ اپنی چھوٹی
بڑی مذہبی تہواریں مناتے ہیں۔ ماہ مئی کے درمیان جوشی تہوار، مئی کے
آخر میں چھوٹا جوشی تہوار، فصل بونے ، کاٹنے کے الگ تہوار، بچے کے
پیدائش اور کسی فرد کے فوتگی پر بھی رسوم ادا کرتے ہیں ۔ کیلاش قبیلہ کے
افراد سب تہواروں کو خوشی خوشی ناچتے، گاتےاور مسکراہٹ سے مناتے ہیں۔ وہ جو بھی
ا س قسم کے رسوم ادا کرتے ہیں وہ ان کے مذہب، عقیدہ، عباددات اور رسوم
کا حصہ ہے۔ اور کیلاشی قبیلہ کے لوگ ا س کو کسی بھی طور پر ناچ اور
گانا تصور نہیں کرتے جو اکثر ‘سیاح ‘اسکو صرف شغل کے طور پر لیتے ہیں۔ فوتگی پر
خوشی کا اظہار کرنے کے حوالے سے یہ دلیل دیتے ہیں کہ جب انسان اپنے خالق کی طرف سے
پیدا کیا جاتا ہے تو خوشی کا اظہار کرتے ہیں۔ اور جب موت کے بعد اپنے
خالق کی طرف جاتا ہے تو یہ بھی خوشی کی بات ہے۔ اور خوشی خوشی جانا چاہئے۔
ا س لئے ڈھول، ناچ اور گانا گا کر اور اسکے صفات بیان کرکے رخصت
کیا جاتا ہے۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">کیلاش
وادی تک پہنچنا کافی مشکل ہے۔ راستہ کافی خراب ہے اور دریا کے کٹاو کی وجہ
سے تنگ روڈ بہہ جاتا ہے یا بھاری پتھر اور مٹی کے تودے گرتے ہیں اور علاقے
کے لوگوں کو کافی مشکلات کا سامنا کرنا پڑتا ہے۔ ان لوگوں کے لئے پیدل ایون گاوں
تک انا جانا ہوتا ہے۔ گو مقامی سیاحوں
سے ضلعی حکومت 20 روپے اور غیر ملکی سیاحوں سے 200 روپے فی کس
ٹیکس بھی لیتی ہے مگر اس کا استعمال کیلاش وادی کے باسیوں کے
فلاح و بہبود پر نظر نہیں آتا۔ مقامی لوگوں کا مطالبہ ہے کہ
ا س ٹیکس کو ختم کیا جائے کیونکہ ا س سے انکا وقار مجروح ہوتا
ہے۔ 2015 کے سیلاب نے وادی میں تباہی بپا کر دی ہے اور ابھی تک لوگ
اپنی زندگی کو بحال نہیں کر سکے ہیں۔ لوگوں کے کھیت بہہ گئے۔ فصلیں تباہ ہوئیں، گھر،
دکانیں ، مویشی بہہ گئے۔ علاقے کے ہوٹلز، صاف پانی کے چشمے اور پائیپ ختم ہوگئے۔
اب بھی دوباچ کے مقام پر جو پرانا پل کار آمد بنایا گیا ہے وہ
کافی خطرناک ہے او کسی بھی وقت حادثے کا سبب بن سکتی ہے۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA">کیلاش کلچر اور ا سکے پیروکار دنیا میں صرف
ساڑے چار ہزار کی تعداد میں رہ گئے ہیں لیکن انکے کلچر کے تحفظ اور فروغ کے
لئے کوئ حکومتی و غیر حکومتی اقدامات نظر نہیں آرہے
ہیں۔ ماضی میں کیلاش کے لوگوں نے اپنی ضروریات کے لئے رقم حاصل کرنے
کے لئے اپنے درخت خصوصاً اخرو ٹ کے درخت ایون و دیگر علاقوں کے
مسلمان اکثریت کے ہاں گروی /رہن رکھے تھے ۔ یہ بھی ایک دلچسپ بات ہے
کہ گرم اونی ٹوپی، جوتے یا کپڑے کے عوض اخرو
ٹ کا درخت یا ایک کنال زمین گروی کی گئی، گو اب حکومت نے اس پر پابندی لگائ
ہے مگر اب بھی پرانے رہن شدہ املاک آزاد نہ ہو سکے ہیں۔ کیلاش
قبیلہ کے شناخت کا مسئلہ بہت اہم ہے۔ آپ کو یہ جان کر بہت دلچسپ لگے گا کہ
پاکستان کے نادرا کے سسٹم میں کیلاش مذہب کو ابھی ابھی مذہب کے طور پر ماناگیا ہے
اور اب تک گنتی کے چند کارڈز بنائے گئے ہیں جس میں نادرا کے سسٹم کے اندر ان
کا مذہب کیلاش کے طور پر اندرا ج کیا گیا ہے۔ باقیوں کے مذہب کا
اندراج مختلف ہے مثلاً اسلام، احمدی /قادیانی، بدھ مت ، ہندو یا
دیگر۔ کیلاش قبیلے کے ماننے والوں کی شناخت کا مسئلہ کافی پیچیدہ اور
گھمبیر بھی ہے اگر آپ کو نصیر، عرفان، گل محمد، قائد اعظم جسے
نام سننے کو ملے تو کوئ اچھنبے کی بات نہیں۔ اکثر مسلمانوں والے نام اپنے شناخت کو
چھپانے کے لئے استعمال ہو رہے ہیں۔ کیلاش قبیلے کےافراد
مسلسل معد می کے خطرے سے دوچار ہیں۔ یہ قبیلہ سرحد کے
اُس پار افغانستان کے کافرستان میں بھی آباد تھا مگر افغانستان
کے حکمران امیر حبیب اللہ خان نے 1895 میں ان کو بزور شمشیر مسلمان
کیا۔ اور انہوں نے اپنی الگ شناخت کھو دی۔ انکا علا
قہ اب نورستان کہلاتا ہے۔ اکثر و بیشتر شدت پسند کیلاشیوں پر حملہ اور ہو کر ان کو
مار دیتے ہیں اور بکریوں اور مویشیوں کو چرا لے جاتے ہیں۔</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">کیلاش
قبیلہ کے اندر مرد اور خاتو ن کو یہ حق حاصل ہے کہ اپنے لئے
جیون ساتھی کا چناو کرے ۔ مرد مہر ادا کرتا ہے۔ شادی تو کسی بھی
وقت ہو سکتی ہے مگر اکثر جوشی تہوار کے آخری دن ناچتے ہوئے اور
گاتے ہوئے لڑکے اور لڑکیاں جیون ساتھی کا انتخاب کرتے ہیں۔ اور اسی تہوار
میں اسی کا اظہار کرتے ہیں۔ اگر کسی وقت خاتون کا دل بھر جائے تو خاتو
ن کسی دوسرے مرد کا انتخاب کر سکتی ہے اور ا ُس سے شادی کا اعلا ن کر
تی ہے۔ مگر خاتون دوسرے شوہر سے پہلے شوہر کے نسبت دُگنا مہر وصول کرے
گی اور پہلے شوہر کو بطور جرمانہ ادا کرے گی۔ ا سکا مطلب یہ ہوا کی طلاق کے
لئے لڑنے، جھگڑنے، عدالتوں اور ثالثوں کی ضرورت نہیں بلکہ دونوں اپنے
مرضی سے فیصلہ کرتے ہیں اور دوسرے فریق کو بخوشی قبول ہو تی ہے۔</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA">کیلاش قبیلہ کے افراد کے مذہب تبدیل کرنے کے
لئے طرح طرح کے طریقے استعمال کئے جاتے ہیں۔دیسی کیلاش
قبیلے کے افراد کے مذہب کو تبدیل کرنے کے لئے بہت سارے بدیسی، اجنبی، تبلیغی،
مسلکی، مساجد و مدارس، جہادی اور فلاحی تنظیمیں اور افراد
سرگرم ہیں۔ تبدیلی مذہب کے لئے کیلاش قبیلے کے لڑکے ، لڑکیوں،
خواتین اور بچوں کو خصوصی حدف بنایا جارہا ہے۔ سرکاری سکولوں میں
اساتذہ کا بہت اہم کردار ہوتا ہے اور وہ کیلاشی بچوں خصوصاً لڑکیوں کو
تبلیغ کرتے ہیں کہ مذہب تبدیل کریں اور کیلاشی لباس میں سکول نہ آئیں۔
۔ کیلاش لڑکیاں پردہ کرکے سکول آیئں۔ کیلاشی بچوں کو اسلامیات پڑھانا
بھی ا سمیں شامل ہے۔ صاحب ثروت مسلمان بھی کیلاشی شادی شدہ و
غیر شادی شدہ خواتین کے ساتھ شادی کے متمنی ہوتے ہیں۔ ا س صورت میں
پہلے وہ کیلاشی خواتین کو مسلمان اور پھر ان سے شادی کی جا تی ہے ا س
صورت میں کیلاشی مروجہ طریقہ لاگو نہیں ہوتا اور خاتون اپنے پہلے شوہر کو
دوگنا مہر ادا کرنے سے بری الذمہ ہو جاتی ہے۔ پاکستان کے بڑے بڑے شہروں
میں قائم مدار س بھی نو مسلم کیلاشیوں کے بچوں کو کراچی و دیگر شہروں کے
مدارس میں داخل کرتے ہیں۔ اپنی تعلیم مکمل کرنے کے بعد
مدار س کے ان فارغ التحصیل افراد کو کیلاش وادی میں
مدار س کھولنے کے لئے مالی مدد فراہم کی جا تی ہے۔ کچھ مدار س
تو مذہبی اسلا می تعلیم کے ساتھ ساتھ دستکاری سنٹرز بھی کیلاشی خواتین
کے لئےکھول دیتی ہے اور سرکاری سکولوں کے کیلاشی بچوں کو سکول سے چھٹی کے
بعد دوپہر کا کھانا مدرسہ کی طرف سے فراہم کیا جاتا ہے۔ پاکستان کے دیگر
مشنری سکولز بھی پاکستان کے بڑے بڑے شہروں میں کیلاشی بچوں کو داخل کرتے ہیں
اور بورڈنگ سکولز میں ان کو مسیحی مذہب کو پڑھنے اور مطالعہ
کرنے کا مواقع فراہم کرتے ہیں۔</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA">مندرجہ بالا سطورمیں کیلاش مذہب، روایات اور ان کو درپیش
مسائل کا ایک مختصر خلاصہ پیش کیا گیا۔
قاریئن کو صورتحال کا اندازہ بھی ہوا ہوگا۔ کچھ دوستوں کے اندازے کے مطابق
اگر حالات اسی طرح رہے تو شائد اگلے بیس، پچیس سال میں
کیلاش کلچر صفحہ ہستی سے غائب ہو جائے گا۔ ضرورت ا س امر کی ہے
کہ کیلاشی قبیلہ ، ان کے رسم روا ج، عادات و مذہب کا مکمل احترام کیا جائے۔
کسی قسم کے زبردستی کو روکا جائے ۔ تبدیلی مذہب کے لئے ان معصوم لوگوں کو
مختلف لالچ دینے والوں پر پابندی لگائ جائے اس کے لئے ضروری قانون
سازی کی جائے اور اسکی مکمل نگرانی کی جائے۔ کیلاش قبیلہ پر مشتمل افراد کا
ایک خودمختار بورڈ بنایا جائے جو علاقے میں جاری ترقیا م کاموں کی نگرانی کرے اور
مختلف ادارے ان کے ساتھ مل کر منصوبے بنائے۔ ان منصوبوں کو عملی کرنے کے لئے
بورڈ کی اجازت لاز می قرار دی جائے۔ علاقے کے ماحول کو صاف رکھنے کے
لئے مختلف چیزوں پر پابندی لگائ جائے جیسے پلاسٹک اور اسکے بنے اشیا ۔ کیلاش
مذہب اور ثقافت پر بچوں کے لئے تدریسی کتب ترتیب دئے جائیں۔ کیلاش بچوں کو
پڑھانے کے لئےکیلاش اساتذہ بھر تی کئے جائیں۔ علاقے میں دیگر خدمات فراہم
کرنے والے اداروں میں حتی الوسع مقامی کیلاش افراد بھرتی کئے جائیں۔ کیلاشہ
دور [کلچر سنٹر] کو خود مختار رکھاجائے اور سرکاری دخل اندازی سے گریز کیا جائے۔
سرکاری تقریبات اور وی آئ پیز کے ٹہرانے کے لئےاس کا استعمال نہ کیا جائے۔ کیلاش
وادی کا دورہ کرنے والے ‘سیاحوں ‘کے لئے کوئ ضابطہ اخلاق ہونی چاہئے اور
ا س پر سختی سے عمل درآمد بھی ہونا چاہئے۔ عالمی طور پر یونیسکو اور
قدیم و دیسی ثقافتوں کے بچاو کے لئے بنائے گئے ضابطوں[پروٹوکولز
]پر عمل درآمد یقینی بنانے لئے موثر اقدامات کئے جانے چاہئے۔
رہن شدہ /گروی شدہ املاک کو واگزار کرایا جائے۔ وادی کیلاش میں
کاروبار کا حق صرف کیلاشی و دیگر مقامی افراد کو دیا جائے اور غیر
مقامی افراد کو کاروبار کی اجازت نہ دی جائے تاکہ سیاحت سے واقعی اہلیان علاقہ کو
فائدہ پہنچے۔ روڈز اور پل کی صورتحال بہتر کرنےکی اشد اور فوری ضرورت ہے۔
کیلاش کے تمام تہواروں میں وی آئ پیز کی آمد پر پابندی ہو اور یا وہ عام شہریوں کی
طرح ائیں تاکہ پروٹوکول کے نام پر مقامی افراد اور دیگر سیاح خوار نہ ہوں۔
کیلاش کے علاقہ کو دیگر مذہب کےتبلیغ کے لئےممنوعہ علاقہ قرار دیا
جائے ۔موسمیا تی تبدیلی کے اثرات کو کم کرنے اور گلیشئرز
کے تیزی سے پگھلنے کو کم سے کم کرنے کے لئے پورے علاقے
میں اقدامات ہونی چاہئے۔</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA">Source</span></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="ER" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <a href="https://ibrashpasha.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%AA-%DA%A9%DB%92-%D9%82%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%A8-%D8%B1%DB%81%D9%86%DB%92-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7-%DA%A9%DB%8C%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B4-%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%B3%DB%8C-%D9%82%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%84%DB%81/" target="_blank">https://ibrashpasha.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/قدرت-کے-قریب-رہنے-والا-کیلاش-دیسی-قبیلہ/</a></o:p></span></div>
</span></div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-47095490886193866972016-09-11T00:34:00.001+05:002016-09-11T00:34:02.124+05:00A little-known Pakistani tribe that loves wine and whiskey fears its Muslim neighbors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A
little-known Pakistani tribe that loves wine and whiskey fears its Muslim
neighbors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">By<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/tim-craig" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #1955a5; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tim
