From online platforms like Etsy to textile markets in Peshawar, traditional garments from Hazara, Kohistan, and the Swat Valley's indigenous Torwali and Gawri communities have become targets of rampant cultural appropriation.
Only by becoming part of the nature, the natural beings reveal and speak to the humans. To see the creatures of sacred nature, including ibex, the hunter has to purify his eyes and soul. Eyes are the reflection of soul. If eyes are…
For the past three years, I have been drawn back to a place of wild beauty and untamed serenity—the basecamp of Batin Peak. Nestled deep within the mountains, this rugged paradise feels like a hidden world untouched by time, where nature…
Somewhere in a remote wilderness we would discover a hermitage With your crimson lips you would whisper sweetnesses I would gather splinters you would kindle the fire My hands would go numb you would wipe my fingers This moment could…
Torwali is an indigenous language spoken in the Bahrain and Chail valleys in the upper reaches of the Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. With fewer than 150,000 native speakers, the Torwali language is considered endangered. Speakers of the…
Yacholo/Phuthh is a hairy creature, but his hair is not deemed as a dirty part of the body. In fact, they are considered as a key to wealth. Whoever posses a bundle of Yacholo/Phuthh’s hair he or she becomes rich.
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…
Jardhang’aaylo: A Mythical Creature of Gilgit-Baltistan By: Aziz Ali Dad In addition to other dimensions of life, the indigenous cosmology of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral grapples with the mystery of death as well. It is this attempt to…
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…
Meherban Shah: The Unsung Hero During my teenage years I very well remember the time when I first visited Shimshal village in Hunza. It was a rainy afternoon when we left for the dangerous Shimshal road in an orange jeep. We had to get off…
