Summer 2024

What inspired your passion for promoting cultural heritage preservation?

When I was a kid, my grandparents would tell me stories about our culture, but as I grew older, I didn’t hear those stories in school or conversations with others. Whenever I travel, I notice that a lot of countries have many displays of their culture and folklore, but in Pakistan, there is not a lot of emphasis on our vibrant cultural history, so I want to showcase that.

What does your work entail?

I have worked with The Citizen’s Archive Pakistan, which focuses on preserving oral history. In this internship, I mainly worked with Afghan refugees in Pakistan by helping them record their oral history for cultural preservation because there was a law passed in Pakistan that ordered the deportation of Afghan refugees. We were trying to preserve their cultural history within Pakistan, so we interviewed them and stored the transcripts in an archive. I also interned with the Pakistani Chowk Community Center, which promotes Pakistani architectural and cultural preservation.

Outside of those two internships, I worked with Asma Jahangir, a human rights lawyer, to research women’s property rights in Pakistan and their implications. I am also writing a short story book series about cultural traditions and I am in the process of getting these published.

Why do you think the conservation of cultural heritage is so important in Pakistan especially?

I think it is so important in Pakistan because there is a severe lack of it. There are laws such as the Antiquities Act, passed in 1975, to help protect our cultural heritage, but those laws are not enforced to the level that they should be, seeing as it has led to little security around many of our cultural sites. For example, According to the 1975 Antiquities Act, “No person shall…destroy, break, damage…deface or mutilate or scribble..on, any antiquity,” however, in 2020, a large Buddhist monastery in Northern Pakistan was broken into, defaced, and destroyed by a group of extremists due to a lack of security. The destruction of invaluable historical sites like these incidents is the reason why people need to see cultural preservation as a necessity and a possible money-maker through increased tourism. Condé Nast’s renowned Traveller magazine voted Pakistan as the world’s number one tourist destination in 2020, but looking at actual tourist statistics, it's not even close to competing for numbers. We have such a rich culture but there is no effort to preserve it in a presentable way.

How has your work affected your community?

Within my social circle, I have spread awareness about the lack of cultural heritage preservation, and once my book series of short stories comes out, I hope to have an even greater impact on my community.

What would you say to someone who would like to promote the preservation of their culture?

Pakistan is one of many places lacking in the preservation of cultural history. There are so many other places that face the same problems, so I think it’s an impactful cause to take up as it will give you a personal sense of growth.

What challenges have you faced personally as an activist?

The main issues are the severe lack of awareness and the fact that people don't give it much importance because they don’t see the economic benefits of cultural preservation. Due to the amount of security issues in Pakistan, people see the preservation of cultural sites as a means to increase tourism as impractical. Organizations are trying to change this train of thought but they are not very well funded.

How have you tried to overcome these challenges?

I have worked on the marketing teams of the various organizations I have been a part of to try and spread awareness through social media. As a result, I have seen more and more of the younger generations take an interest in the preservation of Pakistan’s cultural heritage.

What do you plan on doing in the future pertaining to your activist work?

I plan to continue my work with the various organizations I mentioned previously. I want to write some research papers on the preservation of Pakistani culture at university and get them published. I also hope to expand my book series on various cultural stories.

A note on Cultural Heritage Preservation:

When people think of basic human rights, cultural preservation is not one of the first things to come to mind, if it does at all. This should not be the case, however, given that in 2016, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations unanimously adopted resolution A/HRC/RES/33/20, which calls upon all member states to take the initiative in ensuring that all people can access cultural heritage. The preservation of cultural heritage has been deemed so important, that in 2016, the International Criminal Court declared that the destruction of cultural buildings is a war crime through the Al Mahdi Case.

Human rights is an umbrella term that, according to the United Nations, “include[s] the right to…freedom of opinion and expression” and seeing that cultural heritage, according to UNESCO, includes man-made expressions and opinions through the form of  “monuments…buildings with special architecture…or sites that feature the works of man or the combined works of nature and man”, it can be easily deduced that access to cultural heritage is a basic human rights that should never be overlooked. The preservation of cultural heritage allows for the physical expression of people’s opinions and beliefs, protecting a right that is fundamental to a free world.