Craig</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="dateline"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">KALASH VALLEY, Pakistan —</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Hidden up in the mountains near Pakistan’s
border with Afghanistan, the Kalash tribe loves homemade wine and whiskey,
dances for days at colorful festivals, and practices a religion that holds that
God has spirits and messengers who speak through nature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div id="U1100878080832zBE" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Long before the campaign of GOP
presidential nominee Donald Trump, the villagers fretted over whether they
needed walls or do-not-enter lists to protect them from their more-conservative
Muslim neighbors — ultimately deciding that the towering heights of the Hindu
Kush would protect them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">But over the past century, Muslims from modern-day Pakistan and
Afghanistan began moving in. Now villagers say their Kalash culture and
religion are threatened by forced conversions, robberies and assaults.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“We are scared,” said Yasir Kalash, the manager of a hotel here
in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “They capture our
lands, our pastures and our forests, and sometimes take our goats and women. .</span><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">. We are afraid in the next few years we will be finished.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Though the area is called the Kalash Valley, Kalash settlers
actually live in three separate valleys that make up an eastern prong of
Pakistan’s 1,000-square-mile Chitral Valley.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Kalash religion was once widespread in Central Asia, but the
4,200 villagers who live here in the Chitral Valley make up the last known
Kalash settlement in the world. And now those villages are yet another test of
Muslimdominated Pakistan’s tolerance for minorities and cultural diversity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div channel="wp.com" class="interstitial-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; max-width: 100%;">
<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/26/pakistani-husbands-can-lightly-beat-their-wives-islamic-council-says/" shape="rect" style="box-sizing: border-box; zoom: 1;" target="_blank" title="www.washingtonpost.com"><span style="color: #1955a5;">Pakistani men can ‘lightly beat’ their
wives, Islamic council says</span></a>]</span></i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Kalash tribe is so fearful of being overrun that its members
are considering packing up their children and goats and embarking on a
modern-day pilgrimage in search of a new country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“The younger generation think they cannot live here anymore,”
said Zahim Kalash, 34.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In June, a two-day riot erupted on this plateau after Kalash
villagers said a 15-year-old girl was tricked into converting to Islam. Last
month, two Kalash goatherds were killed in a mountain pasture, the latest in a
series of attacks on the tribe. And heated arguments are erupting over
practices as simple as using the local spring water.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“According
to our traditions, we consider all the springs to be holy,” said Imran Kabir,
who lives in the valley and acts as an unofficial spokesman for the tribe. “We
don’t allow anyone to wash clothes or take baths in the springs.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Last
month, several of their Muslim neighbors started doing just that — bathing and
washing clothes in the cool, emerald waters that flow from the nearby heights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We
said, ‘Please don’t do that. People drink from those springs,’</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">”</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Kabir said. </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
said, </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You people are stupid.</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">”</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> And then a scuffle broke out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/18/pakistans-plan-for-tackling-deforestation-a-billion-trees/" target="_blank" title="www.washingtonpost.com"><span style="color: #1955a5; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Pakistan’s plan for tackling
deforestation: A billion trees</span></a>]</span></i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Kalash villages are accessible only by one-lane jeep trails, and residents live
in wood-and-mud houses that contain few furnishings except for cots. They eat
mostly what they can produce, including hundreds of pounds of butter each year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Kalash believe in one god with several messengers. To communicate with them,
the tribe erects altars where worshipers offer sacrifices, usually goats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some
scholars say the Kalash religion originated during Alexander the Great’s
conquest of South Asia around 300 B.C. But other scholars and villagers
are skeptical, noting that neither the tribe’s written history nor its oral
traditions, including song and poetry, include any reference to Alexander.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Kalash religion at one time flourished in the Hindu Kush region. Over the
centuries, however, armies and members of competing faiths moved in, and many
Kalash were converted. Others fled into the mountain passes, largely left alone
when the area was a western frontier of British colonial India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
Pakistan became a country in 1947, Muslim families began moving into the Kalash
Valley, drawn by the crisp climate, undisturbed forests and rich grazing lands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Salamat
Khan, who does not know his age but estimates it to be at least 75, said that
for much of his life, the Kalash and their new neighbors lived in relative
harmony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But he
and other villagers said the mood has changed over the past decade as a
less-tolerant form of Islam began taking hold here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Traveling
Islamic scholars are increasingly showing up in the valley, and after each
visit, villagers say, their Muslim neighbors appear less tolerant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“They
will say, ‘Why do you people make wine?’ ” recalled Yasir Kalash. “We make
wine because it’s our culture. We use wine in our rituals, we use wine to cook,
and we use wine because, in our mind, wine is purification.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/20/a-pakistani-girl-ran-away-and-converted-to-islam-now-she-cannot-go-back-to-her-family/" target="_blank" title="www.washingtonpost.com"><span style="color: #1955a5; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">A Pakistani girl ran away and
converted to Islam. Now she cannot go back to her family.</span></a>]</span></i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
June, according to police and local officials, a 15-year-old girl named Rina
wandered away from home and ended up at a local Islamic seminary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After a
few hours, the cleric declared that Rina had converted to Islam. She later
returned to her village, saying she had not intended to convert.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
angry Muslim villagers began pelting Kalash villagers with bricks and stones,
arguing that a conversion to Islam cannot be undone. A judge agreed,
effectively severing ties between the girl and her parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
conversion rate is very high, and we are afraid if this goes on, our culture
will be finished within the next few years,” Yasir Kalash said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/taliban-opens-door-for-earthquake-aid-but-clashes-raise-security-concerns/2015/10/27/765fc16a-7c18-11e5-bfb6-65300a5ff562_story.html" target="_blank" title="www.washingtonpost.com"><span style="color: #1955a5; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Afghan Taliban opens door for quake
aid, but clashes raise security concerns</span></a>]</span></i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kalash
villagers also are fearful of violent attacks, including raids by Taliban
militants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Zabir
Shah, 26, a Kalash villager, said that two years ago, Taliban militants from
Afghanistan sneaked into Bumberet, the unofficial capital of the valley, and
stabbed a 15-year-old boy to death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I saw
