Internationally renowned photojournalist Sarah Caron is exhibiting 17 photos at the Museum of Asian Arts until October 6, 2019.
“The Last Kalash of the Hindu Kush” tells the story of the photographer’s immersion in the Kalash society. This animist and polytheist people are located in Kafiristan, a group of three valleys (Birir, Rumbur, and Bumburet) which is situated in the northwest of Pakistan. Sarah Caron first went there in 2016, despite the difficulties of accessing this area surrounded by an extremely mountainous landscape. Some winding paths are perched at an altitude of 3,000 meters and require several hours to traverse. This did not prevent the photojournalist from succeeding in reaching this fragile population and immortalizing their culture and way of life.
Kafiristan was an independent state until the 16th century, then was divided in the 19th century by the Durand Line established by the British. At that time, it was home to a population of 25,000 people. A large part was decimated in Afghanistan, and the survivors of these persecutions took refuge in Pakistan.
Through her photographs, Sarah Caron reveals the richness of Kalash culture, and above all, the central role occupied by women in their society. We learn, for example, that arranged marriages and celibacy do not exist; it is the women (aged 15 to 18) who choose their husbands without their families’ consent. They also have the right to divorce multiple times to build new relationships. Despite these freedoms, religious intolerance is growing within the Kalash, and forced conversions to Islam are becoming more frequent. It is also the strength of Sarah Caron’s images, which reveal a certain lightness and the beauty of the traditional Kalash attire in harmony with nature, despite all the pressure weighing on the remaining 4,000 representatives of this people.
