Afghan orchestras in peril: ‘I cannot imagine a society without music’

[Animous]

 

For more than a decade, Ahmad Sarmast has taken impoverished children from the streets of Afghanistan and filled their lives with music. One, an orphan girl who hawked chewing gum in one of the most conservative areas of the country, became a conductor of Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra.

All that is now at risk as the Taliban tighten their grip on power.

“Right now, my biggest concern is for the safety and security of my students and what their future might be. Given the visibility of the school, we are very worried about everyone’s safety,” Sarmast told the Guardian. “Whether the Taliban will allow us to continue, that seems problematic.”

Sarmast, the founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, left Kabul for Melbourne last month to spend the school’s summer holidays with his family and undergo medical treatment. “I did not foresee the complete collapse of my nation,” he said. His return flight, booked for mid-September, is now in doubt.

The last time the Taliban were in power, Afghanistan became “a silent nation”, said Sarmast. “People were not allowed to listen to or practise music, they were not allowed to experience the beauty of music.”

This time, he said, “I hope we won’t go down the path of the 1990s. I hope the Taliban will respect the cultural rights of the Afghan people.”

Sarmast founded the institute, which now has 350 students, in 2010. “At its centre are disadvantaged children whose lives have been transformed by music. The school provides education regardless of social circumstances, ethnicity, gender,” he said.

“The school always has and still is promoting gender equality. We started with only one girl and now one-third of the school community is female.”

Among its ensembles are the National Symphony Orchestra, the Afghan Youth Orchestra, and Zohra, the Afghan Women’s Orchestra, which according to Sarmast has become a “symbol of the emancipation of women”.

As well as providing music for Afghanistan, the ensembles have built up an international reputation, performing at the British Museum and Royal Festival Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York and prestigious venues in Europe.

“We have used the power of music to build bridges within Afghanistan and with other countries,” said Sarmast. “I have great belief in the soft power of music. It is not just entertainment, but a powerful force in transforming communities and people’s lives.”

Although the institute has generally “enjoyed the support of the Afghan people”, Sarmast acknowledges such support has not been universal. “Many conservative elements within the country think music is forbidden in holy Islam.” Music performed by women and girls is particularly taboo.

In 2014 the institute’s symphony orchestra was performing at the French cultural centre in Kabul when a bomb ripped through the venue. Sarmast was knocked unconscious, both eardrums were perforated leaving him deaf, and he received serious shrapnel injuries. After months of treatment in Australia, he recovered his hearing.

Ahmad Sarmast in hospital after the attack in Kabul in 2014. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

After the attack, the Taliban issued a statement naming Sarmast and accusing him of corrupting Afghan youth.

Sarmast, a professor of musicology, said he was “an optimistic person” and was proud of the institute’s achievements. “When you see a child who used to work on the streets with no prospects become a cultural diplomat for his or her country, it is a happy thing.”

If the Taliban forced the institute to close, he said, “these students would lose their dreams. The impact would be not only on the students but the entire nation.

“I cannot imagine a society without music, it would be a dead society, I don’t know how it could survive. You can’t take music out of the hearts of people.”

Topics

Afghanistan

Taliban

South and Central Asia

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