25 Taliban, from a distance, surrounding the guy and killing him,” Shah said.
“There can be no reason for them to kill him except that he was a non-Muslim.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Villagers
say the recent killing of two Kalash goatherds underscores the threats to the
tribe’s way of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“If we
cannot take our goats high up in the pasture, then our culture cannot survive,”
said one Kalash villager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he
feared for his safety. “The goats are part of [our] religion, and we sacrifice
our goats, and down in the valley there is not enough grazing land.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name=""></a><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Description: https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/08/12/Foreign/Images/IMG_04971471016710.jpg?uuid=wzSi4mCjEeaEwW0nKHiWtQ"
style='width:1113pt;height:762.75pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\KASHIF~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg"
o:title="IMG_04971471016710"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img alt="Description: https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/08/12/Foreign/Images/IMG_04971471016710.jpg?uuid=wzSi4mCjEeaEwW0nKHiWtQ" border="0" height="1017" src="file:///C:\Users\KASHIF~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_1" width="1484" /><!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A young man carries
freshly cut hay. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)</span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kalash
men use goat blood in religious cleansing rituals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not
everyone believes tensions are rising between the Kalash and their neighbors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Qimat
Shah, 24, a local Muslim man who spends his day making flatbread in a
wood-fired oven, noted that young Muslim and Kalash villagers go to school
together. He said that whatever problems exist stem from a lack of education
among village elders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We are
people from both religions living together,” Shah said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
Michael Javed, chairman of the Karachi-based Pakistan Minorities Front, said
the problems facing the Kalash community are a subset of the intolerance that
afflicts minority groups throughout Pakistan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thousands
of Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and non-Sunni Muslims have fled the
country, fearing persecution or state-sponsored policies, including harsh laws
on blasphemy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“No
minorities in this country are safe,” said Javed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What
makes the Kalash community especially frightened is a feeling of being
“isolated and alone,” Yasir Kalash said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said
Christians can turn to the Vatican or the West for support, while Hindus can
look to India, and Shiite Muslims can seek some protection from Iran. Kalash
villagers, he added, feel as if no other country cares about them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We
request to the world, preserve us,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21.6pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Source:
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-little-known-pakistani-tribe-that-loves-wine-and-whiskey-fears-its-muslim-neighbors/2016/08/15/9a8483aa-5273-11e6-b652-315ae5d4d4dd_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-little-known-pakistani-tribe-that-loves-wine-and-whiskey-fears-its-muslim-neighbors/2016/08/15/9a8483aa-5273-11e6-b652-315ae5d4d4dd_story.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-32049861609114315142016-08-07T22:27:00.000+05:002016-08-07T22:27:11.720+05:00Earthly Matters: Who will save the Kalash?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Earthly Matters: Who will save the
Kalash?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">RINA SAEED KHAN<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Living in harmony with nature in
three secluded valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains and celebrating the changing
seasons according to their pre-Islamic religion for centuries, the ancient
Kalash tribe of Chitral is under attack. This past week, armed militants from
across the border in Afghanistan’s remote Nuristan province attacked shepherds
in the high altitude pastures of the Kalash valleys — Bumburet, Birir and
Rumbur — in three separate incidents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">In the first attack, which took
place last week on a pasture in the Bumburet Valley, they stole around 400
animals and killed two of the Kalash shepherds who resisted the attacks. The
militants had come for their goats and sheep, essential for the Kalash who
survive on their milk, goat’s cheese and butter during the long winter months.
Goats also play an important role in their festivals, which are a part of their
unique culture and religion. It is estimated that the militants have stolen
around 2,500 goats and sheep in such attacks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">In the second attack in Birir
Valley’s pastures, the shepherds ran away and hid in a nearby village fearing
for their lives, while the militants herded their livestock over the high
mountains, back into Nuristan. The third and most recent attack in Rumbur
Valley’s pastures was repulsed as around 260 Kalash men rushed up to the
mountain to protect their livestock. Army action is expected to flush the
militants out of the area, as they are said to be still hiding nearby.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“Our livestock can eventually be
replaced but the two men who died have gone forever,” says a Kalash community
leader from Rumbur Valley. “We have had to defend ourselves during the three
attacks which occurred just when the Shandur Polo Festival was taking place in
north Chitral and all the army and government officers were busy with the
festivities.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">It is the not the first time these
attacks have occurred — three years ago, Taliban sneaked into the pasture-land
of Bumburet valley, killed a shepherd from the Kalash community and took away a
herd of 200 goats and sheep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“This time we are terrified. The
militants have told one of our Muslim neighbours, who was also in the pastures
with his livestock, not to worry; ‘We won’t do anything to you, we are after
the Kalash and we plan to kill them all in their villages.’” The most recent
incident has created an unprecedented sense of insecurity amongst the local
villagers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The Kalash villagers, who now number
around 4,000 people, live in the three narrow valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and
Birir in the towering mountains of south Chitral. Bumburet and Rumbur have been
badly damaged by flash floods and glacial floods that poured down the steep
mountainsides last summer when unprecedented rainfall hit Chitral.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The Kalash are animists in an
Islamic state and have been threatened by the Taliban in the past. The people
of this tribe are the last survivors of Kafiristan, who mostly converted to
Islam in the 19th century. Their neighbours across the high mountain passes in
the Afghan province of Nuristan are the Taliban who hold sway in many parts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“If our livestock goes, our culture
goes,” explained Akram Hussain, who heads the Kalash Cultural Centre in
Bumburet Valley. The Kalash believe in a creator, ‘Dezau’ but also believe in
various deities, semi-gods and spirits. Prayers are usually offered during
their festivities and their elaborate rites demand the sacrifice of dozens of
goats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The Kalash also confront other
problems as migrants move into their valleys. “Some of these migrants are
brainwashing the Kalash people. There have been several conversions to Islam,”
explained Hussain. “They are slowly taking over our lands but they should not
be allowed to frequent our lands. The government really needs to help us.” He
felt that the government and, in fact, the world was ignoring their plight.
“Scientists all over the world spend so much money digging up old fossils and
studying old cultures and here you have a living ancient culture that is
struggling so hard to survive and the world is doing nothing about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">According to Unesco, Pakistan is a
signatory to the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Kalash
tribe urgently need to be placed on its ‘Safeguard List’. However, this has to
be done by the government of Pakistan itself. “They have to send the nomination
to Unesco, explaining why the culture is so unique and special that it needs to
go on a global list — we can only help with capacity building,” points out
Vibeke Jensen, the Unesco country director in Pakistan. “There are
international instruments for safeguarding these tribes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">For now, however, it seems that the
Kalash are on their own. During the long winter months their valleys will be
cut off from the outside world by snow. At least the deep snow will be a
deterrent to militant attacks. In September 2009, the last Greek volunteer
Athanassios Lerounis, who was helping the Kalash build their traditional
structures, was kidnapped by the Taliban. He was released only after eight
months in captivity. No other Greek volunteer has come here since then. “That
was a big blow to our community since he was doing good work for the Kalash,”
says Shahida, a local Kalash woman from Bumburet. “The second blow was when one
of our shepherds was brutally murdered on the border with Nuristan a few years
ago.” The Pakistan Army had moved into the valleys in recent years to provide
them with better security but the recent attacks are the third big blow to the
Kalash and they are reeling from it. “Maybe we should just move from here — if
another country will have us and give us protection. We can’t live like this in
constant fear for our lives,” says the community leader.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Soldiers patrol the Kalash valleys
and have set up many checkpoints where ID cards are checked. Military camps
have sprung up in Bumburet and Rumbur in the last couple of years but still the
attacks continue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">According to Syed Harir Shah, a
Chitrali disaster management expert who runs an NGO called JAD Foundation:
“Serious efforts must be made to develop a comprehensive and integrated
security plan to protect the Kalash people. Influential conversion of Kalasha
should immediately be stopped through legal coverage. Local people (Kalasha)
must be recruited into the Pakistan Army, Chitral Scouts and Chitral Police and
they should be posted in security posts within jurisdiction of Kalasha.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">He is also clear about other
resources needed to protect Kalash culture within Pakistan. “Preaching by
Tablighi Jamaat and other individuals should immediately be stopped. Urgent
legislation for the protection of Kalash community should be passed by the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, incorporating severe punishable criminal clauses
for the forceful conversion of Kalash to another religion. All official
positions in the Kalash area should be reserved for the Kalash community and
additional security posts should be established within the three Kalash
valleys.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">An army operation took place on Aug
2 and five militants were killed on the border with Nuristan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine,
August 7th, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Source: <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1275387/earthly-matters-who-will-save-the-kalash">http://www.dawn.com/news/1275387/earthly-matters-who-will-save-the-kalash</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-86793077298553295752016-07-26T00:13:00.001+05:002016-07-26T00:30:04.145+05:00The Kalash People: A Tribe Lost and Found<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Kalash People: A Tribe Lost and Found<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4019234076254121025" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Parwana
Jan, 23, a native of Kalash, moved out of the picturesque valley when he was 18
years old to pursue an education in Peshawar. Now he studies film making in
Lahore and visits his family back home in the Hindu Kush mountain range in
Chitral once every three months. “What I miss the most is a dish my mother
makes from clarified butter and cottage cheese,” he chuckles, as he reminisces
about the traditional savoury speciality his mother cooks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jan
addresses some of the problems that people from his indigenous community
endure. Today there are only about 4000 Kalash – the country’s only pagan tribe
– in Pakistan, perhaps the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once
a flourishing community, over the years the population of Kalash has seen a
gradual decline. This owes in part to the rise of the Taliban – the Kalash’s
neighbours across the mountains in the Afghan province of Nuristan – whose
threats have compelled them to slowly join other Muslim tribes in the area or
face death. Also, it is believed, due to inbreeding and the resultant health
issues this can engender, the Kalash population is fast dwindling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jan
says that the Kalash are a small community with big problems. “Roads are a huge
problem. Commuting to schools and hospitals is a major task, especially when
rain hits the area and roads remain blocked for weeks,” he states.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although
schools have been built there over the years, Jan says that English medium
schools remain a rarity, due to which people like him have trouble when they
move to the city and do not even have the basic English language skills with
which to communicate and write. Similarly, he adds, “We have a hospital but
even basic amenities such as X-ray and ultrasound machines are not available.
