Zubair Torwali
Daral Road Bahrain Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Phone: +92 946 780073 E-Mail: [email protected] Mobile: +92 311 5000233; website: www.ibtswat.org
Achievements
I am happy that I am credited with the following achievements:
1. Have been leading an indigenous civil society organization, IBT, since 2007 in a community that is underdeveloped, uneducated and marginalized.
2. Have developed a working orthography for the writing of Torwali language which ‘had’ no written tradition; and thus saved the language from extinction by publishing books in it; and by establishing children schools based on the teaching of Torwali language
3. Have given an identity to the marginalized ethnic indigenous community, Torwali. 8 years ago the Torwali people didn’t know who they were. I began to write “Torwali “as my family name in 2007 and since then over 1200 youth have been writing Torwali with their names. This move gave immense confidence to the people of this indigenous people and now they are no more ashamed of their unique identity, rather they feel pride in it.
4. Have made the Torwali community known in Pakistan, and to a great extent internationally, through my writings and media engagements.
5. Highlighted the Swat crisis back in early 2009 when Swat was under the writ of the Taliban. Swat then got national and international attention through my writings in the English newspapers in Pakistan; and consequently led to the military action against the Taliban that reclaimed Swat from the militants.
6. Have been feted by the Human Rights Watch for the commitment to the freedom of expression in a time when speaking up in Swat means death.
7. Have been awarded 2nd Award in Pakistan for “Teachers & Education in Emergencies” 2011
8. Have organized a group of friends into a successful and professionally sound organization.
9. Have been advocating the rights of the linguistic communities in north Pakistan.
10. Although I pursued my education beyond intermediate as an external (private in Pakistan) student yet I enabled myself to conduct research, lead an organization and write articles for almost all the English language dailies in Pakistan and many other international websites and magazines.
Experience
Executive Director Since Jan. 2007 I have been leading Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT) i.e. Institute for Education & Development in my capacity as its Executive Director since Jan. 2007 (for 8 & half years by now).
My responsibilities include develop the organization professionally, train and mentor the staff, implement special projects and make liaison with other civil society organizations.
Lead Researcher: Sept 2014 to Dec 2015
Major responsibility was leading and training of a team of researcher who produce books in Torwali. These books are a trilingual dictionary, a book of Torwali folktales, and a book on daily conversation in three languages. Preservation and promotion of Torwali language and culture: a project of IBT financially supported by USAID
Project Coordinator 2005 –to date In 2004 we started work on the preservation, documentation and promotion of our language, Torwali. Having had some preliminary research we started the Torwali Language Project with the support of Summer Institute of Linguistics, USA, in 2005 and I was selected as its Coordinator/Project Head. Since then I have been managing the project as its head. (10 years)
My major responsibilities with this project are:
• Organization development/project management. • Human Resources Development
• Coordination of other projects and liaison
• Literacy Materials Production
• Personal and Professional Development
General Secretary/Chief Executive Sept. 2002 to Dec. 2004 I was the General Secretary of Swat-Kohistan Youth Association for Integrated Development (SKYAID) for more than 02 years. I was also the founding member of SKYAID. In my capacity as General Secretary I had to see the governance issues in SKYAID.
Team Leader Dec. 2005 to June 2006 In the aftermath of the earthquake in October 2005 SKYAID undertook a relief project fro the earthquake-affected people in the district of Shangla. I was selected as the leader of the
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team of that project. I led a team of 05 people with the main activities of providing relief packages, livestock and seeds for the farmers.
Education
M.A in English 2000 University of Peshawar, Peshawar
M.A in Political Science (01 year) 2007 University of Peshawar, Peshawar
Diploma (01 year) in Linguistic and anthropology 2005 Forum for Language Initiative (FLI)
Certificate Course (04 weeks) in Education 2010 Payab University, Thailand B.A (Sociology) 1996 University of Peshawar
Intermediate (Science) 1992 Jehanzeb Collge, Swat
Skills
Languages:
Excellent both speaking & writing: English, Urdu, Pashto, Torwali
Understand: Gawri, Kalasha, Shina, Punjabi Computer:
Have been using MS Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, ToolBox, and Internet since 2003.
