Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow and Washington's "Afghan Picnic of the Year": The 4th Annual Afghan Arts and Culture Festival

      

As Labor Day is celebrated in the United States this weekend, Afghans and Afghan-Americans in the Washington, D.C. area are contributing a major event to the holiday mix.
       The all-day event is the Fourth Annual Afghan Arts and Culture Festival.  This year's Festival will be held from 11:30AM to 7:30PM this Sunday, September 1, in the heart of Washington’s famed National Mall.  Admission is free.  People from all cultural traditions are welcome, reflecting Afghanistan's world-renowned hospitality toward guests of any nationality.    
     The Afghan Arts and Culture Festival is one of the highlights of the year for the Afghan community in the Washington area, which is home to one of the largest U.S. concentrations of Afghans, Afghan-Americans, and people with Afghan connections. In past years, the Afghan Arts and Culture Festival has drawn thousands of guests from all cultural traditions.

      This year’s event promises to be the biggest ever.  It is organized and hosted by Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow (AEBT), a registered nonprofit organization operating nationwide in the United States.  AEBT is committed to supporting health and education sectors in Afghanistan with fundraising and other charitable initiatives.  All its members are volunteers. 100% of AEBT fundraising goes directly to support Afghan education and health care in Afghanistan.


    
 Numerous dignitaries are expected to attend, including some local Washington elected officials. Many others have sent greetings and best wishes for the event.  Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad, former Afghan Ambassador to the United States, says that the Afghan Arts and Culture Festival “will be an opportunity to meet with other Afghans, and friends of Afghanistan, to pursue our shared goal of a peaceful, prosperous, and vibrant Afghanistan."

      Maryam Rashid is the AEBT’s East Coast Executive Director and the organizer of this year’s Festival.  She speaks here in an exclusive interview with Edward Zellem, author of Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs and the Afghan Proverbs Illustrated series. 

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Edward Zellem:  Maryam jaan, it’s a pleasure to speak with you.  Please tell us a little about yourself and how you became involved with the Festival.

 

Maryam Rashid: It’s great to speak with you too, Dagarwaal Zellem. دگروال  زالم  And it is a great privilege to serve as the East Coast Executive Director of Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow (AEBT), the host and organizer of the Afghan Arts and Cultural Festival to be held September 1 on the National Mall. 

     I’ve always been very interested and curious about my Afghan heritage, and I feel a special urgency to give back to Afghanistan because I have been afforded with so many opportunities here in the United States. 

You can blame my passion for helping Afghanistan on a cultural identity crisis I had a few years ago. That encouraged me to learn more about my culture, and also to support Afghan youth here in the Washington, D.C. area to learn more about their heritage and culture too.



EZ:  Please tell us more about the Festival.  How did you get the idea for it? 

MR:  I came up with the idea of having an Afghan Festival back in 2010. I wanted to have a fundraiser and event that would be educational for the community, and one that would bring together different generations to share and appreciate Afghaniatan’s art.
      The Festival is a free, all-ages event designed to help create a platform for cultural exchange and an embracement of ethnic and cultural diversity. It also aims to increase advocacy and active participation within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area for the rebuilding effort in Afghanistan. 100% of the funds raised from the Afghan Arts and Cultural Festival will benefit AEBT-sponsored education and health programs in Afghanistan.
  
   It’s great that we are able to have the Festival in the center of Washington’s National Mall.  For people who haven’t been there, the Mall is a lovely, giant park-like area surrounded by the Smithsonian Institution museums.  It is framed on one side by the Washington Monument and on the other side by the U.S. Capitol. It is a beautiful location and a very meaningful one too.
      
      Afghans like to have fun wherever they are in the world, and we especially love family picnics (mey-la).  میله  So I like to also think of this as Washington’s biggest Afghan picnic of the year and surely one of the biggest in the United States too. But it will be much, much more than a picnic.
     

EZ:  What events will take place at the Festival?

MR:  The Festival will include stage shows throughout the day, with a special guest appearance by cutting-edge rapper and humanitarian Immortal Technique, an Afghan musical performance by Fardeen Nawaz, dance and theatrical performances, an Afghan Fashion Show, and comedic performances by popular Afghan-American YouTube sensations Qias Omar and Harris Khattak. They're hilarious, and their YouTube video series is well worth watching. Afghans have a great sense of humor, even about themselves.

       
Also featured throughout the day will be poetry readings; Afghan Proverbs skits; presentations by several authors and book sales; an art exhibition featuring the works of local artists; Afghan jewelry and rug displays by Zamani Gallery and Antiques; and a history exhibition featuring an interactive timeline of Afghanistan’s rich history.

    There will be kite-making and crafts workshops too.  For film fans, short-length documentaries and films will be screened continuously all day at the Festival’s Media and Film tent.  And of course, visitors can delight themselves with delicious Afghan food and free Afghan chai (tea) tasting throughout the daylong event.  It will be tremendous fun and very memorable for everyone. Afghans are famous worldwide for their hospitality to guests.  
 