So people have to commute for hours to reach a hospital that offers those things.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Siraj
ul Mulk, who runs the Hindukush Heights hotel in Chitral along with his wife,
says that until Kalash is made a heritage site – something he has asked members
of UNICEF working in the area to look into – the Kalash people won’t be able to
endure. “Recognition by the UN would be crucial to sustaining them as a tribe,”
he says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
there are endless other problems as well. Mulk relates how a few years ago he
went to the army commander in Chitral and asked him to enrol men from Kalash in
the forces so they could have a viable source of livelihood. Five years later
when he asked the same officer how the recruits were faring, he was told that
the army had stopped hiring Kalash men as they were being influenced into
converting to Islam, and –surprisingly– they wanted to prevent these
conversions. The officer told Mulk that other jawans would mock the
recruits because of their unusual names or outfits, and in such circumstances
the boys found it more “convenient to just become Muslim.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Forced
conversions to Islam are still prevalent in the valley. On May 16, residents
clashed in Chitral over the forced conversion of a Kalash girl to Islam that
sparked a clash between a group of Muslims and members of her community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mulk
continues that Christian and Muslim missionaries who had come to the Kalash
lands in the past had not succeeded in converting the locals. Now, however, he
says things have changed. “Their own customs are increasingly working against
them. According to Kalash tradition, if a member of their family dies, they
have to slaughter 20 to 25 goats. Goats have become really expensive now, so
they take loans to purchase them and then cannot repay the debt,” says Mulk,
adding “hence a lot of Kalash people just find it easier to become Muslim.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
conversions are usually accompanied by new Muslim names. The Kalash seemed to
have a penchant for quirky nomenclatures. For example, the manager at Mulk’s
hotel goes by the name Quaid-e-Azam. A woman in his tribe is called Edinburgh
Khan, and another man named himself Zardari. Mulk recalls the first female
pilot to come from Kalash who was called Election Bibi. The ridicule she
encountered forced her to change her name to Lakshan Bibi. But others adopt
more run-of-the-mill Muslim names.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ansari,
aka Bugi, a Holland-based painter who has lived and worked among the Kalash off
and on for many years, campaigns to preserve the heritage of the people of
Kalash. It is a heritage that is rich in tradition and folklore. There is a
season for example, when the young men of the Kalash valleys take to the
mountains to perform the rites of passage which will earn them their manhood.
If they survive the harsh climes and return to their villages, they are fêted
and celebrated. At the Joshi or Chilim Josh festival that
follows, there is music and dance and the young men choose the girls of their
choice to partner with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another
tradition, akin to some ancient Hindu customs, is the seclusion of women in a
“bashali” – a house where women are required to stay during their menstrual
cycle as they are considered “impure” during their periods. When they go into
retreat to “bashali,” they are off-limits to men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ansari
is enamoured by the Kalash customs, lifestyle and attire: the feathers on their
hats, their chunky necklaces made of shells and beads – a mystery, for where it
is often wondered, do the denizens of landlocked mountains, acquire the shells
from – and their neon-coloured outfits that complement their light eyes and
pale skin. “I have yet to see another tribe, which is more beautiful and
colourful,” he says. “Because of their beauty, at the time of the Greek and
Persian empires, the Greeks paid a sizeable bounty to mercenaries to kidnap
these women and bring them to the Persian kings in return for favours.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ansari
also pays tribute to the Kalash’s creativity and indigenous artistic orientation.
But he laments, “It is heartbreaking: until just a few decades ago, the Kalash
tribes had 106 statues and wooden figures created by their legendary artists
and artisans. But over the years, all those masterpieces have been taken away –
stolen by people from outside.” Furthermore, certain traditions are on the
decline due to increasing outside influences. But the Kalash people still erect
totem poles in their ceremonial grounds on the upper valley slopes, to honour
those who have died and they make wooden statues of their ancestors. These
statues, locally calledgandao, can be seen erected over graves in the three
Kalash valleys of Birir, Rumbur and Bumburet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
perhaps to reintroduce them to their own aesthetic and inspire them to keep
creating, Ansari relates how he has taught five generations of Kalash to paint
and sculpt. He says he listens to their folk tales and creates paintings around
them and even held an exhibition of his Kalash work in 1989.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ansari
says that the Kalash people lived in peace and harmony with each other and
their environs until 1977, when the Tableeghi Jamaat entered the
valley. The Jamaat took over the hotels and land from the people and in just a
short span of time, 50 to 70 per cent of the ancestral Kalash land was gone. He
also tells how before the Russia-Afghan war of the early ’80s the Pakistan
government had allocated funds for a museum to be developed in Kalash, but
then, when the refugee crisis erupted, those resources were diverted to help
the Afghan refugees settle in the Kalash valleys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It
is still paradise on earth,” says Ansari, “but polio has even come here. One
Kalash girl has polio.” He continues, “Marsia Bibi, the victim, is the daughter
of a friend of mine who used to be my carpenter. I met her in 2008 and was
astonished to see how she was treated – like an animal. The family would go to
the fields to work and just dump her outside their house, leaving her to fend
for herself.” Appalled by her situation, Ansari contacted some friends and
family members who collected money to buy a wheelchair for Marsia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ansari
is not the Kalash’s sole protector. Many organisations, both local and foreign,
along with several individuals, have gone to Kalash on their own to draw
attention to the situation there, but it is not an easy undertaking. Ansari
recalls a volunteer from a Greek NGO who once came to Chitral and was told of a
tribe nearby called ‘Alexander’s Army.’ He went and met them and when he
returned to Greece, he asked school children to collect money for the tribe. He
came back to Kafiristan, and while living there, built a museum in the area,
but in 2009, he was kidnapped and taken across the Afghan border to Nuristan.
Ansari and some associates worked for eight months behind closed doors to
collect money to pay the ransom demanded for his release.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
the late 1980s, a Japanese woman, Akiko Wada, came to visit Kalash as a tourist
and was so captivated by their simple, self-sufficient lifestyle that she
married a local man there and never left. She learnt the language, adopted
their dress and became one of them. She was welcomed by the community and she
now regularly hosts activities for children at her place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Maureen
Lines, a British woman, meanwhile, has written a wonderful book on the
Kalash, The Last Eden – Living With the Kalash of Pakistan, introducing
this magical, mystical civilisation from another age to the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mobeen
Ansari, known for his portrait photography has taken some of the most famous
portraits of Kalash women, including that of Bibi Kai, a famous face in Rumbur
valley. Islamabad-based photographer Sara Farid, captured the valley of
Bumburet in December 2015 after it was hit by floods and an earthquake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bugi
Ansari has now filed a petition with the United Nations to help turn Kalash
into a heritage site. But like the land itself, the route to attain this is
“lonely, dark and deep”…..”with miles to go before” those fighting for the
Kalash can sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: <a href="http://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/kalash-people-tribe-lost-found">http://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/kalash-people-tribe-lost-found</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-23038674031188701502015-11-18T21:59:00.000+05:002015-11-18T21:59:31.345+05:00Flooding in Rumbur Valley (Chitral-Pakistan) as I Have Seen (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Flooding in Rumbur Valley (Chitral-Pakistan) as
I Have Seen (2015)</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Text and Photographs: Muhammad Kashif Ali</span></b></h2>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEI-u1q-zYL0LhiWW0n1ISsFoSInV4_vhmGxXpU0ByIbTlZndHyWfHRITbVENifi1URXD0oSYdlptm63PitiAfQHoyTLfVjndZPYgsZM1CEnxM3Ao2ocsiTKha31MhzciuADEgPZwtFEsq/s1600/Deforestation+and+flooding+in+Rumbur+river+of+rumbur+valley+Kalash-Chitral.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEI-u1q-zYL0LhiWW0n1ISsFoSInV4_vhmGxXpU0ByIbTlZndHyWfHRITbVENifi1URXD0oSYdlptm63PitiAfQHoyTLfVjndZPYgsZM1CEnxM3Ao2ocsiTKha31MhzciuADEgPZwtFEsq/s400/Deforestation+and+flooding+in+Rumbur+river+of+rumbur+valley+Kalash-Chitral.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-small;">Deforestation and flooding in Rumbur river of Rumbur valley Kalash-Chitral</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The
flooding phenomenon is not newer for the Kalasha valleys of Hindu Kush Range,
Chitral Pakistan but intensity and chaos in ecological system is a big
question. I am visiting all three Kalasha valleys (Bumboret, Rumbur &
Birir) since 2007 for academic research in domain of cultural history of the
region (earlier for my MPhil and currently for my Ph.D). There were floods in
the valleys before 2010 but not roaring and crushing flooding rather “soften”
floods with least harm to valleys and dwellers. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusuwIAGM6RUJlJckQtfw0-ARiWSzJObPl2oM2u9YxWA0MeGjFbgKaPp851nFJMyLXCQvygh9h0btfoEMI_bGELVNzHbKeNk78t9n-FmUpbQA8NtVJzX4Fg5V4FRLQswtjl2lwHHZMAYNX/s1600/Fetching+water+from+muddy+sprins.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusuwIAGM6RUJlJckQtfw0-ARiWSzJObPl2oM2u9YxWA0MeGjFbgKaPp851nFJMyLXCQvygh9h0btfoEMI_bGELVNzHbKeNk78t9n-FmUpbQA8NtVJzX4Fg5V4FRLQswtjl2lwHHZMAYNX/s400/Fetching+water+from+muddy+sprins.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Fetching water from muddy springs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Since
2010 the people of all three Kalasha valleys are under roaring pressure of
respective rivers flowing in Bumboret, Rumbur & Birir valleys, with
hardships they restore their lives in a year hardly and again stuck and hit by
havoc flooding from high pastures where hundreds of hundreds goats and sheep
ignite floods with their hundreds of thousands tiny hooves.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PQxnqFfT10l_LsDz1OEhZP73FCOAPzBtpGlBn_RK6en8F1QhylQjZBcvfz9hCPUn9WHXwjzeBydV6DDUNZF6p0qQg4ZEpd71kBO1x3i6Ay7CDAvVnDu6ohmwc1ewpJL-SjJCm_W3p9Iu/s1600/Flood+struck+homes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PQxnqFfT10l_LsDz1OEhZP73FCOAPzBtpGlBn_RK6en8F1QhylQjZBcvfz9hCPUn9WHXwjzeBydV6DDUNZF6p0qQg4ZEpd71kBO1x3i6Ay7CDAvVnDu6ohmwc1ewpJL-SjJCm_W3p9Iu/s400/Flood+struck+homes.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Flood struck homes (Palarog Village, Rumbor Valley)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I
had a plan to stay in Rumbur valley for academic data collection for a month in
July and August, to materialize the plan I left my home town with my family
(including three kids of 10, 7 and 2 years ages) for Chitral on July 13, 2015
and the same day first wave of the flood hit Chitral & adjacent valleys.
