No safeguards for Kalashs

Many socioeconomic reasons are forcing the Kalash people to abandon their culture and religion altogether

If there is one thing that the princely state of Chitral is well known for it is its Kalash community that resides in upper Chitral, and their vibrant culture that has become the USP to attract tourism in the region. However, the peaceful minority community is being forced to abandon the very culture that it has widely been known for.

According to a recent report launched by the National Commission for Human Rights on Wednesday, the Kalash people of the religious minority group are facing “immediate threats such as forced conversions and cajoled marriages to non-Kailashis.” The report also notes that its long-held tradition is losing its essence as many of its cultural practices are fading. Moreover, religious intolerance, land encroachments and threat of border incursions by the Taliban into Chitral from Afghanistan are merely a few of the many socioeconomic reasons that are forcing the Kalash people to abandon their culture and religion altogether.

The remaining 4,000 members of the indigenous community are not only being deprived of their own agency and basic rights — with poor infrastructure, education and health — but are also losing their ancestral lands such as the Silver Oak Forests in Kalash Valley. A loss of which will further push them across the poverty line, affecting them economically. But despite these severe issues the local and provincial governments have been indifferent to their grievances.

It is unfortunate that while their long-held tradition has become a vanity product marketed to attract wealthy tourists to the region, no efforts are being made to preserve it. If things are not reprimanded, the minority community will be added to the list of minorities that have been barred from their constitutional right and have shrunk in the country since its independence.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2017.

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