UN
Making Afghanistan proud
3 August 2009 - Malang Darya and Amruddin Sanjar’s childhood dreams came true when they climbed the highest mountain in Afghanistan.
“I wanted to make my country proud by raising its flag on Afghanistan’s highest mountain peak, Noshaq,” said Amruddin at a press conference in Kabul today hosted by the United Nations.
“When I reached the mountain peak and unfurled the flag of Afghanistan I felt that all the Afghan people are on the top of the summit,” said Malang hoping for “nation-wide peace and national unity that would enable Afghans to unfurl Afghanistan’s flag not only in Afghanistan but on the highest mountains all over the world.”
On 19 July, for the first time ever, the two Afghans, Malang and Amruddin climbed Mount Noshaq, 7,492 metre above sea level, the second highest peak in the Hindu Kush Mountains after Tirich Mir in Pakistan at 7,690 metres.
Before achieving their success, Malang and Amruddin carried out mountaineering training in the Panjshir in Afghanistan, Italy and most recently in the French Alps.
“These guys are strong. They have been living in high altitudes and are used to walking long distances with little food and water. What they were lacking were the techniques of mountaineering,” said Louis Meunier, a French alpinist helping the Afghan mountaineers. “They came for training to France for a month and they will come again for more training.”
Afghanistan’s Wakhan corridor in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan, which borders China, Tajikistan and Pakistan, was one of Afghanistan’s main attractions for tourists, especially mountaineers, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Amruddin, 26, and Malang, 37 both farmers live in the Wakhan. Their parents and grandparents often told them about foreigners mountaineering in the Wakhan and they always wanted to climb the highest peak.
“The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) gave a substantial amount of money towards the expedition, particularly aimed at training of guides in Shamali (an area north of Kabul) and in the French Alps,” said Ian MacWilliam, head of AKDN communications in Afghanistan whose organization works on developing the tourism industry in the region.
Wakhan, a narrow corridor, in some places less than 16 kilometres wide, is one of the remotest and poorest regions of Afghanistan. The inhabitants of the Wakhan, called Wakhi, rely on agriculture and livestock for their livelihoods.
Years of hard work, training, support by different organizations and more importantly the strong determination of the two Afghan mountaineers has paid off by showing to the world that a different life is going on in Afghanistan.
“We just want people to know there's more to Afghanistan than the Taliban, opium and roadside bombs,” said Amruddin, “We want mountaineers to return to Afghanistan to experience for themselves how hospitable the Afghan people are.”
By Homayon Khoram, UNAMA
