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Subscribe to RSSIn a country where the arts and music suffered heavily under the Taliban, young musicians — including dozens of girls — are representing the potential in Afghanistan's future.
KABUL, Afghanistan - From the cold basement of an orphanage in Kabul, the beat of a bass drum bounces through the halls.
Hitting the high hat and cymbals was Laila, a 13-year old orphan and the only known female drummer in Afghanistan.
"I like playing the drums and there are no other girls in Afghanistan playing the drums,” Laila said with a big smile. “I'm the only girl and I want to become well known as an Afghan girl playing drums.”
For now, she plays in a basement, but soon it'll be D.C.'s Kennedy Center and New York's Carnegie Hall.
Laila and 10 other girls from her orphanage will be joining ensembles from the Afghan National Institute of Music as they make their U.S. debut.
For many of the performers, it will be their first time out of the country and their first time in America.
"I hear it is very clean and has big buildings and you have such freedom there,” 10-year old Sapna said. "I forget the name of the president of America, but I have heard of him."
Sapna plays the piano and likes the "fast songs" that allow her to move her little fingers quickly over the keys.
As the security in Afghanistan crumbles, 'Nightly' returns to an orphanage that Brian Williams first visited in 2009 to find girls with big dreams who are focused on getting into college.
Music is part of the curriculum at this orphanage run by Andeisha Farid, the executive director of the Afghan Child Education and Caring Organization.
'Hope for a better future'
In a country where female freedoms are few, Farid said these young girls represent the potential in Afghanistan's future.
"Afghan women, they suffer so badly. They even struggle for their very basic human rights,” Farid said. “We hope for a better future for Afghanistan. If we can properly invest in these children, a long-term investment, they realize that there is hope in Afghanistan.”
The sheer fact that dozens of girls are practicing and learning music is a sign of progress in a country where only an estimated 15 percent of women can even read and write, never mind read music or play an instrument.
The arts and music suffered heavily under the Taliban, and not just for women.
Oct. 30: Brian swaps eyewear with one of the girls at the Kabul orphanage.
Since 2001 a small group of Afghans have worked to bring music back to the country. Ahmad Sarmast, who holds a doctorate in music, spearheaded the movement and the effort culminated in the 2010 establishment of the Afghan National Institute of Music.
Musicians and their mentors from the ANIM will embark on a two-week tour of the U.S. starting February 2. They'll be playing a combination of classical and Afghan pieces.
Music has given these children an opportunity that so few have in Afghanistan and they are eager to share what they've learned.
"People can understand each other's hearts through music. American people can understand Afghan hearts and Afghans can understand American hearts. It's universal," said Sapna.
Yet, hurdles remain.
Oct. 30 2009: Andeisha Farid is making a difference in a dangerous place, providing a safe haven in Afghanistan. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Twelve-year-old Fareshta said pressure from her home village prevented her from playing the trumpet.
NBC first met Fareshta when Brian Williams visited her orphanage.
Fareshta said people in her village threatened to make her family outcasts if she kept on attending music school.
She now only plays when she is in the orphanage. And, while the other girls prepare for their performances in the U.S., she won't be going.
"I want to go music school and play more music," Fareshta said.
She shrugged when asked if it all seemed unfair. After all, so much that has and is happening in Afghanistan seems unfair.
But after listening to a girl like Laila practicing on the drums, it is easy to understand that the music these young people create is a message of hope in a country awash with disappointments.
Related:
Tears of joy: The moment an Afghan teen learned of Oscar nomination
Steeple, cross at U.S. Army base on Afghan frontier raise hackles
Leave a Comment:
yeah, so...here's hoping that these girls worry less about winning American hearts and more about getting shot in the head by their own Afghan People for performing something that can be construed blasphemous...
#Let's All Keep It Real, Shall We?
Is this a public relations bid to support the war on Afghanistan and create even more orphans?
I think it's an effort to say the past dozen years haven't been a complete waste; that some good things have come from Coalition sacrifice.
Let us hope that the drumbeat of NATO bombs and whistling missles is replaced by music and not only orphan music.
If you haven't been there, then you are only controlled by what you read. When you see a child standing on the edge of the road asking for a pencil, so he can write. That changes your mind in a hurry. We "US/NATO" have done more to help than anyone else EVER have. A small percent of the population does not like us. But even one percent of 30 million equals to 300K. And if all the cameras are on those 300k, then that seems to be a large number. Wake up and help. If you can't help over there, then get off you butts and help at home, you are part of the problem or part of the answer........ I worked on a PRT, I just finished my 5th tour of duty in the mid-east. And would go back in a NY minute.