Trainings obtained
Training title duration/date/year Institute/organization
1. Monitoring & Evaluation 4-days/May 2014 LUMS* Pakistan 2. Financial Management 4-days/March 2014 LUMS 3. Project Management 5-days/Jan. 2014 LUMS 4. HR Management & Administration 5-days/April 2013 LUMS
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5. Leaders for Peace 5-day/Dec. 2012 SDPI Pakistan 6. Proposal Writing 2-weeks/Mar/April 2014 LEAD Asia, Bangkok 7. Mother Tongue Education Materials 4-weeks/Oct .Nov 2010 SIL, Thailand 6. Human rights and education 4-days/Dec. 2013 HRCP, Pakistan 7. Leadership Development Practicum 2-years/2009-10 FLI, SIL, Pakistan/USA 8. Poverty alleviation through microfinance 5-days/2008 NCRD, Pakistan 9. Role of CCBs in grassroots development 5-days/2007 NCRD, Pakistan 10. Learning that LASTS 5-days/2006 FLI, Pakistan 11. Learning materials development 4-weeks/2006 FLI, Pakistan 12. Mobilizing Development for sustainable 5-days/2005 LEAD Pakistan development 13. Development, Planning and Management 5-weeks/2002-3 SPO Pakistan 14. Organizational Capacity Building 5-weeks/1998 SAP Pakistan
*Lahore University of Management Sciences
Conferences attended and presented papers
1. Presented a paper on language in education policies of Pakistan Oct 2016 Bangkok 2. SDGs and indigenous communities 2016 Bangkok, Thailand 2. Languages and Development 2015 New Delhi, India 3. Identity Based Community Development 2014 Bangkok, Thailand 4. Cultures of the marginalized 2014 Lahore, Pakistan 5. Language, Education & MDGs 2010 Bangkok, Thailand
Awards received: 1. 2012 Hellman/ Hammett Grant Human Rights Watch for “Commitment to Freedom of Expression”. 2. Shortlisted for International Bremen Peace Award 2015, Germany 3. 2nd Award in Pakistan for “Teachers & Education in Emergencies” 2011 by Idara Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA) 4. Nominated for International Public Peace Award 2017 https://publicpeaceprize.org/zubair-torwali/ 5. Shortlisted for International Bremen Peace Award 2015.
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Memberships/fellowships
http://dieschwelle.de/en/peace-award/peace-award- 2015/shortlist/projects/news/zubair-torwali0.html
1. Fellow 2013, Asian Leadership Fellow Program (ALFP), Japan http://alfpnetwork.net/en/fellow/
2. Fellow, LEAD Pakistan: http://www.lead.org.pk/lead/fellowDetails.aspx?fi=120 3. Member USAID Alumni Association 4. Executive member Board of Directors, Forum for Language Initiatives 5. Member, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 6. Member, IUCN Commission on Culture 7. Member, National Humanitarian Network, Pakistan 8. Goodwill Ambassador, Innovative Youth Forum, Pakistan 9. Member, WWF Pakistan 10. Research Fellow, Aryana Institute for Regional Research, Pakistan 11. Research Fellow, Center for Security Studies and Research, Pakistan 12. Member Advisory Board, Pakistan Youth Organization International, USA 13. Founding Member, Swat-Kohistan Qaumi Jirga, Bahrain Swat
Publications
1. Book: Muffled Voices: a longing for a pluralist & peaceful Pakistan 2. Co-author of the book “Paradise” on Swat by Edwin Koo of Singapore. https://www.qbd.com.au/product/9789710579235/paradise--visage/edwin-koo-- marc-prust--agnes-de-gouvion-saint--zubair-torwali--raphael-miller/ 3. Torwali Alphabets, 4. Supervised the production of three books: dictionary, folktales and daily usage conversation in Torwali, Urdu and English. 5. Researched and directed a DVD of the folk songs of Torwali language. 6. Inaan, a bilingual book on Torwali poetry 7. Torwali primer 8. Vestiges of Torwali Culture 9. The ignored Dardic culture of Swat 10. Edited books in and on Torwali by leading a team of researchers 11. I have a couple of research papers and hundreds of articles and blogs published in dailies like The News International, The Express Tribune, Dawn, Daily Time, Pakistan
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Today, The Friday Times, BBC Urdu, Dawn Urdu, Viewpoint online and many online magazines.
