Connect with us

Latest News

Afghan orchestras and artists insist Taliban won’t stop the music

Published

on

(Last Updated On: August 9, 2021)

Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra has launched a fundraising drive – not to go on tour or buy instruments – but to build an underground bunker in the event of an attack.

Under the “Be part of Zohra’s Journey” page, the number one request reads: “Make a donation”

“Your financial contribution will help: 01 – Build an underground dining facility to be used as a bunker in case of attacks. Target: $150,000.

Less than two and a half years ago the Zohra orchestra was dazzling audiences around Europe and receiving standing ovations after sold out concerts in key cities. But now as the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, they, like all Afghan artists, musicians and actors fear for their future, and safety.

When the Taliban were in power, from 1996 to 2001, they banned art, theatre and music. They burned books and DVDs and destroyed televisions and musical instruments.

Many artists fled the country.

While the Taliban insist they have changed, two weeks ago they killed a popular comedian, Nazar Mohammad, in Kandahar and last week, shot dead Dawa Khan Menapal, the head of the government’s media and information department, in Kabul.

Speaking to the UK’s Daily Times, Ahmad Sarmast, the founder of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (Amin), which runs Zohra, said: “We have seen this movie before.”

“The entire nation was silenced under the Taliban and the music stopped.”

He insists that will not be allowed to happen again. “The Afghanistan of today is a very different place to when they took over in 1996, particularly the youth who are aware of their rights and won’t let anyone take them away.”

The music school has 350 students of which almost a third are female. Among them is Meena Karimi, 16, a cellist who took part in the tour to the UK, the Times reported.

She says she and the other female members discuss every day which provinces have fallen to the Taliban. Last month they were horrified when rockets were fired into the presidential palace compound.

“I was really shocked — if a rocket can even go in the president’s home, things are really bad,” she said. “But we need to be strong. I’ve heard stories about the Taliban and how horrible it was but I think our new generation is stronger. Me and my friends will not let the Taliban stop our music.”

The orchestra has been targeted three times since 2014 when a concert was attacked by a suicide bomber, But for Meena, “music is healing”.

“When I am sad I play to be happy and after all these years of war our country needs that.”

Last month the institute moved into a new larger campus and took delivery of ten new pianos as well as crates of instruments. “We have not stopped and will continue to fight Taliban with the beauty of music,” Sarmast told the Times.

Zohra’s musicians are the first women in their families, communities and country to study music in over 30 years. They come from provinces across Afghanistan to live in Kabul and study at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

Latest News

ISIS-K leader reportedly living in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 ISIS attack on Kabul Airport, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers.

But after Friday’s deadly attack in a concert hall in Moscow, which left 139 people dead, Ghaffari’s group has come under intense scrutiny.

Reuters reports that Ghaffari is said to have been involved in several attacks in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said months ago that Ghaffari had been killed in Kunar province in Afghanistan in June last year, but Reuters has reported that he did not die and instead fled to Pakistan and lives in the border province of Baluchistan.

Abdul Matin Qani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan, says that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan for more than two years and has lost its operational capacity.

The last attack carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan was the attack on the Kabul Bank office in Kandahar last week which left three dead and 12 wounded.

Continue Reading

Latest News

IPL: Sunrisers thump MI in record breaking match

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

It was raining records at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday with the hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clinching a 31-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 8 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Sunrisers’ batting rewrote the record books on a batting belter after the posted 277 for three.

SRH now have the highest team score in the history of the IPL – beating Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) 263 for five from the 2013 season.

In reply, MI made a spirited effort, and at one stage, were contenders to do the near impossible. In the slog overs, the enormity of the target proved a bit too much, and SRH clinched victory, but not without numerous nervous moments.

To put into perspective the carnage we witnessed – Heinrich Klaasen’s 23-ball half-century was the slowest fifty of the SRH innings.

Travis Head, playing his first match for SRH, raced to the milestone in 18 balls. Abhishek Sharma got there even faster – in 16 balls – to record the quickest fifty by an SRH batter in IPL history.

While Sunrisers notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude.

The sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually however, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.

As ESPNcricinfo reported, never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

Thursday, March 28 : Match 9

Thursday’s match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur sees Rajasthan Royals go up against Delhi Capitals.

Fans in Afghanistan can tune in to Ariana Television to watch the match live from 6.30pm. Alternatively the match can be screened live on arianatelevision.com

Continue Reading

Latest News

Magnitude 5.2 quake jolts Afghanistan

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, the National Center for Seismology reported.

The quake was at a depth of 70km and epicentered in the mountainous north-eastern area of Ashkāsham.

The jolt was felt across the region including in Kabul, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

In October last year, over 2,000 people were killed when four 6.3-magnitude earthquakes struck in Herat province.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Ariana News. All rights reserved!