Portugal’s Braga Rocks and dirt in a little plastic jar, collected at a family tomb just before she left Kabul, are among 15-year-old Farida Ahmadi’s most treasured belongings and serve as a memory of home.
It’s still unknown whether she will ever visit that hallowed location in Afghanistan or see her family in person after three years and 4,000 kilometers away in her new home in northern Portugal.
Farida told NBC News that while she was a student at the Afghan National Institute of Music (ANIM), she was afraid that Taliban gunmen who had taken back control of the nation would knock on her door and declare, “You are arrested.”
Notes of Protest: Afghanistan’s Orchestra in Exile will be broadcast on NBC News NOW tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET.
In one of her interviews this year, she stated, “I didn’t think that one day I’d be studying in a country where the Taliban are going to come back.” Given the past events, I was of the opinion that it would not occur.
However, it appeared like history was being repeated.
The Taliban, whose previous government was overthrown in the wake of 9/11 after refusing to turn over the mastermind of the attack, Osama bin Laden, swiftly reinstituted its strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic, law, following nearly two decades of fighting, trillions of dollars spent, and countless lives lost as Western nations rushed to leave Afghanistan in a largely chaotic and embarrassing exit.
Despite initially promising a more moderate rule, the organization closed hair and beauty salons nationwide and prohibited women from accessing public places including parks, higher education, and most occupations because they were considered un-Islamic.
According to a United Nations report released in August, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is officially prohibited for women and girls above the age of 12. Girls were also prohibited from attending classes after the sixth grade.
Additionally, almost all types of artistic expression, including music, were outlawed by the Taliban.
Farida and her cousin Zohra Ahmadi, who were both 12 at the time, felt threatened by their affiliation with the institute even before the group could actually establish these regulations.
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