A blogger’s experience of interacting with Ismaili Muslims in Northern areas of Pakistan …
I am so impressed with MIED. They work in the field of education, providing teacher training, resources, and other support for government schools in NWFP, areas of the Punjab and part of Kashmir. It was founded by Abdul Jahan in 2004, and has grown incredibly rapidly since then, as they now work in over 2000 schools I think. Many of the people, and especially the management team, are Ismaili Muslims from the Northern Areas. it has been very interesting finding out more about this, because it seems that Ismaili’s are quite liberal – most of the women do not wear the headscarf (except in Mansehra which is very conservative and we all have to). The Northern Areas has a very good education system, partly because of the work of the Aga Khan foundation – many of the people at MIED used to work for this organisation, and have moved to the NWFP because the education system here is so much worse. Abdul Jahan was telling us about the Ismaili interpretation of Islam, and emphasising the focus on peace, tolerance and acceptance. I have really seen this even in the few days I have been here, because without exception all the people I have spoken to have been incredibly friendly, welcoming, compassionate and giving. Even if I achieve nothing in the job this year, I hope I will be able to challenge some of the perceptions about Islam in the west.
Ismailimail 