Author
Zubair Torwali
Zubair Torwali is the co-founder and executive director at IBT, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization in Swat Pakistan. He attended the University of Peshawar, Peshawar and studied English literature and language and then joined a number of institutes to study linguistics and anthropology. He has published widely in various areas of linguistics, language revitalization, peace and security issues, cultural studies, education and literacy. His prior books include Torwali Alif Be Te (2007), Muffled Voices: Longing for a Pluralist and Peaceful Pakistan (2015), Lats Vestiges of Torwali Culture (2015), Surbuland (2021 as editor) and Torwali English Dictionary for Students (2023). He has been contributing articles to The News International, Dawn, The Friday Times, The Express Tribune, the Criterion Quarterly in Pakistan. He has also been contributing to various international journals and magazines like Aeon, Cultrico and others.
July 12, 2023 Zubair Torwali Society & Culture Zubair Torwali Zubair is a writer and activist for the rights of all the marginalised linguistic communities of north Pakistan. He is the founder of the civil society organisation Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi and the author of Muffled Voices: Longing for a Pluralist and Peaceful Pakistan (2015), among other writings. He lives in Bahrain, Pakistan. The Kalash people, now no more than 5,000 in number, are the only existing Dardic community living today with their ancient…
Transliteration and translation of Torwali interview with Inam Kaka in Tab Pasture Zubair Torwali (ZT): Ji ̩ aːsəlaːmoaləikum mʰo mʰere ʈeb si ba:n mi tʰi. ʈeb si ba:n yæ tʰuda ʈeb ba:n, ʐemeʈ si ba:n tʰu. a:~ ʐemeʈʰede es ke pa:n cʰi menikʰa:lde pa:n tʃʰi. tʃer ʃeye es ke pa:n tʃʰi. mʰo ʈeb si ba:n si ʈol gʰən buzruk yæ tʰuda.... ena:m kaka: . ena:m kaka: set mʰo bʰeʈi. ima: təwəs kodi yəræ. (yes, Asslala mu alaikim. We are now in Tab‘s pasture. The Tab pasture is a pasture of Ramet village. And it has it way via…
“The forests are thick and shady, the fruits and flowers abundant. “Wrote Xuan Zang, the Chinese pilgrim, who visited Swat in 629 CE, quoted by Sultan-i-Rome in his recently published book.
The mountainous communities of Pakistan who inhabit the valleys of Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Himalaya are on the margins, ignored and side-lined; dependent on external centres of power for knowledge that define and decide their identities, policies and power dynamics. The people of Pakistan largely don’t know much about these communities, their languages, cultures and history. This was glaringly evident during the media coverage coming out of the valley during the recent visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to one of…
In his research article , ‘Fence of Peristan – The Islamization of the “Kafirs” and Their Domestication’, published in 2016 in the Italian scientific journal "Archivio per l'Antropologia e la Enologia " Alberto Cacopardo suggests ‘Peristan’ for Dardistan and Nuristan dubbed as ‘Kafiristan’
In 2015 IBT undertook a Cultural Revitalization project wherein new songs were produced and sung in a modern way where the ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ have a fusion.
In our collective and individual mindset, there still exists a colonial legacy that manifests itself well in various situations – from a classroom in school to a tour along the peripheries. Scholars term it as a colonial mentality, by which they mean “an internalised attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by people who are colonized”. It is multilayered going from top to bottom. In essence, the colonial mentality is a vertical thinking attitude that measures things in a hierarchical order. If inferiority exists in…
Introduction This report based on a research study on the state of education in Swat-Kohistan; and is a part of an education improvement campaign in Swat-Kohistan called Improving Quality, Retention and Access (IQRA)—this initiative is conceived and implemented by a local civil society organisation, Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT) with the financial support from the nationwide educational awareness and advocacy campaign “Alif Ailaan”. Alif Ailaan works to increase awareness of education related issues among all…
When I still used to lend a hand in the fields to my father, now 78, he would refer to a certain guy, Bahadar |bahadər|, for his oral traditions about the right weather for sowing and harvesting. At that time, I was in college and was familiar with the Gregorian calendar, which was commonly known as Angrezi (English calendar) in our community. My father always ignored the Gregorian calendar and preferred Bahadar’s oral almanac to it. Now I no longer help out with farming and work at my office instead, where we always use…
