DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre

I stumbled upon an article about the dancing girls of the swat valley in Pakistan. The article explains the artistic history of swat valley and the terror that occurred during the reign of the Taliban. In Pashtun areas, a singer or dancer is known as damor beghairat (a person without a sense of honor). They are generally considered not morally good people. They used to be considered smarter and more fashionable than traditional woman. In the past five years these girls have been tormented and killed for relationship with the arts. By 2009 the Taliban had completely taken over the artistic valley of swat. Now they are struggling towards a cultural revival but there is still great fear of a Taliban concern and this time it will be even more devastating. This article struck me because I always forget how lucky we are to live in a society where we don’t have to live in complete fear of our lives on a day-to-day basis in a very real way. I wanted to post this article as a reminder to become more aware global citizens. I was also very intrigued by the fact that dancing used to be praised and respected years ago in Pakistan and woman were not always deemed inferior. It even says “You may think it unimaginable, but during the time of Swat State, girls even enjoyed swimming in a tributary of River Swat.” Reading this article I had the realization that in order to become a more aware global citizen I need to not only focus what is happening in the moment but also in the past.

see link here