Born on 23 November, 1968 in his hometown in Gulmit within the Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan Region, Northern Pakistan, Fazal Amin Beg, son of Zafar Ullah Beg got his primary and secondary level education from the government school in Gulmit. Afterward, he left the mountain environment and reached Karachi for pursuing his further studies. Having done his higher secondary education in science subjects (pre-engineering) in 1988 and getting his Bachelor’s degree in Arts (B.A.) in 1992, Fazal Amin earned his Master’s degree in Persian language and literature in 1997 and his M. Phil degree in Central Asian Studies with a specialization in socio-cultural anthropology in 2005. Fazal Amin also qualified his PhD coursework in Asian Studies (specialization in anthropology) in 2011 from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Unfortunately, he could not complete his dissertation due to the lack of facilities for persons with disabilities in addition to an absence of any financial support or scholarship in doctoral studies. On the other, denial of regular employment within the public sector and reputed civil society organizations such as the Aga Khan Development Network or other related organization also negatively hamper upon his employment in order to embrace the set forth dream in formal advanced studies. Such disabling environment in the institutions and organizations for apparently disabled people like Fazal Amin did not facilitate him to effectively support himself and his family at juncture of his life.
Fazal Amin has also a great affection and aptitude for learning different languages. He is fluent in English, Urdu, Farsi and Wakhi (his mother-tongue ). He has also studied and achieved varying levels of proficiency in several other languages including German, French, Russian, Arabic, Uyghur, Burushaski, Pushto and Greek.
Professionally, Fazal Amin initially acquired experience in teaching and school management for over six years (in 1980s and 1990s) by serving the community schools in Hunza.
Although, at present, Fazal Amin is seen as a visually disabled due to a retinal degenerative progress called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), particularly after qualifying his doctoral coursework, and confronts huge challenges in establishing his career, he worked as a development researcher, consultant, and evaluator of different development projects carried out in Gilgit-Baltistan Region.
It is interesting to note that when he was relatively doing well visually, he was given a niche in the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP). He thus served this organization within Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) for more or less a decade. But, when he lost his visual ability after qualifying his PhD coursework, the related organizations in public and private or NGO sectors became reluctant to accept and facilitate him even ignoring the set human rights conventions and covenants of the United Nations on persons with disabilities and the related constitution of the land.
Using effectively and productrively his digital voice recorder Up to the early months of January 2021 and from June 2021 onward, with the help of his smart phone and white can plus an assistant, Fazal Amin Beg still continues carrying out his fieldwork and has been publishing the interviews, group discussion and other aspects of field data on his initiated YouTube Channel during the pandemic called “EaglesWorld.”
It may sound weird or interesting to researchers of social sciences and humanities that how could visually disabled persons like Fazal Amin conduct anthropological fieldwork successfully. However, it is a reality that he continues on such ventures robustly. He works efficiently on his laptop with the help of an effective talking software called Job Access With Speech (JAWS). In addition to his diverse areas of interest and the 40 anthropological fieldwork projects he has already completed in northern Pakistan, south-western China, northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan, Fazal Amin has also specialized in the preservation, documentation, and promotion of the Wakhi-Pamiri language for over two decades in academic and applied domains. Within the realm of his linguistic efforts, he has written more than two thousand pages of Wakhi poems from over a hundred poets and collected over thirty thousand Wakhi words for a Wakhi dictionary.
Fazal Amin has also collected and documented in audio and video forms the biographies of over two hundred persons of diverse backgrounds from Gilgit-Baltistan and Central Asia in order to explore and get insights into the societal evolution and cultural change from the lens of those respective people. So far, he has come up with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions of over four thousand respondents recorded in audio-form. Many of his video documentation and documentaries within his limit, especially after June 2021 onward are found on his EaglesWorld YouTube Channel and they could be accessed in the diverse playlists of the channel on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/@eaglesworld5972
Fazal Amin has also worked and collaborated with (and continues with some) various international scholars and researchers in anthropological and linguistic fields from Harvard University, University of California (Santa Cruz), Georgia State University, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Free University (Berlin), Oxford University, University of Florence (Italy), University of Padua (Italy), Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and the like.
Three of his academic papers, with the co-authors from Pakistan and abroad, have been published in 2019 and 2021 in international academic journals on varying themes within anthropological and linguistic realms (see below the list and publications).one of the important research contributions, as a chapter of an international edited book, is expected to get published in 2023 as has already gone through the peer review. Besides, four of his papers and articles have been published in the academic and applied development journals in Pakistan. Moreover, he has also contributed articles to a leading newspaper of Pakistan such as Daily Dawn, and others. In addition, he has written hundreds of pages of unpublished studies and reports that emerged as a result of his consultancies and independent initiatives. Some or some aspects of them have already been published on FAZALAMIN.COM and could be found in the publication categories of this website. .
Fazal Amin also has a deep passion for poetry as he personally ventured into the field for the first time in 1989 when he was on the crest of his youth. Besides composing some poems in Persian, Urdu and English, he mostly composes his poetry in Wakhi (his mother tongue). He has composed over two hundred poetries and thousands of stanzas, expressing his feelings and understanding in metaphorical and literal contexts on different themes such as devotional, socio-cultural, political and human rights, lyrical, ghazals, elegy, and homeland.
As part of his family and community traditions, Fazal Amin has been contributing productively towards community development in a voluntary capacity for over 30 years, independently as well as through his involvement in civil society organizations functioning in the region. In fact, he is a founding member of some organizations. He is also highly vocal in advocating for human rights in various domains.
Fazal Amin has participated as a proactive participant and speaker in dozens of conferences, workshops and seminars within Pakistan and abroad. Internationally, in 2016 he conducted a seminar in Milan University, Italy, and presented research papers at Nante Institute in France and Copenhagen University in Denmark. He has traveled in China, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, India, Germany, Italy, France and Denmark.
Note: If necessary, he could be Contacted on on the following email address: [email protected]
Fazal Amin Beg CV PDF: Fazal Amin Beg CV
Fazal Amin Beg CV Word: Fazal Amin Beg CV