The Pressure on Kalasha CultureNovember 14th 2008

The Kalasha people are in a peculiar position, they are seen as heathens by the Muslims who surround them and who have attempted for years to convert them, yet are essential for all of the tourism that occurs in this part of NW Pakistan.

Every year a few Kalash valley people convert to Islam, sometimes to marry someone they fall in love with (there are no arranged marriages here), other times they are promised help by the local Muslim community, or sometimes they discover Islam and decide to change. This is a very big thing as once they become a Muslim, they cannot change their mind, anyone that wants to leave Islam will be killed by the locals so it really is a one way thing. Luckily the Kalasha birth rate outstrips the conversions and their population is at present slowly growing, there being about 3000 of them in the 3 valleys where they still live.

Anyone who converts cannot live as Kalasha and becomes Kalash 'Seq'. They are considered impure and have to move down the valley, below the Kalash, to the impure (Pragata) part of the landscape. They can't be involved in ceremonies and also must cut off their braids if they are women. Families often have Muslim members and they interact and help each other as before but they must live separately. When a mosque burned down a few years ago all the Kalasha people helped to rebuild it, so despite fears of their culture being eroded the people still get on well.

One of the biggest problems facing the Kalasha is that the education system forces upon everyone a compulsory subject called Islamic studies which must be passed to go on to further education in Peshawar. When Saifullah Jan (our host) was a boy he was the first Kalash to be sent to school and for a long time he wouldn't even talk to his father, he so resented his experience there. In a classic Catch 22, he wasn't even allowed to sit in Islamic studies lessons, but needed to pass Islamic studies to finish school and go on to Further Studies. He was very lucky because a Muslim professor took pity on him and gave him a book to copy from in the exam because he didn't agree with the compulsory nature of Islamic Studies.

Saifullah passed and then faced the gauntlet of being the only non-Muslim student at the university and being nagged to convert every day, by people who couldn't believe that his own religion was something worth keeping. Now the Kalash are allowed to sit in the lessons, which they regard as ridiculous, as they have their own belief system and don't need to be taught another one.

Thanks to Saifullah's education and the foresight of his father, when local Muslims decided to try and take wood from the valuable cedar forests on Kalash land, he was able to take the case all the way to the Pakistani High Court where he eventually won, and the logging was stopped. Unfortunately, after the judgement a grenade was thrown into his house which killed his brother, and even now a new court case is being brought by a village 30km away, concerning access to the trees and the high pasture. The people bringing the case think that the Kalash are too poor to fight the case, and assume that they will eventually run out of money or patience and give up.

The Kalash have also won money from the government to help buy back valuable Walnut trees that they sold for shoes and clothes when they were very poor, to unscrupulous local Muslims who were out to exploit them. They have so far bought back 4000 of the trees which can provide between 2/3 large bags of walnuts a year enough for a family for a year and can provide the bulk of their protein and also some additional cash crop.

In one of the valleys Bumber, many local Muslims have moved in to capitalise on the Kalasha culture, building hotels and bringing large groups of Pakistani tourists who stay for a night or two to drink the local wine and unfortunately, often disrespect the women and wander drunk into people's houses, behaving in sexist, misogynist ways. The Kalasha don't benefit at all from this and to make things worse, the higher end tourism in Pakistan is controlled by the Royal Families, and their guests don't even stay in the valleys, they just get whisked in by Range Rover, take a few photos of the women and drive straight out to their next Royal owned hotel, just leaving their rubbish as payment.

It puzzles me why so many Muslims here drink alcohol and smoke and take pictures of women and sit in internet cafs staring at porn, yet their wives aren't really allowed out of the house. Sons and fathers even keep their drinking secret from each other. Isabelle is always getting people asking to take her picture, yet if I tried to do the same to their sister or wife (if I could ever see them) I would be in a lot of trouble. The hypocrisy is ridiculous. I know that there are hypocrites in every religion, but it takes some beating here.

Obviously, I am talking about a minority, albeit a considerable one, and the majority of people here are wonderful, friendly, hospitable and kind, whether they be Muslim, or.....Muslim. However some of the locals could learn a lot from the Kalasha about how to treat each other, rather than trying to convert them all and in the process wipe out the tourist trade upon which so many rely.

A bit of respect would be a start!

Simon Taylor 2008