Panellists for efforts to preserve Kalash culture

IQRA University in collaboration with Foundation for Arts, Culture and Education (FACE) has organised a panel discussion to raise awareness among the youth on the importance of cultural diversity and preservation of cultures at the verge of extinction in Pakistan. Dean/Director IQRA University Dr Muhammad Islam, Creative Director FACE, Arieb Azhar, Cultural Anthropologist, Shabnum Bahar and some faculty members were among the panellists.
Dr Islam emphasised that with the increasing levels of intolerance in societies, the subject of cultural diversity and its preservation had become even important to talk about.
Starting with a couplet of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the most famous 19th Century Sufi poet of the Indian subcontinent, which spoke about the cultural diversity, Azhar highlighted the importance of embracing the diversity to become a more tolerant and dynamic society. "There are many cultures and languages in Pakistan. We should not fear diversity thinking that speaking a different language and practising a different culture will divide us, rather, we should take it as a pride," he said.
Shabnum Bahar repented on the lack of enough research on Kalash people. She encouraged the youth to visit the Kalash Valley individually and conduct research on the culture of the area.
While differentiating between celebrating a culture and preserving a culture, Bahar said that an exotic and ancient culture was dying next door and not even a single university in Pakistan had taken up the systematic research on Kalash people and culture. She called for both individual and collective efforts for the preservation of Kalash culture saying, "Only three to four thousand people practising Kalash culture have left which is alarming."