Daud Khattak, a correspondent with RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, visited one Kalash village to witness some of their unique traditions, in life and death, and the scale of threats they face.
With The ‘Fairy People’ Of Pakistan
High in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, scattered villages hold one of the world’s most imperiled religious minorities, the Kalash.
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Many Kalash villages have a shack known as a Beshalini (pictured) where menstruating women are banished until the end of their period. The building is also where women go to give birth.
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Local Muslim men inside a teahouse near the Kalash villages. Khattak said the future appears shaky for Kalash culture, particularly with the issue of Islamic schooling, and terrorism.
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A little Kalash girl peers out of her house. In 2013, the Pakistani Taliban vowed the Kalash would be “eliminated, along with their protectors, the Western agents, if they do not embrace Islam." (Photo by Shutterstock).