This book is a portfolio and a travel memoir. We visited and traveled with Pakistani family friends for a month in the Northwest Frontier Province and the Northern Territories, along the Indus River and in the Karakoram Mountain range. The photographs look as though they were taken two hundred years ago, not thirty years. Today it is one of the world’s most dangerous spots, bordering Afghanistan, it’s a tribal land and never, I think, very peaceful. Hardcover, with jacket, 11” x 8.5”, 90 pages, 101 images, published 2010, $135 ppd. (ISBN: 978-1-4507-2293-3)

1. MEN & BOYS, WOMEN & CHILDREN, PAKISTAN 1979
CLARE BRETT SMITH

2. Photographer/Writer,
Clare Brett Smith, on
the trail to Baltit Fort with
a guide. Hunza 1979

3. Men & Boys Women & Children,Pakistan,1979
Portfolio and Travel Memoir
Clare Brett Smith
1

4. Men & Boys, Women & Children, Pakistan 1979
Photographs and Text by Clare Brett Smith
Copyright © Clare Brett Smith 2010
all rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalogue # isbn 978-1-4507-2293-3
Many of these photographs were exhibited as The Northwest Frontier Province at
The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut in 1980;
People of the Indus at Save the Children Gallery, Westport, Connecticut in 1980
and The Silver Bullet Gallery, Providence.Rhode Island in 1981
Clare Brett Smith
80 Mountain Spring Road
Farmington,Connecticut
United States of America
2

5. Men & Boys, Women & Children, Pakistan 1979
Portfolio and Travel Memoir,1979
Clare Brett Smith
3

6. MEN & BOYS, WOMEN & CHILDREN in PAKISTAN
I have always liked the idea of being as invisible as Cartier-Bresson, of being
able to photograph as he did without intruding or changing anything. In
northern Pakistan I was certainly visible but not really noticed. Muslim women
stay at home, protected by their men, and if I were native-born, a begum
sahib, I would have been at home too. But because I was a foreign woman, a
mem-sahib, and permitted by the men in my family to roam the world, I was
considered unimportant or unchaste — or both.
To be so inconsequential is not good for one's pride, but it's a real asset for
taking pictures. Men posed easily for my camera, and boys were so eager I
had to chase them out of my line of sight. The markets were full of men,
buyers and sellers. Men were the secretaries and even the house servants
were men. I saw almost no women out in public in the NorthWest Frontier
Province or the Northern Areas, and the few I saw were shrouded in bourkhas.
Most of the women I photographed were in their homes and were women to
whom I had been properly introduced.
4

7. As a middle-aged foreign lady, I could go almost anywhere. I could sit in
the front room with my husband and our hosts and visit the women's
quarters too, something my husband could not do. I could have tea
beside the road, talk with the border guards, even walk through the fields
alone. Classified somewhere between gypsies and 19th Century
English ladies, I was exempt from the dress code. I could never have
managed my cameras under a bourkha.
Walking by myself along the river in Swat, I quickly realized that my
freedom was not really a privilege. A woman alone is unprotected and
outside society. No one smiled at me, not even the children, and
women, bent over tending their lentils, chillies and opium poppies,
scarcely looked up. Old men glared and young men jostled me. I was
glad I could not understand what they said. I understood the tone all too
well. It was a different world when, the next afternoon, my husband and I
strolled together along the same riverside path. People came out from
their doorways and stood up from their gardens to wave. They offered
chai and we heard their softly murmured, Salaam Aleikums, their
traditional peaceful and respectful Muslim greetings.
Clare Brett Smith, February 2010
5

8. MEN & BOYS
Peshawar bus
6

9. Rawalpindi Bazaar
7

10. Metal Shop in the Hunza Bazaar
8

11. Charpoy Vendors in Rawalpindi
9

12. Gilgit
10

13. Hunza
11

14. Guard at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border
12

15. Checkpoint on the Karakoram Highway
13

16. Tailor's stall in the Gilgit Bazaar Shoe salesman in Rawalpindi
14

17. Serving tea in the bazaar Serving goats' heads by the roadside
15

18. FASHION
In Gilgit, Hunza and throughout the Yasin Valley, men wear a
traditional coat of handwoven wool tweed called "Patti", often
embroidered with flowers, as if to decorate the exceptionally
handsome men of the region. Sleeves are far longer than needed,
so they are thrown over the shoulder Sinatra-style.
The characteristic rolled brim hats became famous on American
TV when CBS anchor, Dan Rather, wore one after his visit to the
Mujahadeen in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion. Other hat
styles, in the Gilgit and Hunza markets, identify traders from nearby
Afghanistan, China and Tajikstan. The similarity between the round
hats and the round stone of the walls and buildings is striking.
Henna Dye
16

