Afghans, women and music. One banned by the Taliban that rebuilds itself in Portugal
They are the first generation of Afghan women allowed to go to school and study music. In the summer of 2021, with the return of the Taliban, they had to leave their instruments behind and flee. Portugal welcomed them and is now the home of the women’s orchestra Zohra and the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan in exile.
Marzia is 15 years old but was still small when her father envied her from the village where they lived, in the province of Takhar, in the northeast of Afghanistan, to an orphanage in Kabul, so she could study. A common reality in a country where girls study in separate schools and not all provinces have schools for girls. At the orphanage, he was told about a music school, the only one in the country. At the age of 9, Marzia joined the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan (INMA).
“Before I went to the National Institute of Music in Afghanistan, I hated music because in my village people always said bad things about music. I was told that Muslims didn’t play the music. What music is bad for us”, recalls Marzia, in an interview with CNN Portugal. INMA request, your first name only.
When Marzia told her father that she was studying music, he didn’t accept. One of the sisters even told her that she was no longer part of the family. But Marzia didn’t give up and at age 11 she became a member of the Afghan women’s orchestra, Orquestra Zohra.
Consisting of 30 Afghan girls between the ages of 13 and 20, from various parts of Afghanistan, the Zohra Orchestra has played on the world’s most prestigious stages such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and at events such as the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, in Switzerland, in 2017. A year later, they played in Portugal, at the Young Musicians Festival, organized by Antena 2 with the collaboration of the Gulbenkian Foundation.
The young women who play here dream of becoming percussionists, violinists, conductors. Zohra, after whom this orchestra is named, is the Persian goddess of music and a symbol of change.
Sabera is 18 years old and, unlike Marzia, a shyness that holds back a conversation. But when it comes to the Zohra Orchestra, she doesn’t mince words: “It means we can play music, we can be the voice of the women of Afghanistan”.
“The world thinks that in Afghanistan women just stay at home, they don’t study, they don’t do anything. But the Zohra Orchestra shows a different Afghanistan. It shows that the Afghan woman is not what the world thinks; she can play music, she can change her country”, adds Marcia. “I feel freedom with the Zohra Orchestra”.
The return of the Taliban
One that passed, was not observed with American troops. “On that day they are released to school at the school recording songs, when our driver knocked on the door and said: «The Taliban have to leave now from»”, Sevinch, they have to leave now from», recalls Sevinch, from Faryab living in an orphanage, she is also a member of the Zohra Orchestra. “We recorded it but I was very scared. I looked at my instrument and said to myself: “What do I do with it?”. If I took him with me it would be dangerous so I left him at school but I was very sad not to bring him”.
The students of the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan at their homes, not knowing what to do for the day. They hid like vehicles known to the Taliban instruments and for two they watched the months go by.
“I felt like I wasn’t living” says Sevinch. “I was afraid because I’m a musician, because I’m a girl… I spent my days at home, I didn’t leave the house”.
Until Ahmad Naser Sarmast, founder and director of the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan, contacted them to prepare to leave the country. From the Speaker of the House of Representatives, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to the famous violinist Yo-o Ma. The first person was Doha, in Qatar, and the destination, Lisbon, in Portugal, which welcomed the group of 273.
“When I told my father that I was going to Portugal, for the first time he told me that he was available to me. I was in shock, he accepted me!”, says Marzia with a smile that gave her face.
A country without music
Today, on the streets of Afghanistan, you hear taranas, religious chants that have only existed for a long time in the culture of Afghanistan, but which are used as propaganda by the Taliban. Playing in public was prohibited. From radios and televisions, not a single note.
Nothing new Ahmad Naser Sarmast who witnessed the attention even to the music when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Music is considered sinful, even more so played by sinful women. “They always say music is haram [proibido pela lei islâmica] in Islam and I don’t know where in the Koran Allah says that. I really can’t find it because, in fact, I know this part of the Koran, I read the Koran, and there is nothing that says that”, says Marzia.
Ahmad Naser Sarmast explains: “The interpretation is based on knowledge of knowledge and very limited knowledge. They are a group of ignorant people who have been brainwashed in refugee camps and madrasas in Pakistani intelligence services.” “They are afraid of the girls because they know that the girls have the power, they will be expelled”, concludes Sevinch.
“Music education, this is how it defines, recovering our country”, highlight Sevinch.
Today, the eight buildings of the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan are occupied by the Taliban and their families. They just don’t want to draw the attention of the international community so that they don’t change from the official position in relation to music and music education.
“The happiest place in Afghanistan”
Zohra is just one of several musical groups at this school where boys and girls study side by side. Murtaza is 18 years old, and proud of his colleagues: “They brought many awards to Afghanistan and we are very proud of her, they are very talented girls”. Recognize in the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan that we go beyond music: “We can practice together, we can read, we can play games, we can do anything, without any value”.
In the “Afghanistan place”, as Ahmad Naser Sarmast is known for, the happy school is said for equality is fought ahead: half as many children are reserved for the struggle of children, children who work selling on the streets several and the girls of all ethnic and religious groups.
Portugal, the refuge of Afghan music
In the corridors of the Ministry of Defense building and a guitar provided by the Red Cross, in Lisbon, which serves special music, a small group of cell phones and a small group of cell phones play.
Murtaza expresses his feelings through the rubab, a traditional Afghan instrument that he managed to save. “If we hadn’t come to Portugal, it would be very difficult for us to play, continue with our classes, live in Afghanistan, be alive… All these things would be unthinkable and impossible if we were in Afghanistan.”
The father and family with their studies and beginning in music, even more so now. “Right now my family is so optimistic about my future and their future. I am the hope of my family and I also want to be the hope of the entire Afghan people,” says Murtaza.
Saber is about to be saved but remains happy. “Everyone is in great danger in Afghanistan right now. But my family especially, because of my connection to the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan.”
Ahmad Naser Sarmast considers that more than a goal, it is his duty to bring the families of each of his students close to them. The government of Qatar has been an important ally and Sarmast is confident that by the end of the summer the remaining group of 300 people will arrive in Portugal.
Resist through music
They arrived in Portugal in December and the goals are from Afghanistan – the National Institute of Music will return to Lisbon, as an education center of excellence open to all.
Meanwhile, the fight continues. “One of the missions of the Afghan National Institute of Music in exile will not only be the preservation of Afghan music, but also become the voice of the Afghan people,” says Ahmad Naser Sarmast. “This time, the women of Afghanistan are leading the resistance against the Taliban.” “I have no doubt that Afghanistan will repair its freedom very soon.”
“I want to see my country free. I want to see all Afghan women studying, working for themselves,” says Marzia.
Note: at the request of the National Institute of Music of Afghanistan, CNN Portugal used the first name of the students A report in the report only.