From July 13, 2015 to August 04, 2015 (as long was my stay) there with help of
my native friends I counted some 40 waves of floods in Rumbur Valley causing
damaging dozen of fields, houses, washing away bridges, destroying patches of
roads, hitting water mills and demolishing water channels, in nutshell
paralyzing normal life in Rumbur one of the Kalasha valleys.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlx2WEtNDEpHbrTt_MdPLNA1rxmUw_6bZHsZxa7-ybA8kzOikKt9b8QnaExu5qs8eLkisYtP4MLnshAl3tt0j6zuTWIOnC73yxIdJxhJoydOhfNlPKcf0x6gA-Ep9B47THDFZvyu0zG9bC/s1600/Flood+struck+orchard.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlx2WEtNDEpHbrTt_MdPLNA1rxmUw_6bZHsZxa7-ybA8kzOikKt9b8QnaExu5qs8eLkisYtP4MLnshAl3tt0j6zuTWIOnC73yxIdJxhJoydOhfNlPKcf0x6gA-Ep9B47THDFZvyu0zG9bC/s400/Flood+struck+orchard.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Flood struck orchard (Rumbor Valley)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The
floods in Rumbur flow downwards from four high pastures: Bahuk, Ostuee,
Chimiksunn and Gangalwaat. These high pastures are habitat of Pine, Cedar,
Juniper and Oak largely. However, for four or five decades, as my local
informant told, the timber mafia is massacring the jungles cold-bloodedly and
the slopes of meadows are getting naked and vulnerable to inviting unexpectedly
flooding.</span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWvW3n4Yra_U075zwc_qnohxGxTGmq2XCHA7ihmdUSp7JRjg62BF41gZdCcaaaielSaezL5PCRlb_6ycJvjWnzrLUcG4P7vlj6ZzkWj4xDQ1b9n93bdRus1mNo8rpW2X0WmZi1-2BjxIyK/s1600/Jeep+track+of+Rumbur+valley+is+washed+away+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWvW3n4Yra_U075zwc_qnohxGxTGmq2XCHA7ihmdUSp7JRjg62BF41gZdCcaaaielSaezL5PCRlb_6ycJvjWnzrLUcG4P7vlj6ZzkWj4xDQ1b9n93bdRus1mNo8rpW2X0WmZi1-2BjxIyK/s400/Jeep+track+of+Rumbur+valley+is+washed+away+1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jeep track of Rumbur Valley is washed away</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Due
to continuous flooding and disconnecting Rumbur valley from Chitral town the
shops (might be counted on finger tips) got abandoned in couple of weeks and
the valley was on brink to hunger when a chopper of Pakistan Army landed in
valley to distribute relief ration provide by National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA). My family also had to collect ration from relief package for
survival.</span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA1RTNfKBylNr0SaboyKez8RHXA4Mc7-Ksu0iiyogwapqImVDmKBLJy5g57eN-YKbrFhmRv8IFKjEW0eeUKe7cWZYq3WLZwtPSADWDdoL6jKGQNr-0KoKxVXa9mMDtdmxEfMw_MO4lomsD/s1600/Jeep+track+of+Rumbur+valley+is+washed+away+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA1RTNfKBylNr0SaboyKez8RHXA4Mc7-Ksu0iiyogwapqImVDmKBLJy5g57eN-YKbrFhmRv8IFKjEW0eeUKe7cWZYq3WLZwtPSADWDdoL6jKGQNr-0KoKxVXa9mMDtdmxEfMw_MO4lomsD/s400/Jeep+track+of+Rumbur+valley+is+washed+away+%25281%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The lonely jeep track of Rumbur Valley is washed away</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During
my stay in the valley the Army chopper visited the valley just twice but it was
not going to fulfill the basic needs of the valley, the people were in
miserable situation, the watermills had been damaged and people had to fetch
ration form relief or nearby bazar Ayun. They were adopting mountain top route
on foot about 25 to 30 km, one side. And when we had to leave valley for our
survival, my poor kids also had to adopt the same route and the lady was also
not familiar with such unfriendly trekking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidGohBT4TfYy18tHiswbxVsHcxgI2XqhWMCe6i6VEGjcMxKPXMxHkkAhKFoCaWCwiByd59dJZSnBCzmeDuY3v4nrBk9hyjskGZBrnKdPwN3feJQ0D6_J-aaQjS-gSYQF-vmom5YpK7Gub5/s1600/Local+community+repairing+water+channel+by+thenselves.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidGohBT4TfYy18tHiswbxVsHcxgI2XqhWMCe6i6VEGjcMxKPXMxHkkAhKFoCaWCwiByd59dJZSnBCzmeDuY3v4nrBk9hyjskGZBrnKdPwN3feJQ0D6_J-aaQjS-gSYQF-vmom5YpK7Gub5/s400/Local+community+repairing+water+channel+by+thenselves.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Local community repairs water channel by themselves</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The
flash flood badly affected the tourism season in the valley. A bounty number of
tourists visit Kalasha valleys during summer and especially during Eid
vacations. The local and international tourists mark the Kalasha valleys as
their fascinating destination for their culture and natural beauty. Alas! The
shopkeepers, guides, guesthouse owners in valleys were looking towards tourists
but flood abruptly shattered their plans and dreams. The brutal Rumbur River
engulfed number of fields with crops and definitely it will cost livelihood and
food for valley fellow and their cattle in coming winter.</span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg87cfBmbkOjuWq5Ya3O0fwfvskKCBuhoLKXCGItWf3x2tIb3HGB9SWgPg6T54vWWrIUeh0uX6nqShJ5Q6iv2r45jLvhtQL1rndecC17AyPeDLLjt4Vt9RO7L5Uau4Bh2mnUMxm8l0vHMDd/s1600/Tourist+leaving+valley+via+mountain+top+route+on+foot+%2528est.+30+km%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg87cfBmbkOjuWq5Ya3O0fwfvskKCBuhoLKXCGItWf3x2tIb3HGB9SWgPg6T54vWWrIUeh0uX6nqShJ5Q6iv2r45jLvhtQL1rndecC17AyPeDLLjt4Vt9RO7L5Uau4Bh2mnUMxm8l0vHMDd/s400/Tourist+leaving+valley+via+mountain+top+route+on+foot+%2528est.+30+km%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Tourist leaving valley via mountain top route on foot (est. 30 km)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">The
flood could be softened if:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">·</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stop deforestation & a strict
ban on cutting trees<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">·</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Plantation on naked slopes and along
with river<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">·</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Providing alternative fuel for
winter survival<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">·</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reducing number of goats & sheep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">·</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Constructing defensive walls
alongside the river<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All
this can happen with participation of local people, the people need capacity
building regarding ecology system, climatically change, importance of forests.
And, obviously the people need alternative sources of income as currently they
rely upon pastures agriculture largely while on tourism partially. I strongly
feel the fruits, dry fruits processing units may be installed, mineral water
plants may be another option for employing the local population. The local
community should have proper proportion in services. With all these efforts we
may lessen their dependence over high pastures which may prevent the area from
brutal flooding which was not common before 2010. Let’s try to give a safer
future to our future generations.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif;">Originally published online by Chitral Times on November 16, 2015 but without photographs, here is online story </span><a href="http://www.chitraltimes.com/english15/chitral-news-3574.htm" style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif;" target="_blank">http://www.chitraltimes.com/english15/chitral-news-3574.htm</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The author is Lecturer in History at University of Gujrat-Pakistan, </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">perusing</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> PhD and is </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">accessible</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><b> via m.kashif@uog.edu.pk.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com1Chitrāl, Pakistan35.8522867 71.78710690000002635.7493272 71.625745400000028 35.9552462 71.948468400000024tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-67429654818165536402015-08-16T01:06:00.001+05:002015-08-16T01:06:49.422+05:00The Lost Children of Alexander the Great: A Journey to the Pagan Kalash People of Pakistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Lost Children of Alexander the Great: A Journey to the Pagan Kalash People of Pakistan</h1>
<span class="name fn" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-glyn-williams/" rel="author" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #239cb7; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brian Glyn Williams</a></span><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em> recently published <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/science/tracing-ancestry-team-produces-genetic-atlas-of-human-mixing-events.html?_r=0" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #239cb7; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">an article</a> that had a fascinating description of the Kalash, an ancient ethnic group living high in the remote mountains of Pakistan's Hindu Kush. For centuries this light-skinned, pagan people have claimed to be the long-lost descendants of Alexander the Great's world-conquering armies, which invaded this region in the fourth century B.C. The animist Kalash are outwardly different from the darker-skinned Pakistani Muslims who live in the lowlands below them, so it seemed plausible. However, there had been no proof of this remarkable claim until the geneticists quoted in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em> found that the Kalash people's DNA seems to indicate that they had an infusion of European blood during a "mixing event" at roughly the time of Alexander's conquests. This isolated people are thus most likely the direct descendants of the ancient Greek-Macedonian armies who set up outposts in this region 2,300 years ago.</div>
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Few outsiders have visited this forgotten tribe, whose homeland is located near the inaccessible mountain border of Taliban-controlled zones of Afghanistan. But in 2010 I and a friend, Adam Sulkowski, made a journey to the snow-capped Hindu Kush in search of this ancient European pagan people living in an unstable Muslim country. This is our story.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Spring 2010</strong></div>
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For a number of years now, I have been teaching a class for the history department in which I do a "tour" of the great empires of antiquity, from pharaonic Egypt to Viking Europe. But for all my students' interest in the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians and the Romans, it is the exploits of Alexander the Great that inevitably lead to the most questions. Recently one of my students in History 101 asked me during class what happened to the far-flung garrisons of Greeks and Macedonians who were settled in the far corners of Alexander's vast empire. I told her that over the succeeding centuries they disappeared or were absorbed by succeeding waves of invaders. All that was left of the Greeks who left their Mediterranean homeland to settle in distant lands of Africa and Asia was the occasional coin, spearhead or amphitheater testifying to the conquests of one history's greatest leaders.</div>
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But then, after some thought, I corrected myself and told her the legend of the Kalash people of Pakistan.</div>
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High in the snow-capped Hindu Kush on the Afghan-Pakistani border lived an ancient people who claimed to be the direct descendants of Alexander the Great's troops. While the neighboring Pakistanis were dark-skinned Muslims, this isolated mountain people had light skin and blue eyes. Although the Pakistanis proper converted to Islam over the centuries, the Kalash people retained their pagan traditions and worshiped their ancient gods in outdoor temples. Most importantly, they produced wine much like the Greeks of antiquity did. This in a Muslim country that forbade alcohol.</div>
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Tragically, in the 19th century the Kalash were brutally conquered by the Muslim Afghans. Their ancient temples and wooden idols were destroyed, their women were forced to burn their beautiful folk costumes and wear the burqa or veil, and the entire people were converted at swordpoint to Islam. Only a small pocket of this vanishing pagan race survived in three isolated valleys in the mountains of what would later become Pakistan.</div>
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After class the student came to me and asked me if I'd ever visited the Kalash tribe of the Hindu Kush. Wistfully I told her I had not, but that it was my dream to do so.</div>
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I remember her response vividly. "Dr. Williams," she said, "you're always telling us to get passports and get out see the world. Why don't you take your own advice and just do it?"</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lahore, Pakistan, June 2010</strong></div>
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A student's challenge can be a powerful thing, and in June my colleague from the business school, Adam Sulkowski, and I set out to travel into the Hindu Kush on the Pakistani-Afghan border to see this ancient race for ourselves.</div>
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But when we arrived in Lahore after flying through Abu Dhabi, Rafay, our Pakistani host, reacted with caution toward our bold dream of visiting the lost descendents of Alexander the Great.</div>
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"It's a dangerous, two-day journey off-road into the mountains," he warned us. "But that's not the most important obstacle you'll have to overcome. To get to the remote homeland of the Kalash, you need to cut through the Swat Valley."</div>
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Rafay then pointed out our intended route on a map, and Adam and I groaned. Our dream was falling apart. We both knew that the Swat Valley was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban. In 2007 the Taliban brutally conquered this beautiful, alpine-like valley and forced a puritanical version of Islam on the local people. They also used the valley as a springboard for sending suicide bombers throughout Pakistan.</div>
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"But all hope is not lost," Rafay continued. "The Pakistani army just reconquered most of the valley this winter and have opened the main road through it. If you don't stray from the road and there is no fighting, you just might be able to pull it off."</div>
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Nervous about the prospect of adding a journey through a war zone to our trip to the Kalash, Adam and I then traveled to the capital, Islamabad. There, after much searching, we found an ethnic Pashtun driver who claimed to have once traveled to the remote homeland of the Kalash. He not only knew the route but had a tough SUV to get us there.</div>