19. Fine Feathers in Gilgit
17

20. A handsome lad, one of many
18

21. Yasin's own Omar Sharif
19

22. "Patti "weaver at
his pit loom in
Hunza
20

23. Tailor & hat maker in Gilgit
21

24. In the Gilit Bazaar
22

25. Playing a small
tin pipe in Gilgit
23

26. Boys in Gilgit
24

27. School for Boys, Yasin
There were no schools
here for girls in the late 70s.
Now there are, through the
work of the Aga Khan's
development foundation
and Greg Mortenson's
construction of schools,
described in his book,
THREE CUPS OF TEA.
25

28. WOMEN & CHILDREN
Pakistan Day Parade, Islamabad
26

29. Bus Station, Peshawar 27

30. 28 Shopping at the Rawalpindi Bazaar

31. In the fields, Taxila 29

32. The protective
miller,he and his
family produce flour
with a small set of
grindstones set into
a stream that runs
into the Gilgit River.
30

33. Daughters are cherished too.
31

34. Gypsies are a race apart and not troubled by clothing regulations
32

35. The wife of Yasin's rajah, in the
typical head wrap of the
region.
In the Northern Areas women
are not completely hidden but
wear shawls, or chadors,
often draped over high stiff
brocade hats.
33

36. en route to Yasin
34

37. Muna Khan, properly covered, arriving in Barkulti. Ahead, her father is welcomed.
35

38. In the Women's
Quarters,Yasin
It's cold in the Yasin Valley,
even in summer, and
houses were often built
into the hillside.Light
streams down through a
square in the timbered roof
onto the central cooking
area, and low beds circle
the hearth.
36

39. Home, partly underground, in Yasin 37

40. Young wives and newborn baby. The baby's face has been treated with a
paste of ground ibex horn to keep his skin from drying out in the high thin air.
38

41. Mother and son, Yasin
39

42. Old woman with goiter
40

43. Young woman spinning in Barkulti
41

44. Burge, my husband, with a bee-keeper
A bee-keeper's netted head made obvious sense but only
intensified my aversion to the encumbering and stifling head
covering required of women in many Muslim countries.
42

45. AFZAL & SUNNY KHAN
When we met the Khans in Connecticut, they were refugees. Warned of an
assassination attempt by the Bhutto government, and black-listed in
Pakistan, in1972 they fled their many houses, flourishing enterprises, friends
and relatives. Staying briefy in Kabul, Teheran, Spain and finally, through their
association with Arbor Acres, they and their six children settled here. We
had no idea of their former life, a life of servants and rose gardens. They had
been socially prominent and renowned for military service and high
government positions. We only knew them as recent arrivals from Pakistan
and we admired how adaptable and optimistic they were.
Sunny & Afzal
at the Rakaposhi
Hotel in Hunza
43

46. The children were popular wherever they went public schools, after-school
jobs at places like Bonanza Steak House. Sunny & Afzal's sociability,
hospitality and entrepreneurial natures made them popular too. We liked them
immediately. Running their poultry businesses in Pakistan from here, but
unable to get money out of Pakistan, they shipped pottery and textiles to our
small craft import business, cleverly turning crafts into a few dollars.
Eventually their fortunes turned and, when they returned to Pakistan,they
encouraged us to visit. This is the story, part of it at any rate, of that visit.
Sunny & Afzal are both dead now, but they had read the journal I was keeping
at the time and would not be surprised. I hope they would be pleased.
Thirty years ago the vast difference in the roles of men and women in Pakistan
was what I noticed most, and the photographs in the first part of this book
make that obvious. I was amazed that educated and sophisticated women,
like Sunny Khan and her daughters, were able to live so easily in such
contrasting worlds. Free as only an American woman can be, I wonder if
I could have made that kind of transition with such grace.
44

47. "Aunty", Surina and Puchi Khan in the living room, Islamabad
45

48. Sunny Khan at home in Islamabad Afzal & Clare, roadside tea shop
46 Muna Khan Puchi Khan & Abbottabad caretaker

49. In Islamabad, Lady Vicky Noon & Afzal In Swat, Prince Aurangzeb & his wife,
Nassim, and their two daughters, Fakri
A well-known philanthropist, she was and Ashat
the widow of the statesman, Sir Firaz
Khan. Like the heroines of M.M.Kaye's Aurangzeb is the son and heir of the
FAR PAVILIONS, she had her share of then-reigning Wali of Swat, a title dating
adventure, during Partition when she back to the days of the Raj. Only an
escaped from her burning home and advisory role. it's still a prestigous one.
hid with Hindu friends.
47

