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.
At its core, multilingualism refers to the ability or practice of using more than one language, but it operates at two interrelated levels, individual and societal. Individual multilingualism describes a person’s ability to speak and navigate multiple languages. A single individual may use one language at home, another at work, and a third in formal education. For instance, a Torwali speaker in Bahrain Swat might speak Torwali at home, Pashto in the marketplace, Urdu in school, and English in official correspondence. The…
Indigenous Torwali people’s resistance to harmful hydropower in Swat Pakistan By Zubair Torwali “We are a nation.” For most people, this phrase is an abstract political expression. For us—the Torwali people of upper Swat—it is a lived reality rooted not in institutions but in land, river, language and memory. Our identity is inseparable from the mountains we inhabit, the rivers we revere, the pastures we traverse, and the ancestral customs we continue to practice. There is no evidence of any community predating us in this…
The Journey of Resistance by the Save River Swat Movement (Darya-e Swat Bachau Tehreek) against the Madyan Hydropower Project Zubair Torwali (These remarks were presented at the jirga held in Bahrain on 21 November 2025 under the auspices of the Save River Swat Movement.) We are a nation. We have our own land, our own language, our own culture, and our own history. We consider ourselves distinct from other people, and they, too, regard us as different from themselves. We have our own customary laws, our own traditions, our…
Torwali Notes! Compare this picture with present-day Bahrain! This is a photograph of Bahrain from the 1980s. All the houses are made of natural materials — stone, wood, and mud. If you look at today’s Bahrain in Swat, it seems like a city built of concrete and cement, with the greenery having disappeared. Bahrain: This is an Arabic word meaning “two oceans” — in this context, referring to two rivers. This new name was given to the place by the Wāli (ruler) of Swat. Before that, it was called Baranial Jadeed (New Baranial)…
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.