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After haggling for the price of the trip, we set out driving across the burning plains of Pakistan, where the heat soared to 120 degrees. Finally, after traversing the country from the Indian border to the Afghan border, we arrived at the mountains.</div>
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And what mountains they were. The Hindu Kush are an extension of the Himalayas and soar to 25,000 feet. As we drove into the tree-covered mountains, the temperatures blissfully began to drop. While we found respite from the heat, everyone grew tense. Saki, our driver, warned us that we were now in Taliban territory. We had entered the Swat Valley.</div>
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We had not traveled far before we were stopped at the first of many Pakistani army checkpoints we would encounter. When the soldiers manning it discovered that there were two Americans in the truck, they strongly warned us to avoid leaving the road. One of them asked us to sign our names in a registration book and proclaimed that we were the first foreigners to enter the Swat Valley since the Taliban had taken it in 2007.</div>
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That night we stayed in Dir, a Swat Valley village that locals claimed had briefly served as a hiding place for Osama bin Laden when he fled Afghanistan in 2001's Operation Enduring Freedom.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rumbur, Kalash Village, Pakistan</strong></div>
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The next day we made it safely out of the Swat Valley after crossing a mountain pass at 10,000 feet, and a nearby glacier. We were now in the scenic Chitral Valley. We drove up this valley for several hours before our driver grew excited. Gesturing to the dark mountains on our left, he said one word with a grin: "Kalash."</div>
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With mounting excitement we left the main "road," crossed a large river and began to drive up a mountain trail straight into the mountains. This continued for a couple of hours before the narrow valley opened up and our exhausted driver announced that we had finally arrived in Rumbur, the most isolated of the Kalash valleys. Having made our way from Boston to Abu Dhabi to Lahore to Islamabad to Swat to Chitral, we had finally reached our destination in the high mountains on the Afghan border. It was now time to meet the Kalash.</div>
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It did not take us long to find them. Adam was the first one to spot a Kalash shepherdess in the trees, wearing a stunningly bright peasant costume. After seeing the faceless burqas of the women of the Swat, the contrast between Muslim women and this Kalash woman could not have been greater. As we drove along we saw several more brightly clad Kalash women. But when we tried to take their pictures, they shyly ran off and hid behind trees. Worried that we might break some local taboo regarding photography, we continued on our way.</div>
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Soon we entered the Kalash village of Rumbur. The wooden houses were built in steps above one another, going up the valley's walls, and the village square filled up with Kalash curious to see us. Among them was Kazi, the village holy man. Everyone stood back as he approached us and heard our request to stay with the Kalash for a few days and learn about their culture. Kazi, a wizened man with twinkling eyes, heard us out and thought about it for a while. After some thought he finally smiled and gave us his blessing. He proclaimed that as blue-eyed "pagans" (the Kalash believe that in worshiping the Trinity, Christians worship three gods), we were like the Kalash and therefore welcome to stay with them.</div>
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With that, everyone's shyness was forgotten, and the village men and women proudly posed for photographs and allowed us into their homes. Once again, the contrast to the Pashtun Muslims in Swat and greater Pakistan was tremendous. The conservative Muslims of Swat had women's quarters in their houses where no outsiders were allowed. Here the women were free and dressed in beautiful folk costumes that seemed to belong to a different era.</div>
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During our stay we hiked up into the mountains overlooking the Afghan border and were taken to the Kalash people's outdoor temples. There they made sacrifices of goats to their ancient mountain gods. Sadly, most of their ancient wooden idols had been stolen or defaced by neighboring Muslim iconoclasts who found them to be heathen abominations. We were also told that one of the local leaders who fought in the courts to protect the Kalash from such problems had recently been assassinated. On many levels we sympathized with the Kalash -- who were losing numbers to conversion to Islam -- as a dying race facing an existential threat. And I must say that after the heat, pollution and crowds of Pakistan proper, we found this pristine mountain enclave filled with incredibly hospitable farmers and shepherds to be a veritable Shangri La. Over and over again we were invited by smiling Kalash into their simple wooden houses for meals, where we talked about life beyond their remote valley. Most Kalash had only left their valley a few times in their life, usually to go to a neighboring Kalash valley for a marriage or to celebrate a great festival.</div>
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On our final evening in Rumbur, the villagers held a great feast for us. We celebrated with the famous Kalash red wine. My most endearing memory of the mystical night was of Adam doing a snake dance with a local elder, snapping his fingers in rhythm and dancing lower and lower to the ground in the center of the clapping audience.</div>
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The next morning we were woken to the sound of cows being led by children through the misty village. We said our goodbyes to everyone and drove out of Rumbur. As I looked back I saw several Kalash girls standing on a terraced hill above us and waving to us in their bright costumes. With our driver, a Pashtun Muslim who had never drunk before, recovering from the previous night's festivities, we took leave of our hosts and left this fragile mountain enclave to make our long journey out of the mountains. It was now time to reenter Pakistan proper, a land that seemed far removed in space and time from the ancient rhythms of the Kalash.</div>
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<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Source: </i><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif;"><i>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-glyn-williams/pagan-kalash-people-of-pakistan_b_4811627.html</i></span></span></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-85704265654820632452015-06-27T18:19:00.001+05:002015-06-27T18:19:28.232+05:00Minorities’ rights: Top court takes notice of threats to Kalash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/674478/minorities-rights-top-court-takes-notice-of-threats-to-kalash/"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #212121; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 25.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Minorities’
rights: Top court takes notice of threats to Kalash</span></a><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 25.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/author/4604/hasnaat-malik/" title="Posts by Hasnaat Malik"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #666699; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 8.5pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Hasnaat Malik</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Published: February 21, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ISLAMABAD: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain
Jillani on Thursday took suo motu notice of news reports that the</span></b><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1086631/taliban-threaten-ismailis-chitrali-tribe" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0077ee; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Taliban
have warned members of the indigenous Kalash community to convert to Islam</span></b></a><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> or face death.</span></b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government revealed before the Supreme Court that
the nearly 3,500 inhabitants of Kalash Valley, Chitral are receiving threats
from Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">During the hearing on Thursday, the court hinted at summoning the
district coordination officer and district police officer of Chitral in this
matter but provincial Advocate General Latif Yousafzai told the bench that it
would not be possible for them to reach Pakistan as the Lowari Tunnel is closed
due to snowfall. Yousafzai, therefore, suggested that he be given some time for
seeking instructions from relevant quarters about this media report.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">After consultations, Yousafzai returned and told the court that he had
spoken with senior officials of K-P’s home ministry who informed him that the
Kalash group is facing local as well as external threats from Nuristan, an
Afghan province bordering the valley.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The advocate general also said that the K-P government has already
requested that the federal government take this matter up with the government
of Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">He ensured that the provincial government would take extra security
measures for the safety of the people of Kalash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The court, however, directed the K-P government to submit a report
regarding the protection of the Kalash Valley inhabitants within a week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The chief justice said that this threat is against Articles 9, 20 and 36
of the Constitution as Islam preaches tolerance and peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Punjab report submitted</span></strong><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Punjab Advocate General Mustafa Ramday has also submitted a report about
the number of minorities’ worship places in the different districts of the
province.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">He also claimed that no complaint has been received by a member of any
minority community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">A representative of the Christian community, Shahid Miraj, has expressed
dissatisfaction over the security measures taken by the provincial government
and said that more security should be given for the protection of worship
places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The bench asked him to share his security concerns with the AG Punjab.
Likewise, a report has also been submitted by the Sindh government regarding
this issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">According to the report, Hindu Gymkhana, a declared national heritage, is
now in the custody of the National Academy of Performing Arts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 20.25pt; margin-bottom: 20.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Regarding the security of worship places of minorities, Yousafzai said
that 201 police personnel and 55 private officials have been deputed by the
provincial government for this specific task.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 20.25pt; margin-bottom: 20.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The hearing of the case was adjourned until February 25.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Earlier, representatives of the Christian community said they were scared
of the misuse of Section 295 (a and c) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) that
deals with blasphemy. There are dozens of people in jail under trial on
blasphemy, the Catholic Church said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a patron of Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC),
pleaded that the court should direct the law ministry to consider promulgating
a law within three months regulating Hindu marriages and dissolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 20.25pt; margin-bottom: 20.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The matter is currently pending with the law ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 20.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;">He has also requested the court to direct
the four chief ministers to immediately appoint a registrar for the
registration of Hindu marriages in every District Headquarters (DHQ) with the
consultation of PHC.<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #212121; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Published in The Express Tribune, February 21<sup>st</sup>,
2014.</span></em><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: .1pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Source: <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/674478/minorities-rights-top-court-takes-notice-of-threats-to-kalash/">http://tribune.com.pk/story/674478/minorities-rights-top-court-takes-notice-of-threats-to-kalash/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-85126825630422008062015-05-20T15:49:00.002+05:002015-05-20T15:49:26.588+05:00Taliban threat closes in on isolated Kalash tribe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 class="content__headline js-score" itemprop="headline">
Taliban threat closes in on isolated Kalash tribe</h1>
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<span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
<a class="tone-colour" data-link-name="auto tag link" href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/declanwalsh" itemprop="url name" rel="author">Declan Walsh</a></span><br />
<br />
<span class="drop-cap"><span class="drop-cap__inner">F</span></span>or
a decade the Kalash, a mountain tribe nestled in a stunning valley deep
in the Hindu Kush, managed to avoid the Taliban scourge ravaging the
rest of north-western <a class=" u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/pakistan">Pakistan</a>.<br />
Visitors streamed into the valley to experience a unique non-Muslim
culture in which the women eschew veils, the men make wine, and everyone
worships a complex array of gods. Pictures of Kalash women adorned in
an explosion of colourful beads became an icon of Pakistan's (admittedly
struggling) tourist industry, and a hint at the country's tolerant
vision of itself.<br />
But the advent of some unwelcome visitors are putting paid to all
that. Over the past month Pakistan's army has deployed to the Kalash
valley for the first time.<br />
Soldiers prowl the valleys at night, firing deafening volleys of
gunfire that echo between the valley walls. A military camp and new
police station have sprung up. Vehicles with spies from the military's
secret service, Inter-Services Intelligence, jolt down the rutted roads.
