So I arrived at Damik around noon and was greeted with confusion and unceasing friendliness. I explained in simple English and simpler Urdu that I had come from Canada in search of Honzagool and that I know (of) Ismail. I mentioned you by first name only, to see how close to their consciousness you are. The first person I met responded with more than a little incredulity. "Ismail Sloan?"
Painstaking communication revealed that Honzagool and her new husband are now living in Islamabad. Nazir Ahmad, however, is still around and teaching at the Islamic Martyrs School; he took me in and spent an afternoon chatting about North America, his memories of you, and his three-year friendship with David Munnings. He showed me a couple pictures of you and the infant Shamema, plus one of Dr. Marjorie Sloan with Shamema. In return I gave him some recent laminated photos of Shamema and of you, color-printed from the Internet.
My primary host was Ejaz Hussain, who remembers you well despite having been only a young boy during your residence in Damik.
There is of course more to tell and some photos to see. I will be in New York in about a month and would like to meet with you and talk with you about Damik. Perhaps we can meet?
Kind regards, from Peshawar.
Did you show them the very recent photos of Shamema and me together at the US Marines air base in Yuma Arizona?
Would you be willing to have your report posted on my website? I am sure that my readers would be interested.
I would be very happy to meet you when you come to New York.
Ismail Sloan
The photos were a bit blurry, as I had to convert them to bmp format when I printed them in Delhi. Nazir accepted them gratefully and said he would forward them to Honzagool in Islamabad, or just hang on to them until she returns to Chitral (in a couple months -- not permanently).
Nazir showed me around a new house that he says he is building for Honzagool and her four children. He says Honzagool has been renting a place in Islamabad, but that 15 or 18 days ago she bought a house/flat.
I appreciate your asking first about posting the report on your Web site. I don't mind your mentioning this expedition, but I ask you not to use my name or email address. Feel free to make up a name if that is easier. Also, the account I've given you is necessarily brief and choppy (Peshawar Internet connections are not ideal)) so you might prefer to wait until I arrive in New York and am able to supply the details you want for your page. I will also write a much more detailed and fluent account sometime between now and then, and you will be welcome to use that. Your choice.
I expect to be in New York within a month. I have to pick up visas for a few countries and will be running around for a couple days in search of consulates, but I'll keep evenings clear. I hope to see you then.
Regards,
Your letter raises a lot of questions:
You say that Nazir showed you the house he is building for Honzagool and her four children. Is Shamema included in this? I ask because the last I heard Honzagool had three children with Raja Ehsan Aziz. Has she had a fourth?
Is it planned that Honzagool will live permanently in that house in Chitral someday?
You say that Honzagool is renting a place in Islamabad. What I have always understood is that Honzagool was the number two wife of Raja Ehsan Aziz. Typically Punjabi men get married to their cousin at an early age. Later, as they grow older they want a second wife. If they can find one, they try to keep the existence of the second wife a secret from the first wife.
Accordingly, the first wife of Raja Ehsan Aziz lived in his home which he owned. Honzagool was back in 1989 living in a rented flat and Raja would come there from time to time but did not actually live there. Is that consistent with what you have found?
I doubt that Honzagool has any money at all. How would she buy a house/flat unless it was bought for her?
Did Nazir give you an address for Honzagool? I am not asking you to give it to me. The reason I am asking is that several addresses she has provided in her correspondence with the courts have turned out to be fake addresses. Also, I am aware that other Chitralis have searched for her in Islamabad and have been unable to find her. The impression of everyone is that her actual whereabouts have been kept secret since 1983 or 1984. Therefore, I would be interested to know whether you have been given an address for her (and I am sure that Shamema would like to know too).
Apparently the reaction to me was friendly and not hostile. Is that correct? That was the case when I last visited Damik in 1989. Honzagool was not there, however.
Ismail
You say that Nazir showed you the house he is building for Honzagool and her four children. Is Shamema included in this? I ask because the last I heard Honzagool had three children with Raja Ehsan Aziz. Has she had a fourth?
Is it planned that Honzagool will live permanently in that house in Chitral someday?
Sorry for the confusion.
Nazir didn't say explicitly that the "four children" does not include Shamema, but that seemed clear to me from context. And yes, it sounded as if the house was intended as a permanent dwelling someday. It would certainly be an extravagant summer home, I think. But again, communication barriers stood between us. My details might be wrong.
Nazir would not give me Honzagool's address, even when I asked for it specifically, promising I would give it to Shamema only and not to you, if he so requested. His stated reason for withholding the address was because Honzagool had recently moved and he didn't have the new address.
She is definitely in Islamabad somewhere. Many villagers confirmed this independently immediately when I arrived in Damik.
Accordingly, the first wife of Raja Ehsan Aziz lived in his home which he owned. Honzagool was back in 1989 living in a rented flat and Raja would come there from time to time but did not actually live there. Is that consistent with what you have found?
I doubt that Honzagool has any money at all. How would she buy a house/flat unless it was bought for her?
I misspoke when I said that Honzagool had purchased a home. Nazir said "they" had been renting and had recently bought. He never suggested that Honzagool herself had the resources to buy a home.
Apparently the reaction to me was friendly and not hostile. Is that correct? That was the case when I last visited Damik in 1989. Honzagool was not there, however.
