I feel we have been focussing too much on too few cities. Even though a lot of the posts concern Pakistan as a whole there have been hardly, if any, on cities apart from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Hence, this is an attempt to look at the ancient city of Peshawar through pictures. Even though I have travelled widely inside Pakistan I must confess I have never been to Peshawar. Recently, Peshawar has been hugely affected by religious extremism as religion has played a huge role in NWFP’s politics. There are many images of women in bhurqas and of billboards with females blackened to hide the faces, however, this post is an attempt to reflect upon the city’s architecture, culture and history.
[I have used a new plugin to display the pictures in a particular format. Since this is the first time we are trying it on the blog it may not appear properly. If there are any problems with it please let me know]
Excellent Pictures.
True pictures of reality but still something is missing!!!!Answer after short break.
Exactly!!!the answar is “Naswar”.JK
Nice pictures, but your (and in effect of the whole Pakistan) religious extremism bit is misplaced.
Yes Peshawar has been affected by extremism and yes the billboards are covered but that is not a yardstick to measure extremism. And Peshawar is not half as bad and backward as people think it is.
Beautiful images - almost frozen in time. I grew up in Peshawar and it was a beautiful town until Zia invited refugees from across the border to promote his jehad. In 1981 when I visited Peshawar again it was all brown as the trees were cutup and used as fuel - the remaining trees were covered with thick layer of dust and greenery appeared only after a rainy day. Peshawar paid the price of our leaders sitting in Islamabad and developmental money consumed by Punjab. Peshawar became a bunker in a war zoneg etting direct religious and econmical hits. Yet it survived and it will continue to survive.
My subsequent visits to Peshawar were no less sad. Wall around Peshawar University made me feel suffocated and breakup of the university into several independent universities was like dismemberment.
I do not remember if the fountain at the back of Islamia College was there or not or perhaps it was always there but without water.
I was delighted to see that “paneer” is still sold as it used to be and kahwa is served in traditional manner.
By the way, “naswar” considered filthy by outsiders is now replaced by socailly accepted, TV promoted but even more filthy ’sapari and pan”
Anwar, I am glad it brought back old memories for you.
Roving Calypso, I feel you misunderstood my comment at the top of the post. You yourself admit that Peshawar has been affected by extremism and I am sure you are aware that the MMA and its government has been trying to impose religious laws through the Hasba Bill. Whether that is right or wrong is another debate. Also, I only pointed out that there were loads of images that I discovered of women in bhurqas and blackened billboards, but that was not the side of Peshawar I was trying to show. That is something we have all seen many times over and would not add much to our knowledge. Hence, in my post I’ve tried to show exactly what you are saying - Peshawar isn’t as bad as people think it is.
I would also like to add that most of the images have been taken from flickr.com and if you scroll over the image you will see the username of the person who took it as te file extension. In case you would like to see more from that person just search their name on flickr. There are some images taken from other sources and are not attributable to anyone.
Map of the old city, Chainuks (i.e tea pots), burning american flag make a strinkingly contrast correlation.
I had the good fortune to visit Pakistan in Spring 2000, and I particularly enjoyed my 2 week stay in Peshawar, which to me is an extremely fascinating city… the very crossroads of so much history and cultural exchange. I have never experienced such hospitality, but that was all throughout Pakistan. However, Peshawar holds a special place in my heart. We stayed at Shelton Guest House in University Town, and took long walks through the neighborhood, made friends with the staff at the guest house, and spent time visiting with relatives of my friend who were visiting fromo Kabul, and had come by bus. I love the people, the food, the utter graciousness of people we met, and the bazaars were fantastic. I found it to be the most interesting city I have ever stepped foot in… and I hope to return! Inshallah!
Hello Salma Khan, yes and there is one more thing that is missing i.e. the proverbial “Dhoti”, “the ultra-decent and aesthitically sublimest dress of the Indic people (e.g. Punjabis etc.”)…We would enjoy if you would post a picture of yours in that dress…The beauty of the picture would be enhanced if you would add “pan sipari”, on your mouth, to the shot as well…
Thanks!
vry vry Beautiful images ….Excellent Pictures.
but realy i miss to my lovly city….keep it up.
khanz (london)