[Music] him [Music] m [Music] hey [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] when the taliban reached the gates of kabul i began panicking i began panicking for the lives for the loss of my students my community we all know that when the taliban are in charge they're gonna steal music away from the life of the afghan people [Music] dr has brought together different ethnic groups from all across afghanistan that have traditionally not gotten along to play music in harmony together in these ensembles he gave them a life in music [Music] [Music] we've been committed to promoting gender
equality in afghanistan and also to empowering girls and women of afghanistan through music and music education thanks to this commitment we've established the old woman orchestra of afghanistan which became the symbol of emancipation of women in afghanistan [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] farida and zora they're born in a family which is very open-minded their anchors highly educated supporting earth education arts and culture [Music] allocated [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] the afghanistan university of music was the only educational and cultural entity that the taliban took over with armed people they went to
the orchestra room there was a beautiful baby grand piano so they destroyed that one they destroyed the xylophone violin they destroyed chelo tanbur [Music] they turned our school into a military barrack for the iconic network the building that was always filled in with the beauty of music became totally silent but the only sound that you could hear was the conversation between the taliban with their kalashnikovs [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Laughter] since the arrival of the taliban we've been working around the clock with my team to get the students and the faculty to safety it was
yo-yo ma who connected us with the government of qatar when i heard that these young musicians and including in all women's orchestra zora as part of a nim were in physical danger i felt a particular urge to be able to find any way to help [Music] the orchestra would not have been evacuated without the qataris so the qataris were functioning at that time as they go between between the us government and the taliban so in one sense they were natural they had the they had the relationships on the other hand the portuguese were essential because
the portuguese had agreed to accept the orchestra as it transited through qatar on its way to portugal ultimately the taliban had reluctantly agreed just to allow the group that had valid passports out that was about a hundred of them that left uh almost 200 more still stuck in afghanistan without the right paperwork when everyone else were evacuated from afghanistan they reached doha safely there was zohra [Music] for me it was important not to leave anyone behind it was important to get them they were the two youngest they were also girls they were girls musicians so
girls musicians under the taliban you have a hell in afghanistan not a knife [Music] m [Music] good evening brother the two girls did not make it for the flight which is tomorrow as their passport is not ready uh the earliest flight that i consider and i'm hopeful that we might be able to accommodate them and they will be able to get their passport on saturday the flight will be on sunday but again it's not confirmed but we're hoping that on sunday we will be able to get the girls out of kabul boys um [Music] foreign
[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh um [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] when farida and zola come out of afghanistan they immediately joined the music scene in the camp [Music] from the very first day when they arrived they began singing and clapping and praying and enjoying the music once again because after the arrival of the taliban music was out of their life [Music] a very small concert by the students of the afghanistan nationalist music you proved to be the best
friend of afghanistan thanks to your support [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] foreign um my [Music] we understood very early on that there was an absolute need to evacuate the anim from kabul they were under threat of course because the taliban hate music the taliban hate culture we felt that with anime we could make a difference by saying we're available not only to take a few hundred afghan refugees but we're available to give a home to the afghan national institute of music so that it can keep up its work so that it can allow
afghan culture to survive to thrive outside of the country until the time when it is possible to return to kabul and to afghanistan [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] b foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] is i want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who played a significant role in getting us out of afghanistan to continue to revive and preserve afghan musical traditions thank you to everyone and thank you to all friends of fanime [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] there's no society that i know of that doesn't
have music music does something for us that brings us together that equalizes us that kind of give gets us that incredible communal state of mind so [Applause] [Music] hopefully the seed that i grew up in afghanistan in the name will further grow and give the fruit and the anime students in portugal who are currently in portugal and in student studying abroad they're gonna back to afghanistan and do what i've been doing in afghanistan to bring music back into life of afghan people [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] so [Music] you
