Zohra pays a visit to Zurich
On January 21, 2017, the Afghan Women's Orchestra "Zohra" has been invited by the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich to perform traditional Afghan music as well as an arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
The women's orchestra is on an international tour and will perform at the closing evening of the World Economic Forum in Davos. After the Youth Orchestra of Caracas from Venezuela and the Bochabela String Orchestra from South Africa, the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich is now inviting the third youth orchestra from special regions of the world.
More than thirty young Afghan women between the ages of 14 and 20 make music together under the most difficult conditions in this war-torn country. The Afghan Women's Orchestra is the first female ensemble in the history of Afghanistan. Before the war, women were present in public life, rode bicycles and largely enjoyed the same rights as men in education and employment.
At the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), founded by Ahmad Sarmast, from which the orchestra emerged, music is a response to war and destruction, a way into the future of hundreds of Afghan children, regardless of their gender, ethnic or religious affiliation or socio-economic circumstances.
By making music together, girls and boys learn to treat each other with respect and break down gender-specific barriers. According to the Tonhalle Society's press release, families queue up every year to enrol their children in ANIM. Music can make a decisive contribution to building a peaceful civil society in this torn nation.
