Threatened culture and our obligations
Among the myriads of issues being faced by the people of Chitral is the potential threat to our unique culture. Chitralis are famous around the world for their civilized way of life, peace-loving temperament, unique culture and other values. Taking undue advantage of our honesty and simplicity, however, crooked and dishonest people from different parts of the country have always been preying on us not only within Chitral but outside as well. Our problem is that most of the time we consider other people as honest and trustworthy as we ourselves are, and in doing so we get trapped by swindlers. With the increase in education and awareness, people of Chitral, especially the youth, have been fighting these elements to protect and preserve their cultural values. We cannot tolerate the despicable perception among the people of many cities that the Chitralis very easily give their daughters to any Tom, Dick or Harry in return for money or promises of a luxuries life. We routinely come across men, even in their 60s and 70s, who seem eager to go to Chitral to “purchase a young wife”. Without going into the detail, we should ask ourselves who have created this impression outside Chitral. We should not absolve ourselves of this shameful tag on our face. When we are trying to ward off such elements from Chitral, here comes an advertisement in an Urdu online newspaper of Chitral by a man from Punjab who lives in Sweden and wants a young Chitrali wife. Though placing such an advertisement in any newspaper anywhere in the world is not illegal or wrong, keeping our situation in mind the newspaper should not have taken it at any cost. For the sake of our culture and to remove the already developed bad impression about Chitralis, we should condemn such people and get them realized that the people of Chitral know to protect their honour and their daughters are not hungry for wealth or life in the West.]]>
Before making lots of hue and cry over marrying of Chitrali girls to outsiders, you should create a pure Chitrali culture inside Chitral. When people in Chitral are divided and hate each other, these poor girls should not be made prisoners to you people’s selfish whims. You have divided yourselves into castes and some tribe considering themselves as Adam Zadas hate a large section of society as Ghalamus or Yuft and even consider marriage proposals from them as an insult. Then you are divided and hate each other on the basis of religion. The Sunnis consider the Ismailis as non-Muslim or not good Muslim and vise versa. The end result is that many Chitrali girls grow old without being married without any fault of theirs. I have also seen that many Sunni Chitralis have given their daughters to Pashtoons and Punjabis and the Ismailis have also started marrying Khojas of Karachi. So where your culture stand here? It is all religious fanaticism and dogmatism due to which the women are facing trouble. Before jumping to the sky and feeling so proud of your culture, try to understand how to live as a human being and stop hating people on the basis of their religions and castes.
The online should not pay the service of a marriage bureau and we are trying to lessen these things which are hardly faced by the people in urban areas.
As you all know well that how much problems are faced by our daughters who are getting married out of the district and what general concept is famous about Chitralis in other districts regarding the marriages of their daughters. Despite all these unbearable facts, the above advertisement is published in an Urdu website of Chitral itself making our SHARAFAT further exposed.
What the man says in the ad. is Chitral-specific and condemnable. He writes: May suba Punjab ke Jehlum ki rihaiyshi, peshay ke lihaz se telecommunication engineer or Sweden ke sheher Stockholm me muqeem hun. Shareek e hayat ke intikhab ke silsilay me mujay meray jannay walon or behi khwahon ne mashwara dia hai ke Suba e KPK ke intihai shumal me koh e hindukush ke daman me waqi zila e chitral ke log apni tibbi sharafat, Hilinsari, husne suluk or amanat u dianat ke lie mashoor hain,or apni dulhan me jo khubian dekhna chahta hun wo bila kamu kast is ilaqay ki beti me paye ja saktay hain. Shadi ke foran baad Dulhan mere sath yehan Sweden me muntaqil hogee jahan mera zati karubar bhi hai.Meri umur 42 saal hai or kisi sharif khandan ki kisi sharif zadi se rishtay ka khawahishmand hun.
May be I am wrong but my request to all the Chitrali intellectuals is to please give your constructive comments on the above subject with a stress on the pros and cons.
Regards
Khan, Chitral