All are protecting, they say, against the <a class=" u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban">Taliban</a>.<br />
In late August Pakistani Taliban fighters based in <a class=" u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>
mounted a ruthless night-time ambush on border soldiers and police in
Arandu, just south of Kalash. "They crossed the river on inflatable
tubes under darkness because the bridges were guarded," said local
farmer Sher Zameen, who came on the scene a few hours later. "Then they
opened fire on the soldiers as they slept in their tents." Some 35
soldiers and police were killed.<br />
The ruthless assault shattered a decade of relative calm in Chitral
district. Located in the topmost corner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chitral
had managed to dodge the trouble that racked the rest of the
northwestern province – until now. It spelled disaster for the Kalash,
thought to number just 3,500 people, whose idyllic mountain homeland
borders Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan, and is feared to be
next in line for an attack.<br />
Tourism, a major source of income, has collapsed, with local police
insisting that the trickle of foreigners who dare visit be accompanied
by armed guards. And the otherwise peaceful Kalash are unnerved.<br />
"I don't know why the army needs to deploy here," said Abdul Khaliq, a
tribal elder who lives close to a new makeshift army base in the heart
of the valley. "It's making people scared and tense. They should be up
on the border, not down in the village."<br />
Until now, the Kalash's greatest worry was proselytism. Muslim
communities in nearby valleys have for years urged them urged the Kalash
to abandon their religion and culture, which are quite distant from
Islam. Many have succumbed, sometimes for professional advancement or to
have an easier time at school or in the army. Among those left, there
is proud defiance.<br />
"People tell us we should become Muslim. We tell them to become
Kalash," said Khwanza Bibi, a 28-year-old health worker, cracking a
fistful of freshly harvested walnuts.<br />
Their cultural defences were also strengthened by an unusual
connection with Greece. Some scholars, pointing to the Kalash's
fair-skinned features, believe they are the descendents of Alexander the
Great and his invading armies.<br />
Others dispute the theory, but nonetheless a steady stream of Greek
volunteers, armed with Greek government money, mobilised to protect the
valley and its rich culture.<br />
A towering wooden museum and school – by far the largest in the main
valley, Bumburet – and smart communal centre where Kalash women live
during menstruation and childbirth, are the product of this friendship.<br />
But even the Greek connection has been stymied by the Taliban.<br />
Two years ago militants kidnapped Athanasios Lerounis, a Greek
volunteer, and spirited him across the border into Afghanistan. Lerounis
was freed several months later, after payment of a handsome ransom and
the release of several Taliban prisoners from a Pakistani jail,
according to a senior Pakistani official.<br />
Today policemen are billeted at the Greek museum, smoking and eating
in a room near the bustling primary school in the same building. The
teachers are angry.<br />
"It's not good," said one, speaking on condition of anonymity. "If
the Taliban attack the police, then our pupils could get caught in the
crossfire."<br />
Then again, the Kalash have long experience dealing with odd
visitors. In 2002 a Spanish zoologist who had taken a house in the
valley, proclaiming himself to be a Kalash, was murdered in mysterious
circumstances. Police suspected the man, who is buried in a local
graveyard, of being a spy. The case remains unresolved.<br />
Last year Gary Faulkner, a construction worker from Colorado, booked
into a local hotel, armed with a sword and a pistol. In the dead of
night the middle-aged American started trekking into the mountains,
headed for the Afghan border, in search of Osama bin Laden, but was
later arrested and sent back to the US.<br />
"Gary was a very friendly guy. He said he had earlier worked as a
killer for the government. Now he was gong to get the big one – Osama,"
recalled one local hotelier with a chuckle.<br />
The recent woes have been triggered by events in Afghanistan. Since
2009 US troops have pulled out of Nuristan, the mountainous province
across the border, leaving the area largely in insurgent hands.<br />
Local militant numbers were boosted by an influx of Pakistani Taliban
from the valley, where the army conducting a sweeping operation in 2009
that drove them out.<br />
Then this year the Taliban started to strike back, using rear bases
in Nuristan and Kunar to carry out brutal cross-border raids, such as
the one in Arandu. Pakistan's military responded with crudely-aimed
cross-border artillery barrages that have killed dozens of civilians in
Afghanistan, further straining relations between the two countries.<br />
The complex war politics mean little to the Kalash, who have
traditionally felt little connection with the Pakistani state. "It
treated us like animals, and this valley like a zoo," said Khaliq, the
tribal elder. Now, with winter closing in, they hope that nature will
protect them.<br />
Over the coming months snow up to 15 feet deep will carpet the
mountain passes leading from the three Kalash valleys into Afghanistan.
For many Kalash, it can't come soon enough.<br />
"We'd never even heard of the Taliban before this past couple of
years," said Purstam Gul, a 47-year-old woman cradling a child in her
arms.<br />
Then she turned, and gestured towards a white glimmer on a distant peak. "The quicker it snows, the better for all of us."<br />
<span class="bullet"></span><br />
<span class="bullet">Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/17/taliban-kalash-pakistan-afghanistan</span><br />
<span class="bullet"> </span><br />
<br />
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-19548338907854210192015-05-07T17:46:00.000+05:002015-05-07T17:46:53.581+05:00KALASH – THE VALLEY OF KAFIRS <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">KALASH
– THE VALLEY OF KAFIRS </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Προστέθηκε από <a href="http://www.24grammata.com/?author=3" title="Posts by 24grammata">24grammata</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Minority: Kalash<br />
Country: Pakistan<br />
Author: <b>Rabia Shahid</b><br />
How would it feel to be part of a culture that is practiced by just 3000 people
in a global population of billions? The Kalash culture is indeed unique.
Situated in the midst of a Muslim majority population, the three little
villages of Kalash are an excellent example of the preservation of a community
which is distinct in its ethnicity, language, religion and culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Kalasha community is the
smallest minority in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The 1973 Constitution of
Pakistan under Article 260 only recognizes religious minorities, ignoring the
existence of other types of minorities. Kalash is located at a height of 1900
to 2200 meters in the Hindu Kush mountain range between the Afghan border and
Chitral valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province , Pakistan. It primarily
consists of the three villages of Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur, locally known as
“Kafristan” (land of the infidels, coming from the word Kafir which is an
Islamic term for an unbeliever). The valleys are situated to the southwest of
the town Chitral at a distance of 40, 43 and 36 kilometers respectively.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Historically, Kafristan included the
region of present day Nuristan in Afghanistan and the three Kalash valleys. It
is believed that in 1320 the population of the Kafirs was 200,000. This has now
reduced to a mere three to four thousand. In 1895, Amir Abdul Rahman, the King
of Afghanistan, conquered the Afghan region of Kafristan and forced the Kafirs
to convert to Islam. It was at that time that the Afghan Kafirs migrated to the
Chitral valley to avoid threats of conversion. The people of Chitral gave them
a warm welcome, allowing the community to exist and practice their religion and
culture without any restraint. According to Israr-ud-Din (1969), the Kalash
ruled Southern Chitral for around three hundred years, until they were
overtaken by the Khowar speakers. Thereafter, some Kalash retreated to the
valleys they occupy today and some became Khowar speakers and converted to
Islam. The cordial relationship between the Chitralis and the Kalash people who
refused to come under the religious and political influence of the Khowars
exist today, even though radical Islamization of the country has posed some
challenges for them. As per Kalash custom, once a person converts to Islam he
or she is banished from the community and cannot revert. Today the number of
Kalasha speaking converts living in the vicinity of the valleys exceeds the
number of the original polytheistic Kalasha.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Origin of the Kalash community in Pak-Afghan
region<br />
The historic origins of this community are shrouded in mystery and controversy.
Different theories exist as to the origin of the Kalash people, the most
popular and grand being that they are descendants of Alexander the Great. The
other two theories propose that they are an indigenous population of South
Asia, or as suggested in Kalash folk songs and epics that their ancestors
migrated to Afghanistan from “Tsiyam”, which is identified by some
anthropologists as the area of Tibet and Ladakh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are many pieces of evidence
presented by all schools of thought in this matter, making it difficult to
trace the true origin of this minority. The Greek influence is found in the
architecture, music, games, food, wine, and even in the blond hair and blue
eyes of the Kalash. Yet at the same time certain genetic studies, like the
study by Rosenberg, have come to the conclusion that this race is a separate
aboriginal population with little influence from outsiders. Another genetic
study “Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide Patterns of
Variation (2008)” also came to a similar conclusion and categorized the Kalasha
population as a separate group of people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Kalash Language – no written
documentation<br />
Kalash is a Dardic language which belongs to the Indo Aryan Group of the
Indo-Iranian group of languages, which is itself a sub group of the larger
Indo-European Group. Kalash is further categorized into the Chitral sub-group
of languages, next to only one other language, Khowar. Though the two languages
are different, they nonetheless share some similarities, and due to the
increased interaction between the native speakers of these two languages there
are now more bilingual people speaking both Khowar and Kalash as there were in
the past.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The most distinct characteristic of
the Kalash language, along with some other local languages of the Chitral
District, is that it is purely oral and has no written manuscript. Thus all the
folklore, customs and traditions have been handed down from generation to
generation through word of mouth without any written documentation. Absence of
a written manuscript, coupled with the fact that around four thousand people
speak this language, has placed it on UNESCO’s list of critically endangered
languages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, the people of Kalash
maintain great pride in their language and the usage of this language has not
decreased in the Kalash valleys over the passage of time. It is normal to see
Kalash people interacting in their language in their homes, streets and markets.
The most popular second language with the Kalash people is Khowar, but it is
only used by people who go outside the Kalash valley for business or work, thus
women and children are in a majority of the cases monolingual.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Recently many attempts have been
made by local Kalash people in cooperation with foreign NGO’s to preserve the
Kalash language via its documentation. In 2000, Taj Khan Kalash, a local
Kalashi, organized the first Kalash Orthography Conference in Islamabad.