EZ:  This event sounds like great fun, while at the same time it supports very important charities.  Please tell us more about how AEBT will support Afghan education and health with this event.

MR:  As we said earlier, Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow (AEBT) is a  501(c)(3) nonprofit that is fully committed to supporting the education and health sectors in Afghanistan.  AEBT’s mission is to help create and build an education system to help prepare Afghan women, men, and children for a better tomorrow. AEBT also is developing programs to help ensure that the health needs and goals of Afghans are met.  We focus particularly on the needs of the most vulnerable people, specifically women and children.



     The founding members of AEBT believe that education and health care are the most basic, yet also the most important, cornerstones for Afghan society to survive and progress in the 21^st century.  AEBT has no overhead cost. All members are volunteers and work for the benefit of Afghanistan. 100% of donations go to Afghanistan for education and health care. Some of our projects include the Herat Vocational School in western Afghanistan, which helps provide solar energy training, English as a Second Language courses, tailoring and seamstress courses, and child daycare.  We also partner with the Soholat Health Services and Vocational Organization for Afghans in Kabul, which provides midwife and computer literacy training. 

     Some sponsors of the festival include the Foundation for Afghanistan, the Ayenda Foundation, La Tulipe, and Worldwide Language Resources.


EZ:  How can people find out more about the Afghan Arts and Culture Festival? 

MS:  The best way for people in the Washington, D.C. area is to come to the Festival!  We will be impossible to miss on the National Mall on Sunday, September 1. The Festival will run from 11:30 AM to 7:30 PM.  Just look for the big stage and tents in the center of the Mall near 14^th Street, the Smithsonian Metro stop, and the National Museum of American History.



     There is a lot of information and regular updates on our Facebook event page.   Twitter users can follow the very latest by following the hashtag #afghanfestival.  Even people who are too far away to join us can enjoy reading about the Afghan Arts and Culture Festival, even readers in Afghanistan!

      After the event, we will post lots of photos on our Facebook event page.  I am sure that many friends who join us will post their photos and videos too. We also expect some media attention.

     Finally, I want to thank the many great volunteers who supported the planning for this event with their time, talents and donations over many months. People have contributed from near and far.  It has been humbling and moving to see, and to be a part of. The planning effort has been far larger than any one of us alone, and the event itself will be too. As the Afghan Dari Proverb says, Ba yak gul, bahaar na-meysha. (One flower doesn't bring spring).  به یک گل، بهار نمی‏شه  It means that it takes many hands and much teamwork to achieve something big.     

     We hope you can join us at the Afghan Arts and Culture Festival this Sunday.  And no matter where you are, please remember to support Afghan education and health!  These are the keys to a brighter future for Afghans, and for everyone all over the world.

    Zenda bosheyn!  (Long life to you!)  !زنده باشین          

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Arif Parwani: A Recipe for Chaos and a Recipe for Afghan Development

Arif Parwani

 

Introduction: Arif Parwani is an Afghan-American author and engineering consultant.  He was born in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, studied civil engineering in Germany, and moved to the United States in 1986.

     An engineer by trade, he continued to help Afghans as a private citizen.  He returned to his homeland shortly after the fall of the Taliban to help rebuild the nation, and remained there for almost ten years working in various capacities for NATO, the United States, and the Afghan government. 

     He has served as a senior adviser to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health;  director of the Ministry of the Interior’s Afghanistan Stabilization Program;  special adviser to the Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR); and as a Ministerial Development adviser for the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan.  In 2006, he turned down an offer by President Karzai to become Mayor of Kabul.           

        He also is the author of Cry of Angels, a novel based on the true story of an Afghan woman’s hopes and struggles against all odds in a country brutally damaged by politics, corruption and war.

     Afghan-American television personality and author Dr. Farid Younos, host of NOOR-TV’s “The Dr. Younos Show,” has called Cry of Angels “the most powerful, chilling and stimulating story ever written about Afghanistan in the form of a novel.”

     Arif Parwani speaks here with Edward Zellem, a U.S. Navy Captain and author of “Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs.”

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Edward Zellem:  It’s a pleasure to speak with you, Arif.  We really enjoyed Cry of Angels. It’s a very powerful book.  Please tell us a little more about your background.  

Arif Parwani:   Thanks very much, you’re very kind.  Zenda bosheyn زنده باشین  (long life to you). Please allow me also to congratulate you on your beautiful compendium of Afghan proverbs, Zarbul Masalha. And I‘d like to congratulate Film Annex on its very pragmatic and innovative approaches toward Afghan literacy and women’s empowerment through the Afghan Development Project. I am fascinated by both your initiatives, and wish both of you even more success in your endeavors.

     I was in my senior year of engineering college at Kabul University when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and I escaped my country for Pakistan in a matter of days as a refugee. During my three months’ sojourn in Peshawar, I worked with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on shelter and literacy projects for other Afghan refugees before leaving for Germany to continue my education. It was 1986 when I finally joined my family in California.  They left Afghanistan after me. 

