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"I recorded this sound sitting next to a friend and the body of her deceased mother. The mourning song, sung by women young and old in one of the Pamiri languages, provided a sad comfort - knowledge of the finality of all human experience and confirmation that we all must make this final journey sooner or later. I also imagined that the song was meant to reassure the departing soul that her loved ones would be cared for while she makes her peaceful transition." Recorded in Dushanbe, Tajikistan by Shahnoza Nozimova.
In mid-May 2022, the Tajik government initiated a brutal crackdown on the people of eastern Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO): the Pamiris. Pamiris are ethnically and culturally distinct from Tajiks; and unlike most Tajiks who are Sunni Muslims, Pamiris are Shi'ite. Dozens of Pamiris have been killed, more than 100 imprisoned, and over the course of the last year, there has been a systematic destruction of Pamiri culture in GBAO. Joining host Bruce Pannier to look at the repressive targeting of Pamiris are guests Suzanne Levi-Sanchez, author of the book Bridging State And Civil Society: Informal Organizations In Tajik/Afghan Badakhshan and Bakhtiyor Safarov, founder of Central Asia Consulting in the United States, who is originally from the GBAO region of Tajikistan.
This year will be remembered as one of the worst for human rights in Tajikistan. Authorities imprisoned activists, journalists, bloggers, lawyers, and members of the Shi'ite Pamiri community in the country's eastern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast. Mary Lawlor, the UN's special rapporteur for human rights defenders, visited Tajikistan from November 28 to December 9. On this week's Majlis, she joins host Bruce Pannier to discuss her concerns about the situation there.
Former Farc rebels stand for election, but for many Colombians, it’s too soon to forgive. Kate Adie introduces stories and analysis from correspondents around the world: Katy Watson is in Colombia as former guerrilla fighters for the rebel group turned political party fail to make an impact at the ballot box. Chris Haslam is on 'the roof of the world' world in Tajikistan to meet a man threatening to take up arms and fight for Pamiri independence. Cindy Sui reflects on her experience growing up in China and asks what the recent ban on foreign imported garbage reveals about changing attitudes to recycling there. Simon Calder boards one of the last remaining boat ferries in Europe on which the carriages slot in between 40-ton trucks as they make their way from Denmark to Germany. And Sian Griffiths marvels at Ottowa's annual river ice blast, as dynamite is used to break apart sheets of ice and stop meltwater flooding the city.
In 2007, Frederik van Oudenhoven travelled to the Pamir mountains in Central Asia to document what remained of the region’s rich agricultural biodiversity. Almost 100 years before, the great Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov became convinced that this was where “the original evolution of many cultivated plants took place.” Soft club wheat, with its short ears, rye, barley, oil plants, grain legumes like chickpeas and lentils, melons and many fruits and vegetables; all showed the kind of diversity that Vavilov said pointed to the places where they were first domesticated. As he wrote, “it is still possible to observe the almost imperceptible transition from wild to cultivated forms within the area.” What van Oudenhoven found was bewildering; incomprehensible diversity in the fields and unspeakably dull food on his plate. It only started to make sense when he began to talk to Pamiri people, and especially the older women, about their food and culture. The result was a book – With Our Own Hands: a celebration of food and life in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan and Afghanistan – by van Oudenhoven and his co-author Jamila Haider, which documents a culture that remains in danger of disappearing. That book recently won the Gourmand International award for Best Cookbook of 2015, which is why I am now repeating the conversation I had with Frederik van Oudenhoven in July of last year. Notes With Our Own Hands is published by LM Publishers and is available from them and other booksellers. For other notes, see the original episode notes. There are plans to make a documentary about the people and their culture. Watch a trailer here.
The Pamir Mountains of Central Asia hold a fascinating diversity of food crops. Exploring the area in the early years of the 20th century the great Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov became convinced that this was where “the original evolution of many cultivated plants took place.” Soft club wheat, with its short ears, rye, barley, oil plants, grain legumes like chick peas and lentils, melons and many fruits and vegetables; all showed the kind of diversity that Vavilov said pointed to the places where they were first domesticated. As he wrote, “it is still possible to observe the almost imperceptible transition from wild to cultivated forms within the area.” Frederik van Oudenhoven first travelled to the Pamirs in 2007 to document what remained of that rich agricultural biodiversity. What he found was bewildering, until he began to talk to Pamiri people, and especially the older women, about their food and culture. The result is With Our Own Hands: a celebration of food and life in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, a new book by van Oudenhoven and his co-author Jamila Haider, that documents a culture that remains in danger of disappearing. Notes With Our Own Hands is published by LM Publishers, who say it will be available from tomorrow, 7 July. If you think you might want a copy, order without delay; until tomorrow the price is reduced to €34.50 from €54.50. You can get a taste here. There are also a couple of scholarly articles online. Imagining alternative futures through the lens of food in the Afghan and Tajik Pamir mountains and Food as a method in development practice. Photos by Frederik van Oudenhoven. The banner shows an Afghan settlement in Darvaz, along the Panj River, in autumn, with yellow mulberrry trees and red apricots. the other picture is Frederik and his co-author Jamila Haider.
1) One of the persistent laments of analysts focusing on the Kazakhstan postsecondary education system is the absence of consistent, and, in some cases, reliable data for comparing institutions, on the one hand, and, on the other, for generating a reliable summary of the postsecondary education system as a whole. 2) This seminar explores the narratives of Pamiri men and women who were in primary and secondary school during the brutal conflict that divided the country in the wake of its independence.