50. Chickens from Arbor Acres were
known worldwide, and the breeding
stock from Glastonbury, Connecticut
was the basis of Afzal Khan's ever-
expanding chicken business in
Pakistan. His farm had a distinctly
military air about it, no "little red hen"
atmosphere at all.
48

51. House Servant
49

52. Grandson of the Wali of Swat, with pet goose
50

53. We were guests in the home of Prince Aurangzeb in Swat.
51

54. Orphan girls in Swat: Their future depends on belonging to a male-headed
family and the orphanage, a favorite charity of Nassim, daughter-in-law of the
52
Wali, would help to arrange suitable marriages.

55. Aurangzeb's lively daughter, shown here at home in
Swat, would soon leave for an English University
53

56. Habib Ur Rahman, bearer for the Khans, an all-purpose job, a sort of major-domo
54

57. Nazish Ata-Ullah in Lahore, family friend of the Khans. A member of
the famous mountaineering family, she guided us on a different sort of
expedition, buying a carpet for our Connecticut living room.
55

58. FOR ALL THE SERENITY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, THERE WERE DISTURBING
SIGNS OF UNREST IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS ALONG THE ROAD
1979 was a tense time in Pakistan, as now. General Zia was President and,
former Prime Minister Bhutto, father of the late Benazir Bhutto, was imprisoned,
some thought unjustly, and was hanged during our stay. We noticed a surveillance
car that followed Afzal everywhere. We noticed black ribbons flying on the trucks,
said to be in mourning for Bhutto. At the Afghanistan border we saw Russian
soldiers, eight months before the actual Russian invasion, and we were offered
guns, drugs, dollars and counterfeit dollars (only slightly cheaper) in the Lodi Kotal
bazaar. We saw the stone bunkrooms and kitchen gardens built by Chinese
workers, when they built the Karakoram Highway that opened the road to China.
We heard mortar fire in the valley west of us, but were told it was only dynamite in
the ruby mines. We met a political activist (Afghan but New York based) who,
disappointed that we were not with the New York Times, invited us anyway to an
uprising in support of the mujahadeen against the communist-led Afghan
government (the same mujahadeen who later became the Taliban). Rumors sped
via servants and drivers, but reliable news only came from the twice-daily BBC
broadcasts. It was, and still is, hard to know the truth of anything.
56

59. City Street, Movie Posters, in Mardan
57

60. Signs of unrest - Afghans fleeing to Pakistan and a Russian guard at the Khyber Pass
Tanks in the Pakistan Day Parade and trucks from the north flying black pennants
58

61. Guns and Guards, a common sight in Peshawar
59

62. Said Ahmed Gailani, descended from an Political Activist Zia Khan Nassry &
Afghani saint, revered and supported by Gailani: Nassry had suggested we visit
worshippers at his ancestor's shrine, the scheduled March 28th uprising..
waited in Peshawar for trustworthy news He had also been arranging shipments
from the BBC of grain into Afghanistan.Then, as now,
the need was great. Only the soldiers
are different.
60

63. IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD
TIME TO BE OUT OF TOWN.
We were among the first
tourists to travel the new
Karakoram Highway in April
1979 and, at one point, our
car could not get over the
rockslide. We climbed over
and rented a van on the other
side.
We were always able to find
places to stay as the British
system of guest-houses still
existed, usually about 12
miles apart, a day's ride by
horseback.
61

64. Robert Ross and Muna Khan Heavy trucks are hard on the
in the substitute van unstable roadbed of the new KKH
62

65. The Indus River snakes
through the forbidding rock
slopes of the Karakorams
and the highway runs
alongside it, stretching 800
miles from Islamabad,
Pakistan's capital, to the
Chinese border, through
great mountain ranges, the
Karakorams and the Hindu
Kush.
Hundreds of workers,
Pakistani and Chinese, died
during the construction of the
KKH, most of them killed by
crashing boulders. The rock
is unstable, and engineers
expected landslides for thirty
more years.
63

66. Refugees from Afghanistan beside the highway? Or were
they tribal people for whom the Karakoram Highway was their
first outside contact, and a chance for medical help out in the
world? With no common language, we could not tell.
64