The world would be a better place if everyone carried instruments instead of weapons. Maybe someday, but for now, there are too many crazies in the world who wish to force their views on everyone else.
""I like playing the drums and there are no other girls in Afghanistan playing the drums,” Laila said with a big smile. “I'm the only girl and I want to become well known as an Afghan girl playing drums.”"
After the "responsible" end to Afghan war, it will irresponsible beginning for Paki sponsored Islamic holy warriors, Taliban!
All these hopes will vanish even from basements!
Standing the Watch:
Thank you for your service, and i agree that we've done a great deal of good over there. Although much of the media only reports on the 'bad' or 'sensational' stuff, there are articles out there (few and far betweeen, regrettably) that do show the hope and change we've brought to the region--it's up to the reader to find them.
Jonathan:
Always so pessimistic. Can you for once try to find the silver lining in the clouds? The rainbow in the rain?
Amanda: The track record of Islam since its birth even makes highly optimists and positive personalities like I very pessimistic.
Followers of Islamic cult gave only rain of tears and blood wherever they set their feet!
These days Islamic extremists are even blowing up mosques of Sufis, singing and dancing about love Muslim sect people, while Sufis pray in the mosques and bomb the hospitals too!
In Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other places, even minority Muslim sect people are being treated as slaves and torn to pieces.
Look at Mali, the latest battle ground of Islamists against Sufis!
They can't even tolerate a far better leader like Assad, just because he belong to a Muslim minority sect.
Where do an infidel like I stand before the Islamic hating and killing machines?
Can you explain how can I go on imagining on which were never there?
Hope: even for imagining fantasies there are limits for sane humans.
@Standing the watch,
Stay home, thanks.
Glad US-Afghan relationships are improving. Hope these girls really like the wonderful country America is, and more so, that they may go back and become the change in their own country. I think us Americans forget that it wasn't Afghans that attacked us, it was terroist. It wasn't Muslims who brung down those buildings, they were finactics who foolishly sought out to kill innocent people. Hope they are warmly-welcomed here in the States!
At least, you will have to admit that Islam treats females like slaves. Females are used only for working as slaves and children production machines.
When Islamic religious madness or addiction goes beyond limits, then one sees only cases of Malala as in Pakistan.
Only place of hope and recovery for Malala was Britain. She will be alive only if she continues to stay in Britain.
The fates of these ohphans will be similar after Taliban take over.
Don't kid yourself...America's not that great.
Restrict money earmarked for the Republican War Machine and you get Benghazi.........Try to restrict the movement of the Republlican War Machine in the Middle East and you get 911.
Thanh Truong of NBC News writes: "The arts and music suffered heavily under the Taliban, and not just for women."
Afghan orphan children are being brought to the US in a public relations junket to try to paper over the fact that US drone attacks and other deadly US munitions have killed innocent civilians, including children, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. Parents have been killed in their cars, their homes, on the street and their surviving children orphaned. Are these kids not also suffering heavily?
Afghans, including women and children, have suffered under 11 years of US occupation, Israeli-style, in a so-called "war on terror" that has also cost 6,400 US military lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even US General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of US troops in Afghanistan, has admitted that the drone attacks, while in the short-term are feel-good killing that give politicians cover and give the appearance of 'progress' against Al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militant groups, in the long term are counterproductive and harmful to US national security because of the intense animus against America that they create.
Let's bring some orphaned Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani children from the drone attacks, home demolitions and other US military violence, and from the militant attacks targeting US troops, to the US for concerts, study or enjoyment. Then America would show a conscience, as it ends its occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the deadly drones over Pakistan, Yemen, and likely now Mali.
I don't like drone warfare either. In fact I have left messages on the White House message board to that effect. But I think that's a different matter, entirely. I don't think most of us are so naive as to think bringing a few child musicians to tour America soothes heartaches of parents who've lost children to war-by-remote control. But we can at least feel good for those children who do get relief from a war zone, if only for a little while.
@Light Mirror, It is amazing how a looser like you can find another looser like "Thanh Truong" who is probably a Refugee or child/grandchild by now of a Refugee that got a free rider to the US can find one an other and spit in the face of your country. So why don't you exercise your right of freedom and go someplace you want to be and that wants people like you. Although other countries have, what is perceived as freedoms, they are not what you have here. Please go before you figure out your touch hole buddy Truong is a Muslim, disguised as a Communist, pretending to be an American.
Oh lookie here Eric Smith, aanother who thinks we killed off the entire populat with no help from the Taliban. I suppose the you also think that we Drone attacked 1,500 of our own troops. You need to find another country also.