Arif Parwani meets with Afghan villagers at a development site

 

      Prior to the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, I made several extended trips to visit Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. My first trip was a survey visit in 1985 during the midst of the anti-Soviet jihad era.  I discovered at that time that proactively helping Afghan refugees was rather complicated for Afghan volunteers who were not affiliated with one of the seven major mujahideen parties. However, the trip was very productive in the sense that I documented my observations and personal reservations about the dominating sociopolitical theology at the time, which has endured in some places until even today.  This outlook has changed the lives of Afghans for the worse in the past three decades, especially the lives of women.

     I visited Afghanistan frequently after the fall of the Taliban regime, at first for shorter-term consulting efforts.  Then I remained in Afghanistan full-time from 2003 to 2012 to work on development-related initiatives. As you mentioned in the introduction, I worked on a variety of governance, reconstruction and capacity building projects during that time.

 

Opening a new District Center complex in the village of Khak-e Jabbar, Kabul Province

EZ:  Please tell us about your “Peace Through Education” initiative and what you saw during your 2001 trip to Peshawar.  

AP:  I went to Peshawar in March 2001, still during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and I visited many Afghan refugee schools there. I was shocked to see that the school curricula in most of those refugee schools, mostly orphanages, were promoting the culture of guns and violence in the name of jihad. It was then that I decided to establish and register a NGO in California called “Peace Through Education.” Our motto was “Inspiration in the absence of education is a recipe for chaos.” My purpose was to help promote modern school curricula tailored to the traditions and realities of the refugee culture at the time. It was not an easy task for an engineer to engage in projects of this nature, but thanks to Afghan volunteers in Pakistan and other organizations in the United States, I was able to identify the challenges and to come up with a mitigation plan. But as I was ready to move forward with my plan, the 9/11 tragedy happened.

EZ:  Fascinating.  Educating young children to promote jihad with guns and violence reminds me of the well-known Afghan Proverb, “Tegh-raa ba dast-e daywaanah daadan.”  تیغ را به دست دیوانه دادن  (To put a knife in the hand of a maniac.). What happened then?  

AP:  Despite the post-9/11 security restrictions and political obstacles, I was able to represent Peace Through Education in the first post-Taliban reconstruction conference in Islamabad in November 2001, even as large pockets of Taliban were still fighting in southern and southwestern Afghanistan. With the newly established Afghan Transitional Government, the Afghan refugee repatriation started very soon.  Due to the high demand for engineering and construction skills, I wanted to help with the reconstruction of schools and clinics through USAID projects across the country. I was very happy to plant the seeds for Peace Through Education at the Peshawar conference in November 2001. Very soon, a similar program and locally managed NGO with the name “Peace Through Education” emerged there.  It is still actively involved in adult literacy in remote areas and underserved villages across Afghanistan. 

Arif Parwani and the Governor of Kabul cut the ribbon at a new facility  

EZ:  Was “Peace Through Education” your last literacy project? 

AP:  After the successful completion of school and clinic reconstruction programs, I was fortunate enough to have another opportunity to help Afghans in the area of adult literacy, vocational training, and institution building as director of the Afghan Stabilization Program under the Ministry of the Interior.  This started as a foreign-sponsored, donor-funded initiative, and was one of the national priority programs that promoted stability and good governance through infrastructure development and capacity building.  We had a presence in all 34 provinces and 364 districts. It ultimately transitioned in 2008 to become the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) and a Cabinet-level organization of the Government of Afghanistan.

EZ:  You have a diverse portfolio of experience in rebuilding Afghanistan starting in 2001.  How do you assess the efforts of the international community and Afghans themselves in improving Afghans’ lives, especially the lives of women and youth, in the post-Taliban era?

AP:  We should not forget that Afghans fought the Soviet superpower for more than a decade, followed by a decade of tragic civil war, and the draconian rule of the Taliban that barred women from working outside their homes and closed girls’ schools. And let’s also bear in mind that Afghanistan is currently in a state of war.  When the world gathered in Bonn in December 2001 to draw a roadmap for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, not only was the infrastructure of the country totally destroyed, but the social, political and cultural state of Afghans was suffering from incredible damage. Thus, Afghans and the international community had a very difficult road ahead.  Despite all these challenges, the achievements in the state of women’s lives and freedom of expression is enormous in comparison to the post-Soviet mujahideen administration and the Taliban era in the 1990s.

At lunch with female members of the Afghan Parliament

  

I still remember the thrill I felt when I inaugurated the first-ever women’s rights and sexual harassment seminar in Afghanistan for Provincial civil servants.  It was a joyful moment to help inaugurate dozens of vocational training and computer literacy projects, and provide internet access and TVs in areas that had been controlled by the Taliban. Just because we still hear tragic stories of rape, torture and even honor killings of Afghan women, it doesn’t mean that women were better off in the 1990s. The truth is that these facts were not being reported, and the world largely had left helpless Afghans to deal with their problems on their own. However, we could have had better results had we taken more culturally appropriate strategies and coordinated our efforts better among the many NGOs engaged in these fields.

EZ:   Can you elaborate on the “culturally appropriate strategies” that you believe could have improved the situation?