The reaction to _me_ was certainly friendly and not hostile. Before visiting Nazir I was warned to keep my encounter brief and low-key, so as not to inflame tensions and furies concerning your tiffs. I'm not entirely sure what the villagers thought might happen, but I found Nazir to be perfectly friendly, like every other villager I met. Before I left his home he sent his eldest son to fetch a Chitrali ring for me as a parting gift.
From the tone of conversations I could easily tell that there was tension and some hostility that was likely dulled by their obligation to be hospitable to me. In order to get an accurate reading of their feelings toward you, I tried to convey how little I actually know of you and of the real events surrounding your marriage. But I don't think they understood, and in an effort not to offend they may have restrained themselves from damning you in my presence.
In any case, the magnitude of Kho hospitality drowned out any sense of hostility.
The worst they were willing to say about you was that you had treated Honzagool cruelly. Several villagers asked if you were still a Muslim.
Best,
One of my theories has always been that in spite of her great beauty, nobody in her village was willing to marry Honzagool because she had a difficult personality. For that reason, she was still un-married at the relatively ripe old age of almost 18 and for that reason they foisted her off on me. I know for a fact that no boy in her village wanted to marry Honzagool and until I came along they were hoping to find a husband for her in some down-district.
However, Aziz had a mysterious power to control her. We had a confrontation in Rawalpindi and Aziz got her to quiet down and behave and so we proceeded on our journey to America. I knew that Aziz had threatened her in some way. At that time, he too wanted to go to America and therefore he was on my side. Later, however, he used that same power he had to control Honzagool to break up our marriage.
The real problem came from Sher Malik. I cannot really blame him because he is obviously mentally ill. One member of the Chitral Royal Family wrote me only last month that Malik had been in his home recently and "The only thing Malik knows how to do is how to make trouble."
Malik made endless troubles for me and Honzagool. He was able to do this because his wife, Fatima, had become best friends with Honzagool. He would always say that this was prohibited by Islam and that was prohibited by Islam and just about everything that anybody did was prohibited by Islam. In Chitral, everybody recognizes that Malik is just a lunatic and the people try to ignore him. Malik had been driven out of Chitral in the early 1970s and that is why he came to live in the Bronx.
Malik daily interfered in my personal affairs with Honzagool, even insisting on dictating what sexual positions we used.
Had I to live my life over again, the big change I would make is I would take Honzagool to El Paso Texas where a close friend of mine lives and if Malik, Aziz or any of the others had come there to try to make trouble between us, I would dump them across the border into Mexico. (I would actually take them to dinner in a Mexican restaurant and then they would not be able to get back into America, since Aziz had overstayed here illegally.)
The claim, often made, that I had Honzagool do un-Islamic work or treated her in an un-Islamic manner is completely false. I am a much better Muslim than most of them. I have never smoked, drank, used drugs or anything like that, much less kept company with young boys as so many of them do.
Anyway, I recognize that they have to make some kind of allegations to justify what happened later on.
I suspect that the real reason Nazir would not give you Honzagool's address is that he actually does not know it. I do not believe that the true whereabouts of Honzagool in Rawalpindi have ever been revealed. It is not only me that wants to find Honzagool. Just about the whole of Chitral wants to know where she is. I believe that she does come back to visit her family almost every summer but her actual address in Rawalpindi is kept top secret. I know of many Chitralis who have tried to find her, newspaper reporters who have searched for her, and even television crews that wanted to put her on Pakistan National Television. Nobody has been able to find her, as far as I am aware.
The last time I was in Chitral, I was treated with great honor and respect. Many times, young men came up to me and said that they wanted to meet me because their father (who was usually now deceased) had often spoken of me. I was surprised at this reception. They almost seemed to view me as a great historical figure. I would not be the slightest bit afraid or concerned about going to Chitral.
Rawalpindi is another matter altogether. That is the stronghold of Raja Ehsan Aziz and I would be very concerned about going there and making my presence known.
Now that you have crossed Lowari Top by foot, you can really understand and appreciate what Chitral is. Most women in Chitral have never left the valley in their entire lives. I believe that perhaps even a majority of the men have never left Chitral. When I first married in Chitral, my first father-in-law, whose name was Musharif-ud-din, said that in his life the furthest down he had ever been was to Drosh and the furthest up was to Reshun.
I understand (I do not remember where I learned this) that the word "Top" in Lowari Top is not an English word. The word "Top" came from some ancient language no longer spoken there. The pass has always been known as "Top" for more than a thousand years before English was known to the area.
When I first came to Chitral in 1978, it was extremely rare for any Afghan to be seen there. After the War in Afghanistan started (and no it is not true that I started that war) Afghans started fleeing into Chitral in great numbers. It was hoped that the war would end and they would go back to their homes in Afghanistan, but the most recent news I have is that the war has not ended and their numbers in Chitral are still increasing.
One wonders if they will ever go back. Do you have any news on that subject?
Also, I have seen recent maps which appear to show the Wakhan Corridor, the arm of Afghanistan that reaches to China, as no longer part of Afghanistan. Do you know anything about that?
Again, thank you for your wonderful reports.
Ismail Sloan