Dialogue: International Mother Languages Day Feb 21, 2019

The local organization Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT) held a dialogue on issues like the co-relation between language and education, language and identity, language and culture, language and history; and language and politics on Feb 21, 2019 at a local hotel in Bahrain Swat, where Torwali language is spoken. The event was held in collaboration with Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI), a partner organization of IBT.

Seven languages: Torwali, Gawri, Pashto, Oshojo, Gojri, Khowar and Balti were represented in this dialogue. The participants were mostly youth, teachers, students and activists. It was an interactive dialogue where the teachers, students and activists were engaged in very engaging questions and answer sessions after the key panelists Mr. Zubair Torwali, IBT’s head; Mr. Fakhruddin Akhundzada who heads FLI and Dr. Hazarat Bilal who is a community activist and writer, spoke on the above themes. The dialogue was moderated by Mr. Aftab Ahmad, author of Torwali-Urdu-English dictionary. More than 100 people actively participated in the event.