Searching Purification As The Solution To Life's Problems

Pure is always clean, but clean is not always pure. This is the challenge faced by many people when they are told that March 22 has been designated by the United Nations as World Water Day. Clean water is essential for human survival, whether in cities, rural areas, snowy regions, or sandy ones. Because of this, people go to great lengths to obtain it—digging deep into the earth or converting seawater into freshwater. While the results of such efforts are certainly usable, those accustomed to drinking water from other sources can still sense the difference.

Communities living in mountainous regions are especially fortunate. They benefit from rivers and natural springs and do not need to struggle to transform other substances into water. Instead, their task is simply to preserve these springs so they continue to flow with clean water over time. Nature itself was the classroom of our ancestors, where they developed early forms of science rooted in careful observation of movement and existence in the natural world. This knowledge was then passed down through storytelling, ensuring it remained engaging and memorable for future generations.

Encounters with stories and ideas from outside their communities have introduced new challenges: how to rediscover and reclaim the knowledge created by their ancestors—knowledge that is inherently suited to their way of life, without unnecessary complications. After all, the kind of drama we need is one that ends well, offering guidance that leads to real results, not endless sequels of the same unresolved story.

Illustration: Bratan Lake, Bali.

The 'Spring' of Conflict

The Durand Line, which now separates Afghanistan and Pakistan, was not drawn by the people who had lived in the region for centuries. Stretching over 2,000 kilometers, it was imposed by outsiders seeking to secure their own survival while still struggling to find their place in the world. The line cuts across some of the world’s highest mountain ranges, divides four rivers (the Kunar, Kabul, Kurram, and Gomal), and ends at Lake Zerrah along the border with Iran.

Long before this line existed, the Kalash people lived across a region once known as Kafiristan, now called Nuristan. They have preserved their original language, culture, and beliefs, including a distinctive way of positioning women within society. In their worldview, mountains represent the purity of men, while valleys symbolize women, who are considered “impure.”

Why impure? Because women experience menstruation, and in earlier times there were no modern sanitary products. To maintain environmental cleanliness, women were restricted from entering certain places, such as mountain peaks or sacred springs that served as vital water sources. Even modern medicine acknowledges that menstrual blood is not “pure” blood, as it contains substances that are not hygienic. From this perspective, prohibiting menstruating women from bathing in shared water sources used by the entire community was considered reasonable.

At the same time, Kalash Indigenous Belief grants women certain privileges. One of these is the relative ease of ending a marriage. A wife can simply write a letter to her husband declaring separation and introducing her new partner. Women also have authority over agricultural decisions and control the financial outcomes of the family. They are free to interact with men, including singing and dancing together at community events, without the obligation to conceal their appearance. 

These freedoms reflect an acknowledgment of women’s roles within Kalash society. Due to biological limitations, women spend more time at home, which is seen as their domain—a space where they act as spiritual protectors of the family. Their well-being matters, because their happiness is believed to extend to the entire community.

Wisely Selecting What We Consume

I do not intend to judge the situations faced by the countries mentioned above. Accessing truly pure sources of water can be costly or even impossible for some communities due to geographic limitations. Still, it does not take long to feel the effects of what we consume in daily life. Our bodies act as the fairest judges, revealing the results of our choices through health or illness.

If desalination becomes the only way to quench thirst, we must ask: does the water it produces truly satisfy that thirst? This is one of the questions that can serve as a filter—a way to assess whether the process of purification we rely on is actually giving us what we need. (dswas).