Kabul
Would See it!
2004-05-11/ 03:52:19
Kabul, Afghanistan
By: Haseeb
For
the very first time, a public concert featuring the most loved
artist of Afghanistan, Farhad Darya (www.farhaddarya.info/) is
to be held in the National Sports Stadium in Kabul.
We
are attending it in a team, and we just bought the tickets. This
would be the very first time me and many of my friends attend
a concert.
It’s
expected that around 10.000 people would attend the event. The
tickets are relatively cheap, and that’s why everyone thinks
it’s gonna attract a lot of people.
Yet,
security is worrying issue, and everyone seems to be concerned
about it. It’s the first event of such type, and no past
experience means this is a test event.
No
cameras allowed in. So, don't expect pictures form the event.
The Concert!
2004-05-15 / 03:27:41
Kabul, Afghanistan
By: Haseeb
To
the surprise of many, Kabul's National Stadium was filled with
30000-35000 people, including large masses of families and ladies!
The
concert was a symbol of change in this part of the world! Fun,
Music and fear all mixed!
Security
was an alarming issue, for there seemed that less measure had
been taken to make sure no trouble happens! You can imagine, 12000
tickets were sold and 30000 people attended the event, means 2/3
of the audience came from other ways and without any ticket!
The
stadium's fences were destroyed, as people jumped inside the ground
from the stands to have a close view of the stage.
We
, luckily went in to the family seats as we had three of our ladies
friends (One from Germany, other from Norway and the other Afghan)
with us but soon as the concert started the family seats were
also filled with ordinary audiences and those who had no tickets(most
of them).
To
our pleasure, no disturbance occurred and the first ever event
of such big an scale in 15 years, succeeded! And Kabul was rocked!
The Artist Farhad Darya (www.farhaddarya.info) got an amazing
welcome as it took him 30 minutes to get to stage through passing
from the mass crowds!
We
danced, sung and laughed but left the stadium an hour before the
end of the concert for we were expecting trouble during the finishing
stages as 30000 people all had to get out from only 2 doors.
Music
Wafts Through Kabul Stadium Once Again
(AFP/ by Sardar Ahmad)
 |
Lost
in the crowd of tens of thousands of people at Kabul's stadium
for a concert by famed Afghan singer Farhad Darya, Shamsullah
whispers about how "things have changed very quickly"
since he was last here two years ago to witness brutal Taleban
justice.
"I can't believe it," he says. "Exactly in
the same place two years ago I was witnessing a very sad incident
-- a man, even if he was criminal, had his hand chopped,"
Shamsullah said. |
"Look now, we have fun -- people are happy, they are dancing,
we have a concert," the 45-year-old teacher said while accompanying
two of his teenage sons to the concert on Thursday night.
The extremely popular singer Darya, who has lived in Europe and
America since the early 1990s, played for more than two hours
to a packed stadium in his first concert since returning to Kabul
earlier this year.
Kabul stadium, once the only place where people could see soccer
and other games, was turned into the site of public executions
by the Taleban regime which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
The Taleban, who enforced extremely conservative Islamic laws
had banned music and all other types of entertainment.
Darya's show was the first major artistic performance at the stadium
since the toppling of the hard-line militia by an American-led
invasion in late 2001.
Fittingly, it was also Darya's Kabul Jan Salaam or My dear Kabul
which was the first song to be played on Afghan radio following
the fall of the Taleban.
"When I saw the people eagerly attending the concert I realized
that our people, who were deprived of all kinds of entertainment,
are thirsty for music," the singer told a post-concert press
conference.
The concert was the first of a series that Darya hopes to eventually
perform around the country to raise money to build a recording
studio for Afghan singers who have suffered badly during the past
two decades of war and conflict. However, the 44-year-old said
security poses challenges in much of the war-wracked country and
the plan has been delayed for the time being.
"We do plan to drag this programme to other provinces but
we have to be careful to not risk our people's security,"
he said.
More than two years after the Taleban regime was smashed, most
provinces suffer unrest caused by the remnants of the militia
which oppose President Hamid Karzai's US-backed administration.
In recent months an acting troupe has been attacked during a performance
in eastern Nangarhar province and the broadcasting of old videos
of Afghan women singing on Kabul TV have prompted strong criticism
from conservative circles.
Head of Kabul TV Azizullah Aryafar said Darya's decision to help
fellow musicians was a positive step towards rebuilding the country's
musical institutions.
"Not only war but also the emergence of new ideologies, the
Taleban being the worst of them, killed music in Afghanistan,"
Aryafar said.
"I hope Darya's concert marks the start of other musicians
coming to live in the country," he said, referring to the
dozens of well-known Afghan singers living in exile.
Several female singers, who developed under the moderate ideology
of the Communist regime, fled Afghanistan fearing for their lives
when it came under the control of the Mujahedin and later Taleban
fighters.
While a few female singers occasionally appear on television in
the capital women singers are not allowed to be shown in other
cities controlled by regional warlords, mainly Mujahedin leaders.
"I think it is too early," Aryafar said of female entertainers
being shown widely.
Darya, who yesterday left Kabul for Washington D.C. where his
wife Sultana and son Hejran live, said he will return with more
singers "to give more joy and happiness to Afghans who were
deprived under the Taleban."
As one concert-goer, who witnessed the execution at the stadium
of a woman who murdered her husband, said: "That was the
darkest period of our life under the Taleban -- but now it is
over, you see we have music."
