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NATO: Afghanistan's Music School
From traditional instruments to rock guitars – the Afghan National Institute of Music gives disadvantaged children the chance to play a part in the resurgence of music in Afghanistan, which was widely banned under the Taliban regime. Shotlist: From traditional instruments to rock guitars – the Afghan National Institute of Music gives disadvantaged children the chance to play a part in the resurgence of music in Afghanistan, which was widely banned under the Taliban regime. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT --VOICEOVER-- A music lesson for a grade school student: a normal sight in many countries around the world, extraordinary in Afghanistan, where under the Taliban regime music was widely banned as un-Islamic. The Afghanistan National Institute of Music aims to restore the strong pre-war tradition of Afghan music as well as training students to a professional level in western classical music and instruments. --SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH)-- "You see Kabul was a very thriving, Afghanistan had a very thriving music community thirty years back and, as you know, the history, when the Talibans came they destroyed all the music instruments and now we are trying to revive it. And it should be revived. It has a very rich, Kabul, Afghanistan has a very rich musical background." --VOICEOVER-- An initiative of the Ministry of Education, pupils come from a vast array of backgrounds. But one of the main foundations of the school is to help disadvantaged kids to get off the streets and into school using their talent for music to forge their future. --SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH)-- "I do have students who used to sell chewing gum or used to sell plastic bags and now many of them are little girls as well so they face tremendous pressures on reasons of gender, of socio-economic class. Families receive an amount of money, which is slightly more than what they made on the streets of Kabul to encourage the children to stay in school instead of going back to the streets." --VOICEOVER-- From traditional instruments to western influences, students attend school for ten years to explore the full panorama of music. But this is not just a hobby. The Institute's founder and director has hopes that these young people will find jobs as professional musicians on a world stage. --SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH)-- "It's a country, which does not up to now have a national orchestra. It's a country, which is lacking brass bands for its military barracks. It's a country which does not have an ensemble of even Afghan traditional instruments, there are small groups playing here and there but we will like Afghanistan to have a big orchestra of Afghan traditional instruments as well as a national orchestra." --VOICEOVER-- But sometimes it's a struggle to keep students in school if their families object, --SOUNDBITE (DARI)-- "Recently when the brother of one student return after working several years outside Afghanistan and as soon as he come to Afghanistan and he saw that his sister is studying music the first day he stopped girls, he prevented the girl from coming to the Institute or to the school. Then we had a long discussion for several days and it took me probably two days to convince the man that Afghan National Institute of Music is a safe place for the girl and this is a place that assists the girl to develop a sustainable economic future and she might be one day be playing in the world stage given the talent that she has got." --VOICEOVER-- As well as traditional music, students enjoy contemporary sounds like the school's house rock band. Students put down their sitars and violins after class and pick up guitar, bass and drumsticks. --SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) "All people of Afghanistan like music but we want to try to say to the all of the world that Afghanistan can be equal to all of the countries and we can introduce our culture with the music" --VOICEOVER-- Whether the school will survive in the face of conservative opposition remains to be seen. But if students, both young men and women, have the opportunity to showcase their talents, it's much more likely that they'll play on in the future. This is Ruth Owen, in Kabul, for the Natochannel. Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
