via; http://www.abc.net.au/arts/blog/Sarmast-music-school-afghanistan-120706/default.htm
"Music is a fire, it needs to be constantly looked after otherwise it will die," says Dr Ahmad Sarmast, founder of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and the subject of the documentary Dr Sarmast's Music School.
Dr. Sarmast's Music School (part two) screens 10.05pm Tuesday July 17 on ABC1In recent weeks the Australian media have run the following stories about Afghanistan: '"Soldier's soldier" killed in Afghanistan in insurgent firefight' (The Australian); 'Woman, children beheaded in "honour killing"' (ABC News); 'Man in Afghan uniform wounds 5 US troops' (Herald Sun); 'Taliban told cop "to kill soldiers"' (The Australian).
On June 9, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article by Ben Doherty titled 'Risking their lives for an education'. The article described how Afghan girls had fallen ill after their school grounds were sprayed with poison. "Six schools had been targeted in the past three weeks," he wrote. "More than 400 girls fell ill. None have died. But these were only the latest in a spate of attacks".
Many Australians know little about life in Afghanistan beyond what they read in newspapers or see on television. To most the country is a war zone and a place of cultural oppression.
To Dr Ahmad Sarmast, an Australian-educated musicologist, Afghanistan is a place of optimism and cultural rejuvenation.
In 2007, Dr Sarmast returned to Afghanistan after fifteen years in exile to establish a national music school where children could learn Afghan music and discover the classical traditions of the West. Soon after, following a meeting over coffee in Melbourne where Dr Sarmast was based as a research fellow at Monash University, Australian filmmaker Polly Watkins travelled to Kabul to document his attempt to raise funds and garner support for the project.
Over the next four years, Watkins returned to Kabul five times. She wanted to counter the stories of "tragedy and conflict". The result is Dr Sarmast's Music School, a documentary about the opening of the institute, the students who attend, and the international faculty members who are committed to helping rebuild Afghanistan's musical culture.
"You must be very brave and very dedicated to your profession to make a decision to come to Afghanistan given all the negative publicity that exists, especially in the media," says Dr Sarmast.
"But in reality Afghanistan is a totally different country. It is not a country where hope has died. I work in Afghanistan, and I see everyday a different country, where hope is alive."
When civil war broke out in 1992, Dr Sarmast was studying music at the Moscow State Conservatorium. He was following in the footsteps of his father, Ustad Salim Sarmast, a conductor of renown. In the following years the political and cultural situation changed rapidly. Music and cultural creativity was oppressed, the once rich artistic community of Afghanistan disintegrated as musicians fled abroad or were forced to hide or destroy their instruments.
With the rise of the Taliban the oppression was institutionalised. A generation of Afghan children have grown up without music. Dr Sarmast considers this an infringement of a basic human right.
"There is controversy in the Islamic tradition between various schools as to whether music is a legal practice under Islam or whether it's a forbidden one," explains Dr Sarmast. "But it's mainly based on a narrow interpretation of Islamic thought. There is nothing explicitly against music in the holy Koran which is the main guidance for Muslims."
Unable to return to Afghanistan in the '90s under Taliban rule, Dr Sarmast sought asylum in Australia. When we met in Sydney in June, where Dr Sarmast and his wife were attending the premiere of the documentary at the Sydney Film Festival, he said he's fortunate to have gained permanent residency in Australia but has never given up hope of one day returning to Afghanistan permanently.
In 2001 the ban on music education in Afghanistan was lifted.
"When I was there in 2006, I noticed that there was no one there to make sure the musical rights of Afghan children and the musical traditions of the country are rebuilt and evolved in a way that will have a lasting effect on the culture of Afghanistan," says Dr Sarmast.
In the spring of 2009 the Afghanistan National Institute of Music opened with support from Afghanistan's Ministry of Education. It was principally funded by the World Bank and a number of diplomatic missions from countries including the US, Germany, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Almost half of the students are either orphans or children who were earning a living on the street. By 2013, fifty per cent of the students will be girls.
What Dr Sarmast is trying to accomplish at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music is to not only introduce Afghan children to the music traditions of the world but to create a flourishing, professional music industry in Afghanistan. His has lofty goals.
He envisions the creation of an Afghanistan symphony orchestra, like the one his father once conducted, and the building of a concert hall in Kabul and a dormitory for the school's orphaned students. He wants musical education included in the national curriculum. He wants to see his students go on to teach at the institute, record their music for radio and international distribution, write scores for films, and play at the great concert halls around the world.
"Thirty years of civil war did not pass without leaving an imprint on the music culture of Afghanistan."
"The revival of music, the rebuilding of the musicians' quarter, musical educational institutes and the creation of music ensembles and orchestras is an essential part of the rebuilding of the country," says Dr Sarmast.
- Nicola Harvey
The two-part Artscape series, Dr Sarmast's Music School screens on July 10 and 17 at 10.05pm on ABC1.
Director Polly Watkins with students from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, 2010.
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