Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Afghanistan’s All-Female Orchestra Is Hoping to Revive Music Banned Under the Taliban

Afghanistan’s All-Female Orchestra Is Hoping to Revive Music Banned Under the Taliban

SYDNEY - Freedom of expression was censored by successive brutal regimes and musicians were often imprisoned and tortured.
For five years in the late 1990s, music was completely banned by the Taliban for its “corrupting influence.”
Now, members of Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra are hoping to rebuild their country’s musical heritage and showcase Afghanistan’s vibrant culture to the rest of the world. 
Zohra, an ensemble based in Afghanistan’s National Institute of Music, is touring Australia with performances in Melbourne and Sydney. 
The orchestra, founded in 2015, has played in cities across the world, including a high profile performance at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2017.
Now to celebrate the diplomatic relationship between Australia and Afghanistan, members of Zohra will join with Australian favourites, performing traditional music, alongside a few Australian favourites.
"We want to open the door for new generation in Afghanistan because if we do not do it, another generation will never do it,” Meena Karimi, a fourteen-year-old performer with the ensemble, said.
Meena’s choice to follow her passion for music means she has had to hide her talents from some members of her family.
"We all face challenges, my family support me but my relatives, my uncle, my aunt, they didn't know that I play music,” she said.
“When they understand and when they are ready to know I will tell them."
Dr Ahmad Sarmast is one of the driving forces behind Zohra and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.
He fled to Australia as a refugee in 1994 and achieved his PhD in music at Monash University in 2005.
"I strongly believe in the soft and transformative power of music,” Dr Sarmast said.
“For me, music isn't a type of entertainment. For me, music is a much bigger and greater vehicle and a very powerful vehicle for contributing to several aspects of any given nation.”
In 2010 he decided to return to his homeland, to try and restore Afghanistan’s music industry. (SBS News)