AP:  I am confident that you know from your experience (and your collection of wonderful Afghan Proverbs supports this rationale) that many Afghan tribes still live in a patriarchal society, and surprisingly the women of these cultural groups abide by their cultural codes of conduct and accept to certain degrees a male-dominated household.  This is true even though these women have been productive members of Afghan society throughout history.  They have worked side-by-side with men in the fields, and have even participated in the wars against outside invaders – even without the so-called “blood related” members of their families. But instead of trying to repeal these long standing cultural codes, there are traditional ways to work within the culture to improve this situation and legacy.

     We can learn much from the lessons of the various failed eras of Afghan democracy and secular constitutions in the past eight decades, starting with women’s emancipation under the reformist King Amanullah in the early 1920s.  For example, one good method would be to better leverage the power of the tribal elders and religious clerics, consistent with cultural awareness and the teachings of Quran, to promote a relatively liberal standard of education and working environment for Afghan women.  This can help overcome the oppression of women that is advocated by radical groups such as the Taliban.
 

Speaking at a Provincial reconstruction seminar

EZ:  What do you think of the role of social media in today’s Afghanistan?

AP:  I’d like to cite an Afghan Proverb from your book Zarbul Masalha (“Proverbs” in Dari), a Proverb which is found in both the Dari and Pashto languages. “Aaftaab ba doo angusht pen-han na-mey-shawad.” (The sun cannot be hidden by two fingers).   آفتاب به دو انگشت پنهان نمی‏شود
    
This means that the truth cannot be hidden. Thanks to the internet and social media, the world community has turned to a small village. In this context, social media is the Sun that can relay the voice of freedom and social justice, and also the true message of the Quran. Social media can be very instrumental in teaching the world about the rich history and glorious civilization of the Afghans, and female heroines like Malalai of Maiwand, Rabia Balkhi, Nahid Sahed, and Nazo Tokhi.

 Opening a new police building in Shakardara 

EZ:  You’ve written and published Cry of Angels, a novel of war fiction with a central female character. Please tell us what motivated you to write a book on the plight of Afghan women. 

AP:  Cry of Angels is based on my decades of research and interviews that I began conducting in refugee camps in Pakistan in the 1980s, and continued in Afghanistan through 2012.  The book documents many real-life people and events, but was written as fiction for technical, cultural and privacy reasons. Some of the characters and places were fictionalized. The purpose of Cry of Angels is to remind the world one more time to look back and see what Afghans, and especially women, went through after the Soviet troops left Afghanistan.                             

EZ:   How do you see the future of women and young people in post-2014 Afghanistan, after most NATO and foreign forces withdraw?  
AP:  The future of women in Afghanistan will depend on good governance, which in turn depends on the state of security and the economy in post-2014 Afghanistan.  Security and the economy are two sides of a coin.  The mint that makes the coin must design, hammer and shape a political framework tailored to the culture, needs and realities of today’s Afghans and Afghanistan. History tells us that that you cannot govern today’s Afghanistan with tomorrow’s government. There are traditional Afghan ways of developing good governance and democracy that can sustain security and economic development.

Medieval Persian poet Saadi Shirazi 

 

     I believe that Afghan women and youth ultimately will succeed no matter what.  But a political settlement and a legitimate form of government that can be accepted by the majority of Afghans will pave the road ahead, and prevent the positive achievements of the last decade from becoming lost or otherwise compromised.

EZ:  What is your message for the Afghan people?
AP:  As the famous Persian poet Saadi (1184-1283) wrote, “Individuals are the body parts of one main body (Mankind) and grew from one stem; if one part suffers from pain, the whole body will feel pain.” My message is not only for Afghans, but for the friends of Afghanistan as well. Optimism is good; as another Afghan proverb says, “Doon-ya baa omeed zenda ast.” (The world is alive with hope).

 دنیا با امید زنده است

"The world is alive with hope." (original art from Zarbul Masalha)

 

     But we also should look back at the days before the Soviet withdrawal, and learn from the story of an educated young Afghan woman and her sisters in Cry of Angels.  Another Afghan proverb from your great book Zarbul Masalha also applies: “Aazmuda-ra aazmudan khatast.” آزموده را آزمودن خطاست   (Testing of a tested one is wrong). Trying something that you have already tried, but has failed, is wrong.

     I would like to conclude with the motto behind the “Peace Through Education” program in Peshawar in 2001: “Inspiration in absence of education is a recipe for chaos.”  A good example is found in the recent U.S. concert tour by the Afghan Youth Orchestra. These young Afghan musicians send messages of peace and hope by pressing their fingers against musical instruments.

     On the other hand, we have many young Afghans sent by the Taliban on suicide missions.  They are deprived of education, but inspired by radical ideas. The first group presses their fingers on musical instruments to send messages of peace and hope. The second group presses their fingers to detonate suicide jackets.  We must encourage and support the first group however we can, or there will be chaos again.

