Afghan musicians in Portugal tell of ‘cultural genocide’

Braga, Portugal (AFP):

“We are here to save our music,” proclaims Ramiz, a young Afghan musician who has been welcomed in Portugal, along with other students from the national music school he left as he fled the Taliban’s cultural crackdown.

“We hope that one day we can go back to our country,” the 19-year-old said, holding his rubab, a traditional stringed instrument made of wood and inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Ramiz is one of 58 students from the National Music Institute of Afghanistan (Anim), aged between 13 and 21, who have settled in the northern Portuguese cities of Braga and Guimaraes.

He landed in Lisbon, along with his classmates, several teachers and some of their families in December 2021, months after the Taliban took power.

The 273 refugees fled Afghanistan for fear of reprisals from the ruling Taliban, who have banned non-religious music.

“When Taliban reached the gates of Kabul, it was clear that we should get out,” recalled Anim director Ahmad Sarmast, who did everything possible to evacuate the students and staff of the music institute.

“Afghanistan is a silent nation,” the 61-year-old said.

“When a country’s music is banned, an entire nation is silenced,” added Sarmast, who lost some of his hearing in an attack by the Taliban in 2014 when they were rebel fighters.

“It’s nothing short of a cultural and musical genocide,” added the Afghan music specialist, who has made it his mission to safeguard his country’s musical heritage and to recreate in Portugal the music school he founded in Afghanistan in 2010.