VOA慢速英语2020 阿富汗年轻男女表演苏菲舞

Young Afghan Women, Men Perform Sufi Dance Together

A group of young people are dancing in public in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. The women and men perform a Sufi Islamic dance known as Sema.

一群年轻人在阿富汗首都喀布尔的公共场所跳舞。年轻的男女表演了一种被称为Sema的伊斯兰苏菲派舞蹈。

The group's members hope that dancing in mixed groups changes expectations about gender¹ in the deeply conservative² country.

该组织的人员希望，在这个极度保守的国家里，在不同的团体里跳舞可以改变人们对性别的期望。

Fahima Mirzaie is the group's founder³. She is 24 years old and works as an economist⁴.

米尔扎伊（Fahima Mirzaie）是该组织的创始人。24岁的她是一名经济学家。

"I just wanted to express myself and my feelings with Sema dance," Mirzaie said.

“我只是想用西玛舞来表达自己和自身的感受，”米尔扎伊说道。

Mirzaie recently danced alongside⁵ male members of her group at a cultural event held at an Italian restaurant in central Kabul. That night, she was the only woman from her group dancing, although other women watched and read poems.

米尔扎伊最近在喀布尔市中心一家意大利餐馆举行的文化活动中与团队里的男性成员一起跳舞。当晚，她是舞团中唯一一位跳舞的女性，不过其他女性在一旁观看并朗诵诗歌。

As she spins in circles, one hand reaches toward the sky and the other toward the earth. Her white clothes are flowing, in a familiar image seen across the Middle East and Central Asia.

她旋转着，一只手伸向天空，另一只手伸向地面。她的白色服装十分飘逸，这种舞蹈在中东和中亚十分常见。

Dancers spin repetitively in prayer as they say Allah's name and gain speed. They seek to lose themselves in a spiritual state that they believe brings them close to God.

舞者在祈祷中不停地旋转，同时说出真主的名字并加快旋转速度。他们希望沉浸在一种他们笃信的能接近上帝的精神状态中。

But Afghanistan is not widely accepting of the activity. The powerful Taliban political group rejects Sufism, dancing and singing.

但是在阿富汗，这种活动并未被广泛接受。强大的塔利班政治组织拒绝载歌载舞的苏菲主义。

Many Afghan women worry about a return of Taliban rule as part of a future peace deal. They remember the years of oppression under a severe form of Islamic law.

许多阿富汗女性担心，作为未来和平协议的一部分，塔利班将重新掌权。他们仍然记得多年来在伊斯兰法律严厉形式下的压迫。

But even in today's Afghanistan, most people consider women and men dancing together in public to be a violation⁶ of the country's culture, traditions and religious beliefs.

但即使在如今的阿富汗，大多数人也认为男女在公共场合跳舞是对该国文化、传统和宗教信仰的亵渎。

Mirzaie's dance group brings men and women together to perform in public. Most of the members are Shiite Muslims. They are a minority in Afghanistan that has been targeted for attacks by the Islamic State group. The militant⁷ group considers Shiites – including Sufis – to be anti-Islam.

米尔扎伊的舞团将男女聚集起来，在公众面前表演。大多数成员是什叶派穆斯林。他们是阿富汗少数民族，是伊斯兰国组织袭击的目标。这个激进组织认为什叶派，包括苏菲派，是反伊斯兰教的。

Mirzaie says she does not think about what people may say about her dancing. She is part of the generation that has grown up during Afghanistan's latest war. She remains⁸ concerned about the violence in her country. She hopes she can change that through Sufism and the written works of Rumi, possibly the most well-known Sufi.

米尔扎伊表示，她不会在乎人们对这种舞蹈的成见。她是在阿富汗近年的战争中成长起来的一代人。她仍然对自己国家的暴力感到担忧。她希望通过苏菲主义和鲁米(可能是最著名的苏菲派)的著作来改变这一观念。

Her group has also used Sufi dance to help them get through the coronavirus crisis⁹. During a lockdown earlier this year, Mirzaie closed her center and provided training to her students online.

她的舞团还通过苏菲舞帮助自身度过新冠病毒危机。在今年早些时候的一次封锁中，米尔扎伊关闭了她的舞蹈中心，并在网上为她的学生提供培训。

Now, she is back dancing in person. At the Italian restaurant, Abdul Ahad, a civil rights activist¹⁰, said he had been to a few private Sufi events in Afghanistan. But this was the first time he had seen women doing the dance.

现在，她亲临现场跳舞了。在这家意大利餐厅，民权活动人士阿卜杜勒·阿哈德(Abdul Ahad)说，他在阿富汗参加了几场私人的苏菲派活动。但这是他第一次看到女性跳舞。

Mirzaie's father, her sister and her mother are among her few supporters. But they also worry. Her mother Qamar says she stays awake at night, waiting until Mirzaie returns home after dancing.

米尔扎伊的父亲、姐姐和母亲都是她为数不多的支持者。但他们也同样很担心。她的母亲卡马尔说，她整完睡不着觉，一直等到米尔扎伊跳完舞回家才安心。

"There's no security and girls are taunted¹¹ on their way out to work," she said.

她说：“这里没有安保措施，女孩们在上班的路上会被嘲笑。”

Mirzaie says she cannot live by someone else's rules. She said she does not plan to stop performing.

米尔扎伊说，她不能按照别人的规则生活。她说，她不打算停止表演。

"I never asked anyone's permission for starting it and I will not need anyone's permission to end it, so I will never stop or surrender to anyone," she said.

她说:“开始做这件事，我没有请求过任何人的许可，所以也不会因为任何人的阻止就结束，所以我永远不会停止或向任何人低头。”

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 conservative   

adj.保守的，守旧的；n.保守的人，保守派

参考例句：

• He is a conservative member of the church.他是一个守旧教会教友。
• The young man is very conservative.这个年轻人很守旧。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 alongside   

adv.在旁边；prep.和...在一起，在...旁边

参考例句：

• There was a butcher's shop alongside the theatre.剧院旁边有一家肉店。
• Alongside of him stood his uncle.他的身旁站着他叔叔。

6 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

7 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

10 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

11 taunted   

嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落

参考例句：

• The other kids continually taunted him about his size. 其他孩子不断地耻笑他的个头儿。
• Some of the girls taunted her about her weight. 有些女孩子笑她胖。