[ad_1]
As yet one more era of Afghans fled their homeland over the previous fortnight, one tune has resonated as a poignant anthem for the exodus.
My Homeland – Sarzamin i Man in Farsi – was written in 1998 by the singer Dawood Sarkhosh, who himself needed to depart Afghanistan within the civil struggle that erupted following the Soviet withdrawal.
In current days My Homeland has been performed by folks boarding evacuation flights at Kabul airport, and by newly arrived Afghan refugees in Tehran, Stockholm, London and Toronto, in addition to on smuggling routes throughout the Pakistani desert.
“I’ve turn out to be homeless,” the lyrics go. “I’ve moved from one dwelling to a different / With out you, I’ve at all times been shoulder to shoulder with sorrow … My homeland, my solely love, my existence … I can’t reside anyplace however in you / They stole your treasures to counterpoint themselves / Everybody in flip has damaged your coronary heart.”
The tune has come to evoke the loss felt by many for a rustic they could not see once more.
The singer Sharafat Parwani, a star of prime-time TV exhibits in Afghanistan, was filmed singing My Homeland in a refugee camp after leaving the nation in a clip widely shared on social media.
In one other clip, three girls sing on the runway of Kabul airport, whereas ready for his or her evacuation flight. Afghans in exile around the globe have filmed themselves singing it in protest in opposition to the Taliban.
In Iran, the place greater than 7,000 Afghans a day are heading, the tune is being recorded and carried out by well-known vocalists to specific their sympathy and sorrow.
Sarkhosh, who now lives in Pakistan, stated in an interview that the recognition of the tune was as a result of “I used to be additionally an individual who had suffered from struggle”.
When the Taliban final ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, the unconventional type of Sharia legislation enforced meant music was banned.
“I had seen the damages of struggle once I was a baby,” stated Sarkhosh, whose elder brother Sarwar was killed in preventing between rival Afghan warlords. “I used to be myself additionally a refugee, and naturally it affected the tune.”
The tune has discovered a brand new viewers of exiles. “When Kabul fell and I noticed Taliban roaming in my metropolis, I cried all evening listening to this similar tune,” stated Hassan Anwari, an Afghan scholar in India. “We, the Afghans, collect right here typically and we sing it collectively. We cry, and we sing it.
“Crying is the one factor we are able to do for our nation now. We’ve got come right here to check and hoped to return, however now we don’t know. Consider me, some are desirous about suicide. We really feel stateless. We don’t know the place to go after our research.”
One Afghan who reached Iran, stated everybody he met was listening to the tune. “We walked for greater than 4 hours and I used to be listening to all of it the way in which as a result of many individuals had been listening to it on their telephones,” stated the person, who requested to not be named.
“I cried a number of occasions taking a look at this flood of individuals and listening to this tune,” he stated. “I got here to Iran to give you the option work and since I couldn’t reside below Taliban rule, however right here even Iranians are struggling – not to mention me as an Afghan.”
[ad_2]
Source link