The Hindu Kush straddles northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. It lies at the western end of the Karakorum and Himalayan mountain ranges and includes the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan and the Chitral region in Pakistan. Its people belong to many tribal and cultural groups ranging from the ultra-conservative to the more liberal. All of these have a history stretching back centuries. Maureen Lines is the Field Director of the Hindu Kush Conservation Association a British registered charity whose objectives are to help the people of the Hindu Kush and to conserve its environment.

For over a quarter of a century, Maureen Liness work has focused on the Kalash valleys in Chitral, and the people living in them. She will discuss how difficult it is to run a charity and an NGO on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where everything and everybody is political. Maureen relates the problems she encounters day-by-day while she is busy trying to help improve the life of the people of the valleys, be they Kalash, Muslim, Nuristani Muslims or Guja. Obstacles are thrown in her path by many organisations and many people. But she praises those government officials, western doctors and journalists who have supported her and come to her aid over many years.

In her talk, Maureen Lines will provide an intimate picture of her life among the Kalash people and the ways of a unique ethnic minority group. She will focus on the innocence of the Kalash, and how their relationships to Western influences are contrasted with reality on the ground in mountainous country between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her human relationships with the people of the valleys and with animals and nature, along with a wry sense of humour, make a compulsive story. Her talk is for those who are interested in small and endangered ethnic groups living in isolated and extreme environments, and the relationship of these endangered groups to global issues of war and peace.

Biography
Maureen Lines has just completed her sixth book, From Disaster to Catastrophe a Memoir of Life in the Kalash Valleys, and was recently awarded Tamga Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan for extraordinary services in the preservation and promotion of Kalash culture.