/ARTS WEEKLY/AFGHANISTAN: Muted Musicians See Hope in Young Performers

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 21 2005 (IPS) - Music might have suffered terribly in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, but a group of exiled Afghan musicians in neighbouring Pakistan have taken it upon themselves to preserve the musical tradition of their homeland by setting up music academies in this border city.

Today they are reaping the benefits from their hard work and are looking forward to the day when their music students will be able to perform freely in their newly liberated country under President Hamid Karzai.

One of them is Ustad Mohammad Ihsan, who established a music academy, called the Irfan Music Centre here. He takes immense pride in teaching young Afghan enthusiasts.

”Something had to be done to preserve and protect the socio-cultural identity of the Afghans after the Taliban took over the country,” the 48- year-old, Ihsan, told IPS.

Himself a singer, Ihsan escaped Afghanistan when the fundamentalist Taliban took over power in September 1996, and made his way to neighbouring Pakistan. He started his music academy that same year.

”The Taliban insisted that there is a ‘hadith’ (a record of the Prophet’s sayings) warning people not to listen to music lest molten lead be poured into their ears on Judgment Day. Until then, the Taliban police were wreaking their own violence -against musical instruments and anyone who dared enjoy their use,” revealed Ihsan.

”Musicians were persecuted and their musical instruments and recordings destroyed,” he added.

The Taliban, a collection of former theology students who took over Kabul in 1996, is best known for destroying ancient Buddhist statues, restricting the rights of women and allegedly harboring accused terrorist Osama bin Laden.

At the end of 2001, the Taliban was removed from power by a U.S.-led coalition with the help of the Northern Alliance Afghan resistance. The Taliban’s refusal to hand over bin Laden for his alleged involvement in the Sep. 11 attacks prompted the attack.

In landmark presidential elections last October, Hamid Karzai was elected Afghanistan’s president.

Under Karzai, schools reopened for girl students and many women have taken jobs in government offices. Karzai has three women ministers in his current cabinet.

And also for the first time since 1996, women have been allowed to sing on radio and television.

”Music plays an important role in Afghan society in keeping the ethnically diverse country together,” said Balyalai Samadi, who happens to be the most sought-after singer in Peshawar.

The two principal ethnic groups are the Pashtuns, who dominate the south and share a culture with the Pashto speakers of northern Pakistan, and the Persian-speaking Tajiks.

”Music has played a big part in bringing these two groups together,” Samadi told IPS. ”The popular music one hears in Afghanistan is actually a hybrid of the Pashtun music-style with Tajik lyrics.”

Radio didn’t come to Afghanistan until the 1940s and the broadcasting of music became an important modernising force.

Being a professional musician was usually a hereditary position for members of low-caste families and carried a social stigma. Radio allowed musicians from middle-class backgrounds to perform, because they couldn’t be seen.

Under the Taliban, musicians were targetted. ”Their musical instruments were confiscated and they were subjected to immense humiliation and disgrace,” said Tor Gul, an Afghan guitar player.

”They were forced to ride donkeys in bazaars and other places with their faces blackened because they were told by the mullahs that they were sinners,” he told IPS.

As a result, a large number of musicians migrated to Pakistan, the U.S. and other European countries. Several reputed performers are now promoting Afghan music in Canada, the U.S., Germany and other parts of Europe.

”Only a handful of Afghan musicians stayed back and joined the ‘Taliban Shariat Radio’ either as announcers or ‘qaris’ (Quran readers),” said Gul.

At the Irfan Music Centre, there appears to be no lack of enthusiastic beginners.

In the eight years since he established this music academy, Ihsan claims to have trained about 400 Afghan youths.

”At present 60 students are enrolled here. I charge only five U.S. dollars a month per student. Those who cannot afford the fees are enrolled for free,” he said.

Jaffar Muqeem has been enrolled in the music center for the past two months.

”I come here to learn to play the zerbaghali (a tabla-like drum) after school every day. I hope to be able to play in Afghanistan some day soon,” he said.

Thirteen-year-old Asif Mohammad from Afghanistan’s Kandahar province has learnt how to play keyboards and the harmonium.

”We were living comfortably in Afghanistan, but I forced my parents to migrate to Pakistan so I could learn performing arts,” he told IPS. ”I, too, want to go back to Afghanistan and perform there.”

Massod, a Year 10 student, wants to follow the footsteps of his father Muhammad Azeem, a famous Afghan performer. He’s learning to play the rubab (a sitar-like instrument) at the music center.

Like his other two colleagues, Massod, too, wants to be a performer back home.

”Without music you are depriving yourself of important channels of communication, both in terms of emotional expression and in bringing people together to feel part of the community,” said Ihsan. ”These young students of mine are the only hope for the new Afghanistan, music wise. For that reason I’m really passionate about my teaching.”