British author, social worker Maureen Lines dies in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Renowned British social worker, environmentalist and legendary expert on the Kalash people Maureen Lines passed away in Peshawar on Friday. She was 80.

She was born in North London in 1937, but spent about 30 years of her life in Pakistan and was known as Bibi Dow of Kalash. She began travelling in Europe at the age of seventeen, lived in Paris and in 1961 immigrated to United States. Three years later she hitched-hiked across Turkey and Syria to Damascus and so began her abiding affection for the Arabs and respect for the Islamic world.

She also traveled to the Middle East and North Africa; she has lived on a Greek Island and in Beirut; sailed through the Persian Gulf and travelled in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank, India, Western China and extensively in Pakistan.

Maureen Lines has published a number of articles on both sides of the Atlantic and in Pakistan and sold two Gothic novels in New York.

She was the author of Beyond the Northwest Frontier, The Kalasha People of South Western Pakistan and Journey to Jalalabad.

Granted a Pakistani citizenship in 2004, the social worker is known as the ‘barefoot doctor’ for scurrying through Kalash to treat the locals of their ailments. Lines has dedicated her life to improving the welfare of the Kalash community since she moved to Pakistan in 1980.

She lived among the Kalasha people, learning their language and ways. Her love for them had braved all odds. She was a recipient of the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz.

In 1995, she started up the British charity, the Hindukush Conservation Association with Sir Nicholas Barrington, the then British High Commissioner to Pakistan, and Keith Howman, President of the World Pheasant Association.

Maureen Lines was an extraordinary and inspirational figure who had devoted her entire life to the service of others. She had recently adopted Kalash orphan children whom she desired to educate in schools in Peshawar.