More than 100 musicians fled Afghanistan for fear of the Taliban

More than a hundred music students and teachers fled Sunday on an evacuation flight from Afghanistan fearing retaliation from the Taliban, the founder of the country’s main music institute told AFP.

A total of 101 members of the Afghanistan National Music Institute landed on Sunday in Qatar and now they are waiting to fly to Portugal, said the founder of the institution Ahmad Sarmast, who lives in Melbourne (Australia).

With the help of the Qatari embassy in Kabul, the musicians were transported in small groups to the airport in the Afghan capital, Sarmast said.

The group, half men and half women, ran into some problems.

Militants taliban they questioned their visas and said that the girls and women could not leave the country with the temporary service passport they carried, normally reserved for civil servants.

“I think it was not so much about the type of passport, but that they were girls leaving the country”Sarmast said.

The efforts of the Qatari diplomats resolved the situation and, hours later, the flight was able to take off from Afghanistan.

“It was a time of many tears. I was crying nonstop. My family cried with me. It was the happiest moment of my life”Sarmast recalled about the moment he learned of the success of the operation.

The flight began to be planned from the Taliban return.

“From the moment that the taliban took power in Kabul, discrimination against music and musicians began ”, Sarmast said.

The taliban they banned music in their repressive mandate from 1996-2001. This time they promise to be more moderate and have not defined a clear position on music.

According to Sarmast, the Taliban urged members of the institute to stay home until further notice and, two months later, they received no further directions.

This flight is the first phase, says the founder of the institute, who wants to achieve the evacuation of the 184 teachers and students still in Afghanistan.

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