Swat girls in action, 2024

We are pleased to inform you that next year we will be holding a second women-only basic mountain course in the Pakistani Swat region.

Below is the official press release.

Press Release

Swat girls in action 2

The unhoped-for success, and mediatic echo, of the first women-only basic mountain course organised by Mountain Wilderness’ Asian Desk, CAAI (Italian Academic Alpine Club) and ISMEO (International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies) in Swat, Pakistan, in August 2022 (Swat Girls in Action 1, for more info click here, courtesy of Gandhara News), has convinced the authorities of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to officially sponsor a second course, again for women only, from the Swat region.

Besides making the organisers proud, this recognition signals a step forward on the path towards gender equality in communities often bound to a traditional interpretation of Islam. The course, run locally by the Government Postgraduate College for Girls, will take place in the second half of February 2024. At the end of the training, trainees will receive a diploma qualifying them as potential school nature hikes guides. The selection of the 24 candidates will start soon, under the guidance of Afzel Scherazi, President of the Pakistani chapter of Mountain Wilderness. 

As in 2022, the team of instructors will be an all-women one: 3 of Italian nationality, 1 Catalan and 1 Pakistani. Their names are Patrizia Romagnolo, national mountaineering and sports climbing instructor, Elisa Peyrot, national mountaineering instructor and mountain rescue physician, Elisabetta Galli, mountaineering and trekking instructor, Concep Mirò, environmental and trekking expert, Moizza Elahi, archaeologist.

The course will be directed and coordinated by Professor Carlo Alberto Pinelli, Head of the Asian Desk of Mountain Wilderness International and member of CAAI.

The course enjoys the financial support of Banca Sella and Mountain Partnership (FAO) as well as the contribution in the form of mountain and climbing footwear of SCARPA, an Italian manufacturer.

Under the patronage of the MOUNTAIN PARTNERSHIP (FAO)