Duisi, Georgia: local residents hold horse racing (doghi) competitions at the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. (c) Dominik K. Cagara. All rights reserved.“Why don’t you come and do something useful?” an old acquaintance told me, his scorn undisguised, as I walked through Duisi, the largest village in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley.
I’ve been coming to Pankisi for over five years, but this is the first time I decided to connect with the local community as a journalist. Not everyone I shared the news with reacted enthusiastically — here in Pankisi, there’s widespread negative sentiment towards foreign journalists.
Advance knowledge
“Every journalist who’s worked here has come with a pre-written scenario,” Musa Pankiski, an active member of the valley’s Salafi Muslim community, tells me on my friend’s porch after iftar, the evening meal that marks the break of fast during Ramadan. He refused to reveal his real surname.