Media links to some of the publications.
1. http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintWriterName.aspx?URL=Zubair%20Torwali 2. http://tribune.com.pk/?author=312 3. http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120106&page=28 4. http://x.dawn.com/author/dawnzubairtorwali/ 5. http://www.tanqeed.org/2012/12/31/paying-for-their-crimes-zubair-torwali/ 6. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\04\05\story_5-4-2010_pg3_6 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YswrX-pTnAc 8. http://www.sharnoffsglobalviews.com/?s=zubair+torwali 9. http://tune.pk/video/21896/Khudi-Debate-khudi-syah-surfaid-talk-show-in-swat-valley- Pakistan 10. http://amntv.org/tv/?p=613 11. http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/20/writers-honored-commitment-free-expression 12. http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/search/?q=zubair+torwali&button.x=12&button.y=15 13. http://www.criterion-quarterly.com/malakand-division-conflict-floods-and-response/ 14. http://www.criterion-quarterly.com/the-ignored-dardic-culture-of-swat/ 15. http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/JLC/article-references/CBBA2D553114
16. http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/87214 17. http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/2015/02/150209_extinct_languages_kpk_hk 18. http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1001337 19. http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1016905 20. http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1024209 21. http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/2011/08/110818_swat_couple_marriage_rwa 22. http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/2011/07/110706_swat_languages_mela_rh 23. http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/2014/03/140317_pakistan_languages_nj 24. http://www.tanqeed.org/2012/12/paying-for-their-crimes-zubair-torwali/ 25. http://www.conscienceonline.org.uk/2014/03/meet-zubair-torwali/ 26. http://www.citizenswire.com/human-rights-in-khyber-pakhtunkhwa/ 27. http://himalmag.com/torwali-is-a-language/ Vb3nSYsTFFI.#/دیسی-بمقابلہ-اصلی/http://dunyapakistan.com/26844 .28 29. http://www.laaltain.com/pakistan-a-society-in-perpetual-turmoil/ 30. http://southasianrights.org/demo/index.php/2014/09/25/promotion-of-political-harmony- tolerance-stressed/ 31. http://www.sdpi.org/policy_outreach/event_details289-2013-2.html
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32. http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/governing-the-forests/ 33. http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/fading-songs-from-the-hills/ 34. http://www.express.pk/author/2192/zubair-torwali/ 35. http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/2011/09/110907_electricity_project_rza.shtml 36. http://www.tajziat.com/author.php?id=109 37. http://www.humsub.com.pk/author/zubair-tor-wali/
References
1. Wayne Lunsford, PhD
Capacity Development Focus Team Leader, SIL International, Eurasia Area
Academic Training Consultant, SIL International, Eurasia Area
Email: [email protected]
2. Talat Aslam,
Senior Editor, The News International, Karachi
Email: [email protected]
3. Raza Ahmad Rumi, Director Programs and Policy, Jinnah Institute, Islamabad TV Host and political analyst Email: [email protected]
4. Aziz Ali dad,
Social scientist and columnist, Gilgit, Pakistan
Email: [email protected]
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5. Aftab Ahmad,
Program Manager, Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT), Bahrain Swat
Email: [email protected]
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