Rudyard Kipling Was Wrong: Afghan Proverbs, Vivaldi and a Kennedy Center Night with Suzannah Simmons

Suzannah Latané Simmons 

 

Rudyard Kipling was right about many things.  But he was wrong when he wrote his famous line in The Ballad of East and West that “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”  I know he was wrong because I’ve seen the two meet many times.  And this time I saw East and West meet last Thursday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

      A famous Afghan Proverb from “Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs” is “Yak teer wa doo neshawn."  In Dari it's یک تیر و دو نشان  and it means "One shot and two targets."  In English we say “To kill two birds with one stone.” But as with many Afghan Proverbs, the meaning is the same in both languages:  two things for the price of one.

     It was “Yak teer wa doo neshawn” last week when The George Washington University’s Afghan Student Association invited me to Washington, DC to sign books and give a talk on “The Making of Zarbul Masalha.”

Zarbul Masalha book talk sponsored by George Washington University's

Afghan Student Association

     The book talk and signing had been planned for some time.  But by sheer luck, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music’s renowned Afghan Youth Orchestra was beginning their first-ever U.S. tour at the Kennedy Center the night before the Zarbul Masalha book event.  I couldn’t miss such a milestone for Afghans and Afghanistan.  The free concert at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on February 7 turned out to be so popular that the theater was standing room only.  Fortunately, Zarbul Masalha’s new literary manager, Suzannah Simmons, was able to arrange advance tickets for the two of us and we got in with excellent seats.

     I don’t know much about the details of making music.  But I know what I like when I hear it.  As Suzannah and I spoke with some young Afghan fans of Zarbul Masalha before the concert, I learned that Suzannah is classically trained in guitar, cello and piano – and studied music theory for a year at St John’s College.  This was almost too good to be true.  Foreign cultures and music are both languages that must be learned.  I speak Dari (Afghan Farsi) and the language of Afghan culture.  I had just learned that my literary manager speaks the language of music.  So we could translate the two languages for each other.    

      The curtain rose, and the Afghan Youth Orchestra began bringing East and West together in a stunning performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” with an absolutely unique blend of classical Western and Afghan instruments.

     The following is a conversation between “Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs” author Edward Zellem and Suzannah Simmons of StrengthN Communications.  The forum is the Kennedy Center and the crossroads of Afghan culture with one of the West’s best-known symphony masterworks - Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.”  

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Edward Zellem:   What a fantastic musical experience.  Suzannah, let’s talk about the Afghan Youth Orchestra’s performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons from two different angles - Afghan culture and western classical music theory.  I don’t know much about music theory, but I do know that Vivaldi wrote The Four Seasons in four parts.  He titled them “Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.”

Suzannah Latané Simmons:   Edward, it is truly a pleasure and honor to have the opportunity to discuss this compelling performance with you, as you have combined East and West in your own life and have quite a working knowledge of Afghan culture!

     With Afghan Proverbs fans Mahsheed and Fatima       

 
You are correct that Antonio Vivaldi’s most famous work is broken into four parts. Specifically, they are referred to as concertos.  Within each concerto, there are three movements whose rhythms are fast, slow, fast, respectively.  Each concerto in The Four Seasons is different and symbolizes Earth’s seasons. The impact of the performance is in using specific rhythms, harmonies, and pitches to evoke feelings and images that reflect each season.  Vivaldi's original arrangement for The Four Seasons was with a solo violin, string quartet, and bass.

    What is interesting about the Afghan Youth Orchestra’s performance of The Four Seasons is not only that it has combined the sounds of East and West, but it has also brought in the unique culture and instruments of Afghanistan. Specifically, we hear violin, cello, viola, oboe, trumpet, xylophone, and guitar (Western instruments) impactfully combining with the rubab (string), sitar (string), ghichak (string), tanbur (string), tabla (percussion), dhol (percussion), dilruba (string), and sarod (string).  This is the first time I have seen such a beautiful marriage of such different instruments.

 

            Afghan Youth Orchestra musician with rubab          

EZ:   So in the first movement of The Four Seasons,  the Afghan Youth Orchestra re-imagined Vivaldi’s Spring concerto at a Nowruz (Persian New Year) festival in the Bagh-e Babur (Garden of Babur), and at the ruins of former King Amanullah’s Darul Aman Palace.  Both are in Kabul and I’ve visited each of them several times.  So I was very moved by the musical representation of them.  The orchestra's rendition of Spring also reminded me of the Afghan Proverb, “Ba yak gul bahaar na-meysha” به یک گل، بهار نمی‏شه (One flower doesn’t bring spring).  How did they do that musically, and with what instruments?

SLS:   Let me try to explain how the instruments invoked the feelings of not only spring, but also the celebration of the Persian New Year in Afghanistan.  The trumpet announces the arrival of the season, but it is the solo plucking of the Afghan string instruments that creates the sound of birds.  Moreover, the eastern tone of the Afghan instruments mentioned above brings us out of the West and into an Eastern sentiment.   Additionally, the rhythm of the concerto starts out slowly, but builds just as we see a few blossoms at the beginning of spring exploding towards the end of the season.   Thus, the original 12/8 rhythm of the concerto becomes a fast 7/8 or Afghan “mughuli” rhythm which turns into an even faster 8/8 rhythm with the rubab and sitar.

