Calls for music schools in former Taliban stronghold

KANDAHAR CITY: In what could be described as a brave move, artistes have called for the government to initiate concrete measures for promoting the performing arts in the southern Kandahar province - a former stronghold of the vanquished Taliban regime.

Renowned singers and musicians argue a mass exodus of artistes from the country - induced by decades of strife and total neglect of art at the official level - has retarded cultural activities in Afghanistan in general and the southern province in particular.

Abdul Qayyum Naseh, a widely-acclaimed singer who has educated hundreds of students including girls in Kandahar, underlines the need for official patronage of music and greater facilities like training centres and cash incentives for musicians.

The music doyen observes: "All Afghans - mullahs, secularist progressives and bureaucrats - have shown me wholehearted respect throughout my 40-year singing career. In concrete terms, however, encouragement of musicians figures nowhere on the government's list of priorities."

For the Afghan music to stay uncorrupted and transcend the country's physical frontiers, the maestro stresses, the government will have to accord recognition and a fair crack of the whip to genuine professionals. Patchy initiatives and erratic trends introduced by individuals could neither be a substitute for state support nor prop up the original Afghan music, he maintains.

Palpably disenchanted with the existing state of affairs, the celebrated entertainer goes on referring to the legions of Afghan music aficionados, "who are fond of what we are doing but grudge us the facilities and status our peers have in other parts of the world."

Paradoxically enough, he remarks, classical and rock bands are invited to weddings and other festive occasions to bring that extra zip and verve to people's lives. "But on a social plane, we are seen as carrying some sort of stigma in a deeply conservative Pashtun milieu." Borrowing words from the great poet-stoic Ghani Khan, Naseh contends: "Pashtuns love music but hate musicians."

Saleh Mohammad, a 35-year-old photographer with the Information and Culture Department in Kandahar, also moonlights as a songster. He too grumbles about the rulers' apathy towards performers, wondering why his own family is loath to his calling.

"This uncouth attitude borders on plain philistinism," continues the man, who cannot grasp the deep-seated attitudinal contradictions in Afghan society: A predilection for music and an inscrutable feeling of revulsion against people connected with it. "I'm pained to see them applaud melodious voices and hear them caution their children in the same breath against taking the plunge into the world of music."

But Naseh insists singers being gifted individuals are a priceless asset to any society, which must treat them with respect and admiration. He thinks the scorn religious scholars publicly pour on music all too often could be one principal factor behind the widespread disdain for vocalists and dancers.

On the issue, Mufti Ahmad Farzan has this view to offer: "There is no place for music in Islam. I'm authoring a book, in which I have quoted 20 Ahadis (sayings of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad) that explicitly declare music alien to Islam.

"Additionally, there are clear Quranic verses - and a consensus among the four Islamic schools of thought - on the illegality of music," reasons the scholar, who urges the faithful to comply with the teachings of their religion.

Meanwhile, officials admit the performing arts remain an area consistently ignored by the government, and that the department concerned is yet to be fully manned. "It's our blind spot," says Abdul Majid Babi, head of Kandahar's Information, Culture and Tourism Department.

Ahmad Rafiq Khushnood, a senior official at Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism in Kabul, says: "We are in the thick of contending with a whole host of complex problems including music promotion. Right now, we don't have even a single classroom for music students to sit in, or an instructor to teach them."