My name is Sonaina and I’m from Aliabad, Hunza. I’ve recently graduated from National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore.

Being a Hunza girl, it came to my realization that Burushaski language is being forgotten and young Burusho, especially those who live in the cities, have adopted other languages as the primary means of communication. These days, the influence of other languages on Burushaski is just tremendous.

To make my contribution to on-going efforts of preserving Burushaski, I did my thesis on “The Preservation of Burushaski language“. This project is a vehicle for expressing my ideas that language is the foremost pillar of society to communicate and a creative structural solution can be provided for its preservation.

My motivation to try preserving my own language in a visual form relates to the fact that many people have been fascinated about Burushaski and researchers have found it to be one of the very few isolated languages. Burushaski has still no standard writing system. There isn’t a lot of written literary work but a number of oral traditions have been collected. Burushaski continues to be a language of self-identification among its speakers and despite many efforts, this fascinating language is endangered.

My aim through this project is to preserve Burushaski language through visual means and to ignite the revival of the language in the daily lives of young Burusho living in and outside Hunza.

This story is part of the #GBCProspers campaign by GBee. Send your stories at editor[at]gbee.pk or inbox your story at our Facebook page.

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Every day when we wake up, we struggle hard to make a name for ourselves, our families and our country. We see a handful of names in the limelight while hundreds and thousands of names remain in an obscurity no matter how big or small that person’s contribution to the society is.

At GBee, we believe that a society cannot prosper without the small yet meaningful contributions of its members.

This is why, we are announcing the launch of an on-going campaign which we are now officially calling #GBCProspers. This campaign aims to celebrate the contributions, small and big, by the common citizens that collectively reflect in the social, cultural, religious, musical and economic prosperity of the mountain communities.

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The stories published under #GBCProspers campaign can be found on a dedicated topic section. Each story will also be published in its relevant district page on Facebook and GBee’s Instagram and Twitter accounts.

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Pakistani filmmaker Fahad Kahut has used a Chilasi version of Gilgiti Cap to depict terrorists of Army Public School  (APS) Peshawar Attack in his new short film released on Youtube.

There has been a backlash on social media by activists from Gilgit-Baltistan against the filmmaker for using the Gilgit traditional cap to depict the terrorists involved in the 2014 Peshawar school massacre.

The director, producer and writer, who describes himself to be “focused on creating narrative films ” has primarily worked on Kashmir issue and published various pro-army publications including an article titled “General Raheel Sharif – A Man living up to the vision of Allama Iqbal”.

“I was also surprised to see this cap. One must take into consideration while using a cultural symbol of any people. The filmmakers have no right to use our caps as something a symbol of terrorism. Shame” said a Twitter user Noor Akbar.

Also read: Three policemen martyred, two terrorists killed in attack on Kargah Nullah check post in Gilgit

“What is your motive behind showing this cultural cap as a symbol of terror – there can be lot of other ways to depict a terrorist why you choose this cap which can not be easily found in any market in down countries except in Gilgit?Shame on everyone who contributed in this video and those who did not censor it. People like you are born to divide the country by showing intolerance and disrespect towards other cultures. Shame on you for using the cultural cap of Gilgit-Baltistan!” adds a Youtube user while commenting under the short film.

However, there are some who think this could have been a mistake. 

Facebook user Shahid Khan comments that maybe the filmmaker wanted to use the famous Pakol or Peshawari hat which has been associated with the Taliban for so many decades.

At the same time, as correctly pointed out by a Youtube user, the Gilgiti Cap, specifically the Chilasi (Diamer) version is very hard to find in the market.

Only the people behind the short film can tell what exactly went behind using the specific cap to depict the terrorists.

Kahut’s short-film Faryad had won IndieFEST Film Awards for short movie on Kashmir in 2016.

Update:

Fahad Kahut has spoken and says it was “merely out of sheer ignorance”.

“have apologized in past and I apologize again, this was merely out sheer ignorance and my lack of understanding of cultural norms back then. I am a huge admirer of GB people and can never imagine to disrespect them. I hope my apologies are accepted.” he commented on Twitter.

Note: The wood color Gilgit cap is not only used in Diamer but also in the districts of Astore, Gilgit, Ghizer and even Kohistan. A black color version of the traditional cap is widely used in Diamer.