67. TRAVELING BACK IN TIME
We saw a lot of the country, a beautiful land, ancient and pastoral,
with camels, water wheels, soldiers and shepherds. History
surrounded us as I was reading THE MEMOIRS OF THE
EMPEROR BABUR, the Mughal conqueror (1425-1530), and UP
THE COUNTRY, the letters of Lady Emily Eden (1797-1869),
sister of Lord Auckland, the Governor General of India — an
unusual pair of guidebooks!
We saw the gentle farmlands near Taxila, where archaeologists
have found hundreds of sites and relics from the great Buddhist
kingdom of Gandhara. We stayed in Swat with the family of the
Wali of Swat, then a serene and lovely place. It has been sad to
hear it described now as a Taliban battlefield. But most of our time
was concentrated among the northern mountains and valleys of
the upper Indus River.
65

68. 66
Late Afternoon in Taxila

69. Tongas in Taxila 67

70. Taxila maize fields
68

71. 69 / PAKRooftopsAbbotabadPSD
69

72. 70
In Taxila

73. Irrigation system,Taxila 71

74. Riding out from the Tribal Lands
72

75. FURTHER INTO THE MOUNTAINS
We had always wanted to see the great mountains, K2, Nanga Parbat and
Rakaposhi, but not to climb them! They are far too difficult for us, or for anyone
except experienced mountaineers, but to see their peaks and snowfields, so
many thousands of feet above us and the orchards so far below, made the
strenuous journey up the KKH exhilarating.
We stayed in Gilgit, the main town of Gilgit-Baldistan (formerly called the
Northern Areas) and in Hunza, the model, so they say, for Shangri-La, a
paradise imagined byJames Hilton in his popular 1933 novel, LOST
HORIZON, and famous, too, for the longevity of its people.
Our destination was beyond Hunza, higher and westward, toward the pass of
Baroghil, into the Yasin Valley. That was literally the high point for me, about
12,000 feet, where I was dazed by altitude and dazzled by the extraordinary-
good looks of the people. The remote village of Barkulti was the ancestral
village of Afzal's grandmother, Aysha, from which she had been abducted by
his grandfather, Sirdar Samad Khan, many years before.
73

76. 74 The Hunza Valley at spring planting time

77. Below the Baltit Fort in Hunza 75

78. 76
Guarding the Yasin Valley

79. The Yasin Valley 77

80. In earlier times the chief of every
village was a Rajah, but not often
nowadays. This is the leader of
the village of Yasin.
Opposite page he greets Afzal
Khan: Someone had been
dispatched from our hotel in
Hunza to alert the villages of Yasin
and Barkulti that Afzal,his wife and
a daughter would make another
formal vist. Afzal had last visited
seventeen years earlier.
I was fortunate that there was just
enough room in the jeep for me.
78

81. 79

82. Barkulti: Afzal Khan standing at the center with the men of his grandmother's tribe
80

83. Waiting to be chosen, four young would-be brides. It had been rumored that
Afzal and Sunny's visit to Barkulti would include selecting a bride for their eldest
son. There was also hope that they would finance a new dam for the river.
81

84. A SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Afzal, who, years earlier, had financed a boy from the village all the
way through medical school, offered Shukur (center) a chance to
come with us to Abbottabad and further his education and
prospects. The teacher (center without hat) said he was the best
student. We swept him up but, on the road home, Shukur became
uncontrollably carsick. Afzal dropped him off beside the road
immediately, but assured me that people would help the boy, and
that he would make his way, in a week or so, to Abbottabad for the
promised education. And so he did.
I wondered how this sudden upheaval would affect him, and, I
heard later, that he had not adjusted well. He did not understand
his place, either with the family, or with the servants, and had been
sent home.
82

85. Shukur at the Barkulti village meeting
83

86. Friendly greetings in the Gilgit Bazaar
84

87. The chieftain stood under a
colorful shamiana,a
patchwork cloth used
throughout Pakistan for any
ceremony, from a wedding
to the opening of a new
telephone relay center. The
one to the right celebrated
a polo match in Gilgit and
the one below identifies a
carpet center in Lahore.
85

88. Libraries were comfortingly familiar and this one was full of English books
from the days of the Raj, as well as a set of Tarzan books. Ibex horns,
on a housetop, mythical beasts to us, were ordinary trophies here.
86

89. In the Yasin Valley. beside the Gilgit River, where the water was
low enough to see petroglyphs on the smooth boulders.
87

90. I bought a basket from the maker in Hunza. I've always liked and collected
useful baskets, although this one, of red osier, was too heavy and eventually
I had to leave it behind.
88

91. Here in the northern mountain valleys WE were the curiosities.
89

92. A woman tending sheep in the clouds above Hunza, a real "Lost Horizon"
90

93. The Karakorams
91

94. Burge, my companion
in travel and life, walking
along an irrigation ditch
in Hunza, 1979