Working in collaboration with international linguists and researchers, the
first alphabet book of Kalash language in Roman script was published. Efforts
are now being made to teach the Kalash people how to adjust to this
evolutionary change in their language and learn how to write it. Significant
research has taken place in the codification of this language; the dictionary
of the codified Kalash language is even available online today, increasing the
possibility for linguists and researchers to study this language in more
detail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite efforts to preserve the
language, the community faces tough challenges in preserving it for future
generations. It was in 1989 that the government allowed the Kalash to use their
language as the medium of instruction, despite the uniform syllabus rule in the
country. The majority of the teachers are Khowar native speakers, resulting in
the instruction language to be Khowar rather than Kalasha. Thus, the major
logistic hurdle in the teaching and preservation of the language is a lack of
schools teaching the Kalash language and using it as a medium of instruction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kalash Culture: Festivals and Purity<br />
The Kalash culture has been the centre of fascination for tourists, the
British, and many anthropologists for years. Compared to the conservative
Islamic majority, the Kalash valley, which is well protected within the
mountains of Hindu Kush, is the home of polytheists for whom dance, wine and
mingling between the sexes is not a taboo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nature plays a spiritual role in the
lives of the Kalash people and this is reflected in the gods they worship and
the customary festivals of the community. Among many festivals celebrated, the
three main ones are the Joshi festival celebrated in May, the Uchau festival
celebrated in autumn, and the most important Chaumos festival celebrated for
two weeks at the winter solstice. Festivals are a way to offer thanks to the
gods for the abundant natural resources gifted to the people of the valley. The
Kalash people like to celebrate, and a typical festival involves singing,
dancing, offering bread, cheese, meat or wine, and at times a sacrifice. The
women of the community take active part in the singing and dancing at the
festivals. Unlike Muslim societies, there is no concept of segregation in the
Kalash society. Men and women freely interact with each other. Women are free
to choose their husbands, while sex and love affairs are a common occurrence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kalash women are easily
distinguishable due to their unique dress. They always wear a long black gown
stretching on until their ankles. The gown is adorned with colorful beads and
cowrie shells and accessorized by bead necklaces coiled around the neck,
accompanied by an ornamental headdress. Men wear the traditional national dress
of Pakistan with a woolen waistcoat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Kalash culture is very
particular about the pure and impure. A particularly intriguing tradition is
the tradition of Bashli. Bashli is the tradition of sending menstruating women
and the ones giving birth to a special home. They can only come out of the home
after the menstrual or child birth period is over. During such a state a woman
is considered impure. Gods are considered pure, and between impure women and
pure gods there are degrees of pure entities. A man is considered more pure
than a woman, and an innocent boy would be more pure than an adult. There are
also designated pure areas inside houses where women cannot go because they are
considered impure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Discrimination and attempts to
convert to Islam<br />
Kalash is a pastoral community which is heavily dependent upon agriculture and
livestock. Over the years tourism has also become a major source of income for
the Kalash people. However, generally the area remains underdeveloped due to
its remote location and also because of the apathy of the authorities. The
Kalash people are poor and face discrimination when it comes to jobs. Money
that comes in from tourism seldom comes in the hands of Kalash people as
majority of the hotels in the vicinity are owned by non-Kalash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Availability of cheaper
alternatives, coupled with poverty, is endangering the use and production of
rich Kalash gowns worn by women, and of certain foods and drinks, especially
the production of wine, which is often expensive. Infrastructure is weak as
there are not enough roads, hospitals, high schools and universities for the
Kalash. This forces many families to convert to Islam; a trend which is
detrimental to the existence of the Kalash. The religious sites of worship are
also in danger due to attacks by Islamic fundamentalists and a lack of funds
for maintenance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lack of media causes discrimination<br />
The discrimination is allowed to continue due to the absence of any medium of
communication that would connect the Kalash communities with the outside world.
There are no Kalasha newspapers, radio or TV stations. Other than a few
websites personally made by some Kalash individuals, there is no official
presence of the Kalash community in the media in the form of a group or
organization. Any development in the area of preservation of the valley and its
culture has primarily come from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and
international aid groups interested in the region. Major aid and development is
devoted to improving and facilitating cultural festivals, tourist information
and environmental protection measures. According to Saifullah Jan, an activist
who has represented the Kalash people at many forums, more resources need to be
devoted to basic infrastructure like schools, roads, and health facilities to
ensure the survival of these indigenous people. Also, less interference should
be made into matters of farming and irrigation techniques, which according to
him are something that the people are already well versed in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bibliography:<br />
1. SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN VOLUME 5 LANGUAGES OF CHITRAL.
Kendall D. Decker 1992. National Institute of Pakistani Studies Quaid-i-Azam
University and Summer Institute of Linguistics.<br />
2. The Kalash – Protection and Conservation of an Endangered Minority in the
Hindukush Mountain Belt of Chitral, Northern Pakistan. IUCN – The World
Conservation Union.<br />
3. Minority Rights Group International, Report on Religious Minorities in
Pakistan, by Dr. Iftikhar H. Malik.<br />
4. Enclaved knowledge: Indigent and indignant representations of environmental
management and development among the Kalasha of Pakistan. Peter Parkes,
University of Kent, Department of Anthropology, United Kingdom 1999<br />
5. THE KALASHA PAKISTAN) WINTER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL. Alberto Cacopardo and
Augusto Cacopardo Liceo Scientifico “G. Ulivi” Borgo San Lorenzo. Ethnology, Vol.
28, No. 4 (Oct., 1989), pp. 317-329. University of Pittsburgh- University of
Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.<br />
6. Low Levels of Genetic Divergence across Geographically and Linguistically
Diverse Populations from India. Noah A. Rosenberg, Saurabh Mahajan, Catalina
Gonzalez-Quevedo, Michael G. B. Blum1, Laura Nino Rosales, Vasiliki Ninis,
Parimal Das, Madhuri Hegde, Laura Molinari, Gladys Zapata, James L. Weber, John
W. Belmont, Pragna I. Patel.<br />
7. Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide Patterns of
Variation. Jun Z. Li, Devin M. Absher, Hua Tang, Audrey M. Southwick, Amanda M.
Casto, Sohini Ramachandran, Howard M. Cann, Gregory S. Barsh, Marcus Feldman,
Luigi L. Cavalli-Sforza, Richard M. Myers.<br />
8. Proceedings of the third International Hindu Kush Cultural Conference – A
minority perspective on the history of Chitral: Katore rule in Kalash
Tradition, Peter Parkes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: <a href="http://www.24grammata.com/?p=16415">http://www.24grammata.com/?p=16415</a></span></div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-10164273513711552302015-05-04T19:16:00.001+05:002015-11-13T00:41:57.925+05:00||||||||||CONDOLENCE||||||||||<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
||||||||||CONDOLENCE||||||||||<o:p></o:p></div>
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I pay my condolence to whole Kalasha community on death of
Kazi Khosh Nawaz Balohe of Rumbor Valley. He was the custodian of the Kalasha
Dastoor and society. He was a living legend with ample knowledge of indigenous history
and culture. He was a source person for many researches. He was the shaman; a
spiritual leader of the community. With his demise a chapter of cultural
sharing is closed. At this time of grief my sympathies are with Kalasha
community and with family of Kazi Khosh Nawaz.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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He passed away last night. He lived around 90 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Muhammad Kashif Ali</div>
</div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4019234076254121025.post-71821087619090170002015-02-11T12:54:00.000+05:002015-02-11T12:54:21.205+05:00The Kalash in quarantine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a class="headingtext" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_HyperLinkMain" style="text-decoration: none;">The Kalash in quarantine</a><br />
<div>
<a class="HyperLinkReporterName" href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintWriterName.aspx?ID=9&URL=Zubair%20Torwali" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_HyperLinkReporter" style="font-style: italic;" title="Read all articles / stories Zubair Torwali">Zubair Torwali</a>
<span class="newstext" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblDate">Saturday, July 05, 2014</span>
<br />
<span class="newstext" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblVersion">From Print Edition</span>
</div>
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblNewsDetailMain">Hardly would
there be a gallery in Pakistan where the colourful portraits of the
uniquely beautiful Kalash women are not displayed. At every hotel one
can see pictures of the Kalash girls in their traditional attire. <br /><br />The
Kalash culture is among the few things Pakistan can boast of as a
tourist attraction. The print media carries features on the Kalash,
sometimes with some poorly researched description of their traditions,
rituals and festivals. <br /><br />The Kalash are usually termed as very
mysterious people. Some researchers trace their history back to
Alexander the Great by asserting that they are the descendants of
Alexander’s soldiers who were left in the area. However, latest research
based on the archaeological findings in Chitral and Swat suggests that
the Kalash tribe is the remnant of the Dards – an ancient nation that
occupied northern Pakistan, northern Afghanistan and Kashmir. <br /><br />There
is a great similarity of lexicon, syntax and grammar of the Kalasha
language with that of the Dardic languages spoken by people in the
region. Forced conversion in the wake of invasions by outsiders
compelled the Dards to quit their indigenous worldview and shift to
Hinduism, Buddhism and later to Islam. There are still many ethnic
groups in the region that converted to Islam just three or four
centuries ago.<br /><br />Among these ethnic groups the present Kalash
people have still retained their own worldview to some extent. On the
one hand they are unique and add to the cultural diversity of Pakistan –
and consequently to the tourism industry – while on the other they are
the signposts of a lost history.<br /><br />Owing to their unique traditions
and way of life they are presented to the world with apparent pride.
But what is missing is care, respect and development by the state.<br /><br />The
first time I visited the valley was in 2007. Almost seven years later
I, unfortunately, have seen no improvement in the lives of the Kalash. <br /><br />The
Kalash people, who are now hardly 4,000 in number, are virtually living
in fearful quarantine. They are the most disadvantaged members of our
society who languish in utter misery, extreme social pressure and fear.<br /><br />The
Kalash Valley borders with north Afghanistan where the Taliban rule.
The Taliban recently issued a video threat to the Kalash and other
tribes in Chitral asking for complete conversion or get ready for the
worst. The Kalash people are too scared to move freely in their mountain
pastures where the Taliban slaughtered a Kalash youth and snatched over
1000 sheep.<br /><br />The Kalash are the soft victims of a certain mindset that is hell bent on targeting the Kalash faith.<br /><br />The
predicament of the Kalash doesn’t end here. They are very resentful of
the tourists, particularly Pakistanis, who visit their valley – not for
any anthropological study. Most of these tourists merely go there for
liquor and other such activities. The young girls of the area are now
tired of posing for pictures while the children have begun to beg money
from those who take their photos. The kalash women are also harassed by
these outsiders. <br /><br />The Pakistani government treats the Kalash
people as show pieces. The culture, language and tradition of the Kalash
are under threat and there seems no effort on the part of the
government to preserve their language, culture and faith. <br /><br />The
government of Greece used to take initiatives to help the Kalash but
since the worst depression hit Greece it has abandoned welfare or
developmental work here.<br /><br />Fear, pressure, stigma, neglect and
poverty have become the fate of the Kalash people. If Pakistan wants to
have a respectable international image, it must take measures to protect
its minorities.<br /><br />The writer heads IBT, an independentorganisation dealing with education and development in Swat.Email: ztorwali@gmail.com </span><br />
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblNewsDetailMain">Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-260025-The-Kalash-in-quarantine </span></div>
Kashifthegipsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15949460536165464130noreply@blogger.com0Chitrāl, Pakistan35.846111 71.78583300000002535.7431515 71.624471500000027 35.9490705 71.947194500000023