The Last of Their Kind: The Unique Life of Pakistan’s Wakhi Shepherdesses
For centuries, Pakistan’s Wakhi shepherdesses have trekked to remote mountain pastures to graze their flocks. The income they generated has been pivotal in transforming their community, helping to pay for healthcare, education, and the first road out of their valley. As their way of life dies out, BBC 100 Women joined them on one of their last trips to the pastures.
Our journey up to the Pamir pastures is treacherous. The steep mountain trails wind and twist—one wrong step and you are gone.
The women whistle and holler at the sheep, goats, and yaks to stop them from straying from the narrow paths and falling down the mountainside.
“There used to be a lot more cattle than now,” says Bano, who is in her late 70s. “The animals would jump here and there and run away. Some would come back and some of them wouldn’t.”
In years gone by, every summer dozens of Wakhi shepherdesses would make this trek through the rugged Karakoram mountains of north-east Pakistan. Carrying their young children on their backs, they would leave the men at home to farm in the Shimshal valley below.
Today, there are only seven of the shepherdesses left.
We walk for eight hours a day through rain, snow and scorching heat. The journey that used to take the women three days takes us five. The elderly shepherdesses are always way ahead of the rest of us as we acclimatise to the altitude.
The threat of landslides is ever present and the thud of the sheep’s hooves vibrates through the ground, bringing rocks and dust crashing down.
