PESHAWAR: Syed Ali Yousafi, the director general of Khana-i-Farhang Iran, said here on Thursday that numerous Persian proverbs used commonly in major languages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bespoke of their shared social, historical and cultural values.

He was addressing a seminar titled ‘Persian proverbs used in KP languages’. The seminar was organised jointly by Khana-i-Farhang Iran and Islamia College University Peshawar.

Mr Yousafi said that Iranian cultural centre in Peshawar would launch fortnight literary sessions to highlight various aspects of great classical Persian poets including Hafiz Shirazi, Sheikh Saadi and Umar Khayyam. He said that a rounded knowledge and critical understanding of the major genres and themes of classical Persian poetry would be discussed in those sessions.

A participant of the seminar regretted that a Persian book published in 1964, edited by Dr Mirza Nazeer Barlas, was still in use for intermediate class in educational institutions of the province.

Speakers want teaching of Persian restarted in educational institutions

The Persian text book for intermediate class was outdated and should be redesigned with a fresh content for students.

Mr Yousafi said that it was no wonder that many Persian proverbs were still being used in Pashto, Hindko, and Urdu in daily life. “It reflects our common legacy of social, historical and cultural values,” he added.

The participants of the seminar said that restarting teaching Persian language in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa educational institutions would greatly benefit students and would enrich their knowledge about regional history.

Dr Khalid Suhail Malik said that Persian language had been included in BS programme. He said that revival of teaching Persian language at various levels in educational institutions would enhance creative skills of young people.

Dr Nusrat Jehan, chairperson of Persian department at University of Peshawar, Said Wali Khial, resident director of Pakistan Academy of Letters, Dr Rajwali Shah Khattak, Prof Dawar Khan Daud, Prof Jamil Yousafzai, Dr Shafqat Jehan, Dr Irshad Shakir, Dr Tajuddin Tajwar and Prof Shaheena Hasan read out their papers on usage of Persian proverbs in Pashto, Urdu, Hindko and Khowar languages.

Pashto day: The Khyber Literary Society of Khyber Medical College (KMC) organised ‘Pashto day’ at its main auditorium. The event was opened with a short stage play focussing on the theme of Swara. A video on history of Pakhtuns was also screened.

It was followed by a documentary ‘My culture is a sign of peace’. A video on the APS incident with the theme of ‘Resilience’ moved participants to tears.

Gul Ghutai, a girl student, in her brief remarks said that the annual cultural event provided relief from hectic study hours but it also gave students a vision to maintain positive social values.

Impressive dress show and hujra scenes were also part of the event. Around 20 students participated in different stage activities and received appreciation from the audience.

Azam Khan a second year student of KMC played a few popular tunes on rabab while another student Naveed Hameed presented a mock news bulletin which brought smiles on the faces of the participants.

Prof Abaseen Yousafzai, Dr Mohammad Idris, Irfan Nashad and Zeeshan Khan spoke to the gathering.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2015

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