Baloch Culture Day

Culture of origin: Baloch · Cultural

Holiday sources: Baloch

Since 2010 the Baloch have kept 2 March as Baloch Culture Day. Men wear long white turbans and short jackets over baggy clothes, and women colourful dresses, mostly made by hand; people gather for Baloch folk music played on the flute, the tambura and the suroz, for dances such as the dochaap, and for Baloch food. It is kept across Pakistan's Balochistan and in Karachi with rallies and ceremonies, and also in Iran, Afghanistan, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; in the UAE the community first marked it in Sharjah in 2019. In Pakistan many families now mark the day holding photographs of their disappeared relatives. In Iran, the Zagros Centre for Human Rights reports that public celebrations of Baloch heritage and Baloch cultural associations are tightly controlled or banned, and that peaceful cultural assemblies are regularly dispersed by force.