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Students, Teachers Worry about the Future of Music in Afghanistan
Ahmad Sarmast left his home in Melbourne, Australia, to help bring back music in his home country, Afghanistan. He started a school there that was different than most; it admitted children without parents and young people who had no homes. His school aimed to bring a little joy back to Kabul after the Taliban had banned music.
Last week, Sarmast watched from his home in Australia as the Taliban marched into the Afghan capital. Their quick rise to power shocked him and the world.
Now, Sarmast is wondering what will happen next.
His two mobile1 phones have not stopped ringing since the takeover. Many of the calls are from worried students asking him what happens next. Will the school be closed? Will the Taliban ban music again? Are their prized musical instruments safe?
"I'm heartbroken," Sarmast told The Associated Press. "It was so unexpected2 and so unpredictable that it was like an explosion3, and everyone was caught by surprise," he said of the Taliban takeover.
Sarmast left Kabul on July 12 for his summer holiday. He could not have imagined that just a few weeks later everything he had worked for in the past 20 years would be in danger. He worries about his 350 students and the 90 teachers at the school. Many of them have already gone into hiding. Reports of Taliban fighters searching for enemies door-to-door have increased their fears.
"We are all very, very fearful4 about the future of music, we are very fearful about our girls, about our faculty5," Sarmast said. He asked reporters not to publish more information, in order to protect the students and school.
In a sign of what the future holds, radio and TV stations stopped broadcasting music, except for Islamic songs. It was not clear if the change was a result of Taliban orders or an effort by the stations to avoid problems with the Taliban.
Sarmast is 58 years old. He is the son of a famous Afghan composer. He sought asylum6 in Australia in the 1990s, during a time of civil war in Afghanistan. After earning a doctoral degree in musicology, he returned to Afghanistan. In 2010, he founded the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.
Donated instruments
Foreign governments and private sponsors7 soon gave money to support the school. The World Bank gave the school 2 million U.S. dollars. Truckloads of musical equipment — violins, pianos, guitars and oboes — were sent from the German government and the German Society of Music Merchants. Students learned8 to play traditional Afghan string instruments like the rubab, sitar and sarod.
Elham Fanous, 24, was the first student to graduate from the music institute in 2014. After spending seven years at the school, he said, "It was such an amazing school, everything was perfect. It changed my life and I really owe it to them. A visitor once called it "Afghanistan's happy place."
"I cannot believe this is happening," Fanous added, speaking from New York. He recently received his master's degree in piano from the Manhattan School of Music. He was also the first student from Afghanistan to be admitted to a U.S. university music program.
The institute's musicians traveled all over the world to represent the peaceful side of their country. Fanous himself performed at events in Poland, Italy and Germany.
In 2013, the institute's youth orchestra9 began its first U.S. tour. Members of the orchestra included a girl who not long ago had sold chewing gum10 on the streets of Kabul to earn a living. In 2015, the school formed an all-female orchestra called Zohra. The group was named after a goddess of music in Persian culture.
Injured in bombing
In 2014, Sarmast was attending a concert at a French-run high school in Kabul when a bomb exploded. He lost some of his hearing in one ear and has had numerous11 operations to remove pieces of metal from his head. The Taliban took responsibility for the suicide12 attack and accused him in a statement of corrupting13 Afghanistan's youth.
That only increased Sarmast's wish to continue his work. He kept traveling between the school in Kabul and Australia, where his family lives.
Sarmast said his students all had big dreams to play around the world. "All my students had been dreaming of a peaceful Afghanistan. But that peaceful Afghanistan is fading away."
Still, Sarmast is hopeful. He believes young Afghans will resist. And he wants the international artistic14 community to fight for the Afghans' right to music.
"I'm still hopeful that my kids will be allowed to go back to the school and continue to enjoy learning15 and playing music," he said.
Words in This Story
faculty – n. teachers or staff of a school
amazing – adj. causing great surprise or wonder
composer – n. a person who writes music
merchant – n. someone who buys and sells goods especially in large amounts
orchestra – n. a group of musicians who play usually classical music together and who are led by a conductor
tour – n. a series of related16 performances, appearances, competitions or the like that occur at different places over a period of time
chewing gum -n. a type of soft candy that you chew on but do not swallow
fade – v. to disappear gradually
kids – n. children
allow – v. to permit (something)
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mobile
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| adj.可移动的，易变的，机动的；n.运动物体 | |
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unexpected
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| adj.想不到的，意外的 | |
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explosion
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| n.爆发，发出，爆炸 | |
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fearful
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| adj.惧怕的，担心的；可怕的，吓人的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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7
sponsors
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| n.保人( sponsor的名词复数 )；（广播电视节目、音乐会或运动会的）赞助者；（培训或教育的）资助者；（法案等的）倡议者v.赞助( sponsor的第三人称单数 )；资助（某人的培训或教育）；为慈善活动捐资；倡议 | |
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learned
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| adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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orchestra
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| n.管弦乐队；vt.命令，定购 | |
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gum
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| n.牙龈；口香糖；树胶 | |
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numerous
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| adj.为数众多的；极多的 | |
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suicide
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| n.自杀，自毁，自杀性行为 | |
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corrupting
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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learning
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| n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词 | |
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related
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| adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的 | |
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