 

EZ:  I loved what they did with Vivaldi’s second concerto, Summer.  It was fast-paced and stirring as they represented the weather of an Afghan summer.      

SLS:   I agree!  The first movement of the concerto felt like the heat of summer, as I am sure you can relate to after living in Afghanistan.  The xylophone, clarinet, and ghichak ominously warn of what I imagine is the typical summer storm.   For the second movement, the strings of the sitar playing a static melody give a sense of the calm before the storm while the guitar interruptions mimic thunder.  Again as in all four concertos of The Four Seasons the first movement is fast, the second movement is slow, and the last movement is fast.  We feel the calm before the storm in the second movement of “Summer", with the actual onset of the storm in the third movement.  The third movement's solo performances of the rubab and sarod gave a lot of weight to the storm, and were complemented by the powerful interjections from the orchestra.
 

 A buzkashi game 

 

EZ:   My favorite part of the performance was when they played the last movement of the “Autumn” concerto to evoke a buzkashi game in Afghanistan.  I’ve seen buzkashi played live.  It’s a thrilling, fierce, high-speed game played on horseback.  It’s somewhat like the game of polo, but is far rougher and uses a headless goat carcass instead of a ball.  It’s the Afghan national sport - wild, very traditional and famous. Suzannah, can you explain how the Afghan Youth Orchestra played a buzkashi game musically with Vivaldi?  Amazing.

SLS:   Well, the Buzkashi game was musically translated by the trumpet, violins, cello, sarod, rubab, and ghichak.  The trumpet announces the start of the game, with the Afghan instruments then picking up speed and playing elements of a traditional song called “Katagani” that Afghans associate with buzkashi.  The sarod and rubab volley back and forth like Afghan horsemen competing in the game.   However, there is a symbolic winner in the sound of the ghichak.  Very appropriately, the ghichak is a native Afghan instrument.  To celebrate the winner, the National Anthem of Afghanistan, “Surud-e Milli,” closes the third movement of Autumn.  What a victorious end to a spirited and lively “game!”

The Four Seasons ends with the final movement of the Winter concerto, 

re-imagined as Salaam (Peace) 

EZ:   And then the Afghan Youth Orchestra finished The Four Seasons with the Winter concerto.  I especially liked the first movement’s musical representation of Badakhshan, an isolated province in Afghanistan’s high northeast.  Then they segued into a beautiful rendition of Winter’s second movement that they have renamed “Khanna” (home).  What are your thoughts on how they played those?   

SLS:   The ghichak was the perfect instrument to start Badakhshan, the first movement of Winter.  Consisting of only two strings, when plucked alone the ghichak can sound cold and icy.  As winter can feel isolating and lonely, having a solo for Khanna (the second movement) was a great choice.  Not only was the solo performed with emotion and talent, but the juxtaposition of one of the youngest members carrying out the solo was moving and heartfelt.  In closing Khanna, the tempo speeds up and the whole orchestra joins in.  Winter doesn’t feel lonely anymore.  Poignantly, the last and final movement, Salaam (Peace) is closed by the sounds of the rubab, the national instrument of Afghanistan.  It’s an instrument with a 2000-year-old history.

Afghan Youth Orchestra musicians with sitars 

 

EZ:   Suzannah, thanks so much for helping me interpret the language of music and what happens when two musical languages and cultures meet.  It was one of the most memorable concerts I’ve ever seen.  I thought it showed the tremendous value of interpreting one culture’s musical tradition through the lens of another culture’s tradition.  Both sides benefit and expand their musical horizons. 
     Kipling’s “twain” CAN in fact meet, and East and West can raise each other to a new level, if both sides cooperate and are open to each other.  I think that’s a powerful metaphor for what the future of Afghanistan can and should be.  As the Afghan Proverb says, “Dil ba dil raah darad.” دل به دل راه دارد  (Heart to heart there is a way).  Any final thoughts?   

SLS:   Thank you for choosing me to join you!  I have so many thoughts from this inspiring performance.  I think about these Afghan children.  Although they come from a beautiful country, they have lived through tremendous tragedy, poverty, and war.  Despite this, they play their instruments with focus and peace.  It brought tears to my eyes to feel the power of their music, witness the dedication of their work, and hear their notes playing in friendly harmony with a few young adults and children from the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras.
     I hope that the Afghan Youth Orchestra’s  U.S. tour will help bring more compassion and awareness for the positive side and the warm culture and people of Afghanistan, and that it will help motivate Americans to continue to reach out and help this amazing country and its people.

   

 

 

The Rumi Awards: Making Afghan History on the Red Carpet in Las Vegas

Introduction:  What does the largest gathering of Afghan media celebrities in history have in common with the world’s most famous medieval Persian poet?  The answer will be found in Las Vegas this November.    


    
Hundreds of the world’s best-known Afghan TV and radio personalities, entertainment celebrities, artists, singers, musicians, poets, writers, and other special guests will descend on the city of Las Vegas in November 2013 for the first-ever Afghan Global TV and Radio Awards Show - The Rumi Awards.  