There would be a lot more hearts won if we get out of Afganistan. This is just a propaganda piece to keep the war going.
So where are all the liberal pro-choice trolls on this issue? Isn't it all about "women's rights?" (Sarcasm)
Here, in a part of the world where TRULY IS A WAR ON WOMEN, why aren't you amoral uterus-scrapers screaming for the need for abortion?
You have no problem mocking the fetus and desiring open-legs at all turns in life, yet you tell us pro-lifers to "pay for all those unwanted babies that are born."
Hmmm. Yet there are thousands of Americans (and general Westerners) dying to adopt children (not for upward of $100,000 as here in the US)...
There IS a desire for children in this world. The issue is a society (or rather, a man-hating prideful women's agenda) that thinks any girl or women can f*ck and scrape at all times for any reason. Never mind what the consequence is of intercourse, or the moral responsibility of preserving all human life (no matter how much you trivialize that of others).
""Afghan women, they suffer so badly. They even struggle for their very basic human rights,” Farid said. “We hope for a better future for Afghanistan."
Islam itself is highly unfair to women and treats women like slaves.
Under Paki sponsored Islamic holy warriors, Taliban females will be treated worse than slaves.
Are there limits in the world these Islamic seventh century barbarians and beasts will stoop to?
Even guessing is tough!
Uh... Did you read the article at hand? Perhaps your eruption would be better suited for an article discussing po-life/pro-choice, modern women's issues in the U.S., or maybe even family planning and adoption. You see, this article is about Afghan girls, their determination to play music, their hardships, their visit to the United States, and the natural extension of whether or not there is a political agenda in bringing them here, and if that should matter or not.
The article didn't mention any of them being pregnant. They're not unborn, so nobody is suggesting that we abort them. Why are YOU screaming about abortion???
Nice story. Too bad it will take them several generations of carrying guns rather than instruments, fighting religious fanatics before things will be stable enough to play an instrument in public without fear.
Does anyone know when they are coming? These girls need to know there are people here who believe in them and what they are doing!
Why isn't Fareshta going along with the group? Is it because of her villagers' closed-mindedness? Are her parents keeping her from going? Is there not enough funding to include her? And I too would like to know when they are coming to the states and where their performances will be and when. How do I find out?
She can't come here because the villagers said they would ostracize her family if she didn't stop making music.
I'm sorry that this young lady won't be visiting the U.S.Since our troops are there maybe they should pay a visit to these villagers who sound like Taliban sympathizers to me.I hope that these young ladies enjoy their stay in the U.S.
245 people killed? How big is this night club?
It held up to 2000 people...
I was impressed with the 13 yo drummer, pretty good for that age, and for being the only female drummer in the whole Afganistan.
This is about music you dumb animals. And they are good at it. Stop behaving like the IMAGE you've created of the people you obviously despise. They are human too and they don't ALL have the hate for America that you have been led to believe. Open your minds to something honest, harmless and as delightful as the music that these young people are performing. You should all be ashamed of turning a subject of art into a war monger convention....
We have a lot of orphans and needy children in this country to take care of! Lets start with help at home before concerning ourselves about other country's children.
Terrific. We first firewbomb their homes, kill their parents, piss on their bodies and now give them chewing gum to show what great people we are and then topping it all this of we give Medal of Honor medals to the heroic marines.
God bless these orphans; they don't deserve what Russia, America, and their native land have done to them and their families in the last 30 years or more. The whole Afghan story is an exercise in cruelty and misery, with no end in sight.
If the US doesn't get out of foregn countries unless directly attacked, problems here at home are destined to bring our nation to its knees, and sooner rather than later.
You would think with the many American lives we lost there, the billions of dollars we spent and the fact we have been there for over a decade we could have SQUEEZED in woman's rights.
The father and mother of the girl was killed by a drone, and marines pissed on their bodies. Terrific, maybe she will forgive.
Unfortunately, when these kids return to Afghanistan, they will probably be murdered by the Taliban, because according to their version of Islam, music in any form is not allowed, nor is dressing 'like a westerner' (even though Mohammed didn't know there WERE westerners when he cobbled the Koran together).
The American people have been put in serious debt to clean out the Taliban and give Afghans a chance at a better life. This article does not portray the true way the Afghan men who run this country have betrayed and sorely abused Americans. I feel for the children but it does not change what has and is still happening in this drug infested country. I can forgive but I will not forget and I will never trust them.
I'm truly sorry things are so bad in Afghanistan.
Now go home.