Celebrating the First Female Writer’s Book in Shina

FLI has published a collection of Shina folk stories authored by Iram Jafar, one of FLI’s Shina language group trainees. Iram, who participated in FLI’s training activities aimed at standardizing the Shina writing system, deserves congratulations on her debut book. We extend our best wishes to her for continued success in the future. The standardization efforts for the Shina writing system have significantly contributed to the increase in publications in the language. Remarkably, this marks FLI’s third publication in Shina within a short span of time, reflecting our commitment to promoting linguistic diversity.

 

Moreover, Iram’s achievement as a female writer is particularly significant, for being pioneering in our mountainous region. We hope that her book will serve as inspiration, especially to women within the Shina community and beyond, encouraging them to share their work confidently.

 

We commend the Shina writers for reaching a consensus on the writing system for their language, which has spurred literary activities within the community. This collective effort has sparked interest in developing further literary materials. We urge other ethnolinguistic communities in the region to follow the example set by the Shina writers and collaborate on establishing standardized writing systems. FLI remains committed to facilitating collective endeavors for the development of indigenous languages. We aspire to extend similar support to other languages in the future.