PORTUGAL: “We are here to save our music,” says Ramiz. A young Afghan musician who fled the Taliban’s cultural crackdown to Portugal.
“We hope that one day we can go back to our country,” the 19-year-old told AFP, cradling his rubab. A traditional wood-and-mother-of-pearl stringed instrument.
Ramiz is one of 58 ANIM students in Braga and Guimaraes, aged 13–21.
While, In December 2021, months after the Taliban gained power, he arrived in Lisbon with classmates, professors. And some of their families.
Moreover, The Taliban closed music institutes, locked up instruments, and forbade public concerts, therefore 273 refugees fled Afghanistan.
“When Taliban reached the gates of Kabul, it was clear that we should get out,” ANIM director Ahmad Sarmast said.
While, The 61-year-old describes the situation saying that Afghanistan is silent.
“Ban on the country”s music drives an entire nation toward silence,” said Sarmast. Who lost some of his hearing in a 2014 Taliban guerrilla attack.
Afterward, The Afghan music specialist, who created a music school in Afghanistan in 2010, called it “It’s nothing short of a cultural and musical genocide,”
The Zohra ensemble, Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra, was recreated in Portugal, he said.
While, Sarmast stated he was looking for a Portuguese location for the music institute. He expects to open the institution “in two years”.
