PESHAWAR: Mafkkoora, a private research and development not-for-profit organisation, has completed several projects including publication of books and pamphlets and organising seminars, study circles, dialogues and music training during the outgoing year.

Book lovers, artists and research scholars gathered here on Sunday to celebrate the completion of a year of Mafkoora. The event was arranged at Mafkkoora main hall here on Sunday to plan schedule of research activities for the upcoming year and acknowledge services of the centre for raising awareness and educating youth to work for the welfare of the society.

Hayat Roghani, chief executive officer of Mafkkoora, said that launching of music classes was a great milestone while publication of a full-fledged Pashto magazine for children was another success story in addition to publication of new titles on a variety of topics.

He stated that his organisation accomplished several research projects despite meagre financial resources. He said that literati, scholars and senior artists extended their help and assistance to the centre in carrying out on arts education and publication of Pashto books on social, literary and political issues.

Mr Roghani said that promoting the culture of dialogue and books reading was yet another project where a large number of research scholars, experts and writers were invited to different events for sharing their thoughts and experiences with the participants.

He added that study circles, live theatre, musical concerts and debates proved very instrumental in raising awareness among youth to promote the cause of non-violence, peace economy and linguistic and cultural diversity in the society.

The participants of the event said that Mafkkoora was working on rights of transgender persons, girls’ education, interfaith harmony, youth and women rights, encouraging literati, scholars and peace activists to contribute to the cause of a forward-looking Pashtun society through their thoughts and views.

Prof Samimuddin Arman on the occasion said that Mafkkoora attracted attention of a large number of thinking minds, especially youth, who really wanted to contribute their selfless services for boosting up the soft image of Pashtuns and the country at large.

Talking about the research publication by Mafkoora, he said that the recent Pashto title “Shatmana Pakhtunkhwa” caught attention of bibliophiles and research scholars for better understanding the dynamics of resource-rich province in the perspective of current political turmoil in the region. Over thousand copies of the newly-published book hit all the Pashto books charts, he added.

Javed Saqib, editor of Pashto publication, said that Mafkoora’s service for restoration of traditional Pashto music achieved a milestone when its letter for recognition of ‘rabab’ by Unesco was accepted and 31th of May would be celebrated as international rabab day.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2024