By Jane A. Morse
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Despite the Taliban's persecution of musicians and the destruction of their instruments during the five years of the Taliban's brutal regime, the rich musical heritage of Afghanistan has survived, thanks in part to U.S. efforts.

A grant provided by the State Department's Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation has launched a project to record the music of respected Afghan musicians now residing in Pakistani refugee camps. Six album-length compact discs will document the music that was integral to important events in Afghan life. These recordings will be archived at the U.S. Library of Congress and will be broadcast by the Voice of America.

One compact disc has already been completed. It contains ten tracks of folk melodies, including music traditionally played at weddings and other happy occasions. The goal will be to record samples of the musical traditions from all significant regions in Afghanistan.

The recording is being carried out by the Irfan Cultural Center (ICC), a Peshawar based organization with a wide experience in preserving and promoting traditional and contemporary Afghan culture. Irfan is part of the Development and Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan (DHSA), an Afghan nongovernmental organization which oversees emergency assistance programs.

According to Sabaz Zahin, administrative manager for DHSA, this project is the first music preservation effort Irfan has undertaken since its establishment in 1992. During a phone interview with The Washington File, Zahin said the musicians selected for the recording each have about 20 to 30 years of musical experience, and most came from Kabul. The oldest musician participating in the project so far is 70; the youngest is 30.

"The majority are jobless with no business," Zahin said of the Afghan musicians now taking refuge in Pakistan. One musician, however, conducts workshops in Pakistan and has a number of Pakistani and Afghan students.

Afghanistan under the Taliban became a cultural wasteland, and music especially has suffered terribly. Musicians were persecuted and their musical instruments and recordings destroyed. The playing of instrumental music was banned.

John Bailey, a scholar at the University of London and perhaps the foremost
Western expert on Afghan music, recently called attention to the censorship of music in Afghanistan in a lengthy report entitled "Can You Stop the Birds Singing?" (see http://www.freemuse.org/03libra/pdf/Afghanistansats.pdf)

In her preface to Bailey's report, Marie Korpe, executive director of Freemuse, a Copenhagen-based international organization which promotes the rights of musicians, writes, "When music is banned, the very soul of a culture is being strangled.... Music has been an important part of all cultures in their daily life...and serves as food for the soul."

When Kabul fell to the Taliban in 1996, music was banned. The Taliban, according to Bailey, "are simply extremely puritanical and against any form of enjoyment or entertainment outside the sphere of religion."

Now that U.S. forces have routed the Taliban in Afghanistan, the ban on music has been lifted. As quoted by the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper, Bailey said, "The playing of music is now telling people that normality has returned."

Nonetheless, years of suppression have taken their toll. As Irfan's Zahin pointed out, "We are in a terrible situation here...our cultural heritage is being diminished."

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, Zahin said, "There is no opportunity, no hopes for Afghan folk music to be promoted, and it all depends on the foreign international community to send their generous assistance...."

The U.S. Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation assists projects in 61 countries. Established by Congress in 2001, the fund not only aids less developed countries in preserving their cultural heritage, it also demonstrates U.S. respect for other cultures.

For more information on the fund's programs and a list of 2001 awards, see: 
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/culprop/afcp/