FAITH IN TRANSITION
Set in Northwest Pakistan, this project explores the intimate reality of religious conversions within a small indigenous community, balancing animism and Islam. For centuries, the Kalash have lived in the remote Hindu Kush mountains, their traditions woven into rituals of dance, color, and fire. Yet, with the Muslim world as their long-standing neighbor, change has always been at the edge of their existence. For Kalash youth, this means growing up navigating an identity shaped by both heritage, and the world that surrounds them.
Fifteen winters before Hania’s birth, her mother, Majina, converted from kalash to Islam. Tonight Majina will pray while the kalash celebrates their purification in fire and dance; a celebration she once knew by heart
In the midst of winter, Shamraz celebrates her purification, testifying her faith as Kalash. Not long ago, her father converted to islam, leaving her, and her sisters at a crossroad; shifting between belonging and becoming
In Islam, conversion is a one-way path: an irreversible commitment. Among the Kalash, a community of just 4,000, social pressure to conform is mounting. Last year alone, 90 individuals converted to Islam as a part of a growing wave, driven less by personal conviction and more by the weight of societal expectation. For some, conversion is a personal act of love or survival, offering relief and a sense of belonging to the majority. For others, it brings a profound loss and disconnection.
“if you can never return, what happens to the part of you that stays behind” - Shamraz, Kalash 14
But for many, change begins at home. When parents convert, children are left at a crossroads: torn between ancestral customs and Islamic practice. With change as the protagonist, this story moves not only through the lives of those considering conversion, but through the men and women who already have converted, mothers now raising children born into Islam. Their stories reveal a deeper, more complex inheritance
An early morning in december, Alina, seals her faith to kalash. With no father, and a mother who is now Muslim, she celebrates alone, guided by her community
Asrad Gul teach what is never taught; as the only female doctor in Bumburet, she treats and discusses with all females, Kalash or Muslim, about prevention and other aspects of intercourse which are not tought about in school.
As a young woman, Hima grew up embracing the traditions of the Kalash people. But when her husband—Kalash like her—chose to convert to Islam, she followed him into a new faith.
“I did it for my kids”
"Honor is in the mind, not the veil"
- Kalash convert
This shift is not just about faith, but about belonging. Raising profound questions of continuity, choice, and the pressure to take sides. Framed by generational shifts, this work traces the tensions of youthhood, revealing the uncertainty of a generation navigating imposed change. Each image is a dialogue between past and present, where childhood, faith, and identity intersect in ways both personal and universal.