    The Rumi Awards will celebrate and promote the Afghan media and entertainment industry in the same way that the Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, and Grammy Awards do for television, film and music. The Rumi Awards show will be held on November 29-30, 2013 at the Southpoint Hotel Casino and Spa, one of the largest resorts in Las Vegas, Nevada.  
   
      The Rumi Awards began with an idea by Afghan-American entrepreneur, software engineer, and author Abe Nasser, who is the gala event’s creator and organizer.  

     As a young boy, Abe Nasser was a refugee from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Today, he is an international businessman who has helped Afghans build a global communications infrastructure.  He has worked with high-profile corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Cisco, and Intel.  

     Shortly after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Nasser helped create the first VoIP satellite service in Afghanistan.  In 2010, he built one of the most cost-efficient satellite broadband Internet solutions ever in Afghanistan; this led other Afghan internet providers to reduce their prices after 10 years of very high charges. Nasser also is the author of Ten Thousand Prayers, a semi-autobiographical novel about a young man’s journey from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan to a successful international career in business and technology. 

     In addition, Nasser is a devoted reader and student of the 13^th century Afghan poet and mystic Maulana Rumi Balkhi, known throughout the world as Rumi.  

     Rumi Awards creator and organizer Abe Nasser speaks here in Part One of an exclusive two-part interview with Edward Zellem, author of “Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs” and a U.S. Navy Captain.  

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Edward Zellem:   Abe, it’s a privilege to speak with you.  Your launch of the Rumi Awards has gained tremendous attention.  Afghanistan’s Ministry of Information and Culture has officially endorsed the Awards, and the Minister himself just confirmed the nominee list.  The president of the Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union says that the Rumi Awards will be “one of the most important events in the history of Afghan media.”   What is the purpose of the Rumi Awards?  
     Abe Nasser:  Thank you, Dagarwaal (Captain/Colonel) Zellem.  دگروال زالم  It’s a pleasure to speak with you too.  And please first let me say how much I have enjoyed your books of Afghan Proverbs.  They are a great service to global understanding of Afghans and Afghan culture.

     The Rumi Awards are about helping Afghans reclaim their heritage through the arts.  Now is the right time to do that in a global way.

      In today’s interconnected world, the best way to bring large numbers of people to the arts is through modern technology such as television, radio and film.  So there is no better way to promote Afghanistan’s heritage than to create an Afghan Awards show, with the awards themselves named for the great poet Rumi.   
  
     Rumi’s poetry has enlightened and inspired millions of people throughout the world over  many centuries. Rumi was born in Afghanistan, and was one of the world’s greatest advocates of bringing people together in peace, unity and love.   We need more of this type of thinking in today’s world, and not just in Afghanistan.  The Rumi Awards show is part of that thinking.

     The Rumi Awards have created great energy and excitement among thousands of media and entertainment professionals in Afghan TV and radio networks, news organizations, and many other places.  We are proud to create a global awards show to help recognize their hard work in developing Afghanistan’s media and entertainment industry.

     I must point out that the Rumi Awards is an independent entity.  We are not affiliated with any TV or radio network, either inside or outside Afghanistan.



EZ:   Which Afghan celebrities will participate in the Rumi Awards? 

AN:  We have released a partial list, and are still inviting others.  We are bringing in many major Afghan celebrities and global personalities – TV, radio and film stars, artists of all types, entertainers, and journalists.  Some of them will be hosts.  Some will be Rumi Award nominees and winners.  Some will be award presenters and special guests.  Some will be all of these!



  
  Some of the Rumi Awards hosts we have already announced include, in alphabetical order:  Lina Rozbih-Haidari, Sajia Kamrany, Jila Kohyar, Shaista Sadat Lameh, Fawad Lami, Zohra Rahgozar, Shafi Sekanderi, Soma Wassel, Amena Yousufi, Haroon Yusufi, Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, and Sear Zia. 
     Some of the Afghan celebrities attending or participating in the Rumi Awards include, in alphabetical order:  Zalmai Araa, Leena Alam,  Mehrangez,  Fahim Fazli,  Fereshteh Forough,  Waheda Hakim, Salma Jahani,  Asif Jalali,  former Afghan Ambassador Sayed Tayeb Jawad, Windy Karigianes, Shabana Mehryar,  Najwa, Minister of Information and Culture Dr. Makhdoom Raheen,  Meena Saifi, Homayoun Sakhi,  Akhtar Shoukat,  Fawad Taheri, Wahida Taheri,  Dr. Farid Younos,  Zohra Yusufi,  Khatera Yusufi, and Safi Zekria.



   
  Just like gala weekends for the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys, the Rumi Awards weekend of 29-30 November will include special events associated with the show.  There will be red carpet interviews with Afghan celebrities; media suites and opportunities to meet and interview many Afghan stars; a Comedy Show featuring well-known Afghan comedians like Asif Jalali;  a Rumi Night dinner event; and of course the Rumi Awards show itself.
     The size and scope of the Rumi Awards weekend will amaze not only Afghans, but the entire world.  Many additional Afghan celebrities and thought leaders will be joining us. Regular updates will be provided in the coming months through news and video releases, our Facebook page, and other media.  It’s very easy to follow the Awards show updates on Facebook and get the latest news.  


EZ:   The Rumi Awards page already has over 46,000 “likes” on its Facebook page after just two months.  What other media are you using to promote the Awards?  What is creating this great interest in the Rumi Awards?   

AN:   We are very grateful for such worldwide interest in the Rumi Awards.  It’s great for Afghans and for the future of Afghanistan.

     The main reason people are interested is the content.  Anybody you talk to in the social media business will tell you that “content is king.”  In the case of the Rumi Awards, our message is powerful and from the heart.  It is a message of peace, unity and love.  That message arrives easily in other people’s hearts.   

     My background in software engineering, especially in social media marketing, also has helped.  Many great volunteers from Kabul to Frankfurt to New York City to San Francisco are helping gain the attention of Afghans and many other people around the globe.  As an example, you and Film Annex, with the giant Film Annex worldwide distribution network, are helping by doing this interview. 

     Between Twitter and Facebook promotion alone, I am confident that within the next few months we will have built the largest Afghan online social network in history. The Rumi Awards Facebook page is growing fast, and often gains more than 1000 new “likes” per day.  We will have achieved in just a few months of social media what has taken five or more years to do in other sectors.


    
 Most of our Rumi Awards management and production team have been working in the industry for the past two decades.  They are very good at what they do.  We expect to have at least 200,000 registered viewers before event night who will watch the live broadcast worldwide.  We expect to have at least several hundred thousand more non-registered viewers.   

EZ:  How will the Rumi Awards show reach a worldwide audience? 

AN:  We will stream the Rumi Awards show live to a global audience via the Internet.  People can watch the  Rumi Awards show not only on desktop computers, but also on mobile devices.  Over 80 percent of device types in the world will be able to access the show quite easily.


      Viewers will be able to watch the show live on  such varied platforms as iPhone, iPad, Android, Google TV, Roku, Smart TV, XBox, Playstation, and of course simply through the Web.

     We also are creating a Rumi Awards “app” that will make it even easier for people to watch the show on mobile devices.  As the November show approaches, we will announce a distribution site where the app will be available to download for free.

     The Awards show will be broadcast live in Dari and Pashto, our two primary Afghan national languages. But we will have onsite interpreters for media that want to rebroadcast in other languages.  And we will have English subtitles for viewers who don’t understand Dari or Pashto.



EZ:  Major awards shows like the Emmys and the Oscars always begin with an elaborate film or performance.  What is your plan for the opening of the Rumi Awards show?   

AN:  Do you remember the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London?  They began with a show about the Industrial Revolution, which was the start of rapid growth in the world using machines and other technologies.  It was a fantastic show.

    

    But unlike the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Rumi Awards opening performance will not start at the middle of a civilization’s journey through progress.  We will start the Rumi Awards with a film that starts at the beginning of the Information Revolution, which in my mind began thousands of years ago.  I am very passionate about connecting global cultures and information across generations. 
   
   We are developing ideas, writers, and sponsors for this special film at the beginning of the Awards show, and for a short film trailer about the life and works of the poet Rumi.  If anyone in the Film Annex community is interested in helping with these films, we’d be delighted to hear from them. 

EZ:   Why are the Rumi Awards important at this time in history?  Can they contribute to the cause of peace in Afghanistan?        

AN:   We will make media history at the Rumi Awards in November by combining modern entertainment, 21st century technology, ancient wisdom, and Afghan celebrities from all over the world.
     I know in my heart that only the Afghan people—especially the younger generation—can save themselves.  They cannot do it with the help of any foreign government, or with the promise of any religion or any social system.

     Only by seeking the truth through our own hearts, in our own homes, through the words of our own philosophers and scholars, can we ever hope to be free.  Rumi and many other figures of the past understood this better than most people today do.  Rumi, and other great artists of yesterday and today, have the power to enlighten the hearts and minds of millions.

     This is only the beginning of a series of Rumi Awards shows.  We will celebrate and honor the Afghan TV and Radio Industry in Las Vegas this November.  We will do the same for the Afghan Film industry with another Rumi Awards show in March 2014.  In the years that follow, we will have Rumi Awards to honor thought leaders around the world who inspire others to peace, unity and love in the spirit of Rumi’s “One Breath.

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     The land of Afghanistan has kindled the fires of enlightenment, revolutionary thought and transformative knowledge through thousands of years of history. We are going to light those fires again.  
 
EZ:  Abe jan, this event will indeed make Afghan media and entertainment history.  We look forward to seeing you at the Rumi Awards in Las Vegas this fall.  Zenda bosheyn!  زنده باشین 

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The Afghan Global TV and Radio 2013 "Rumi Awards" gala is scheduled for November 29-30, 2013 at the Southpoint Hotel Casino and Spa in Las Vegas.  More at AfghanAwards.com and on Facebook.