Official Opening
On the occasion of the ceremonial opening of the country focus Afghanistan, two central elements of the multifaceted Afghan cultural heritage will be brought into dialogue: music and poetry. For the poetic music reading, the poets Muzghan Schaffa and Asia Mehrabi will perform current poems in the original language with German subtitles. The effect of the texts will be accompanied by the atmospheric playing of traditional Afghan music. Specially invited are the rubab player Fazila Zamer, who has made a great impact in a genre that is mainly reserved for male musicians, and the tabla player Ustad Feraydoon Meyazada.
Participation in the opening by appointment only, broadcast via video in the courtyard.
Moderation:
© Sohayla Ashgary
Sohayla Asghary, born in Afghanistan in 1963, studied journalism at Kabul University. She has worked as a television and radio journalist and as a presenter at Radio and TV Afghanistan, as an editor, presenter and newsreader at Radio Moscow and as a broadcaster at Radio Free Europe in Prague. She is currently working at Jugendhilfe Jetzt.
Poetry contributions:
Muzghan Schaffa was born in Kabul in 1977 and graduated from Kabul's Mahmood-Hotaki High School in 1985. During the first Taliban regime, she, like other girls, was prevented from attending university. Together with her sisters, she secretly studied Persian literature at home. In 2002, Schaffa had to leave Afghanistan with her husband and three-year-old daughter. Their flight from war and terror ended in Wolfsburg, where Schaffa learned German and took part in integration courses and educational training. Parallel to her life in Germany, she continued to write poems and short stories for her home country. In Afghanistan, her first book "The Colourless Apple" was published in 2014. Six years later, the books "Restless Ocean" and "When the Sun Rains" followed. Schaffa works as a social education worker at a primary school in Wolfsburg, is involved in the city's integration department and volunteers to teach children her native language, Persian.
© Asia Mehrabi
After graduating from high school in Kabul,
Asia Mehrabi wrote poems and articles about Afghan literature and society. She moved to Cologne in November 2000. Since 2012, Mehrabi has participated in Afghan literary and cultural events in Germany and other European countries. Since 2018, she has been singing the poems of Afghan women. In Cologne, she attended school again and after graduating from school in 2009, she worked at various social institutions with children and young people in need of inclusion. She currently works at the Graf Recke Foundation.
Music:
© Fazila Zamer
Fazila Zamer is a musician and the first Afghan rubab player. She learned music at the Agha Khan Cultural Foundation and studied at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). Zamer studied musicology at Kabul University and worked as an orchestra leader and member for Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and Women TV. In 2020, she founded the "Mahd Honar Music Education Centre" in Afghanistan, shortly before she had to leave her country after the Taliban took power in August 2021. Today, Zamer lives in Germany.
Ustad Feraydoon Meyazada, born in 1978 into a musical family in Koche Kharabat in Kabul, is a respected tabla player. He began learning tabla at a young age through oral tradition under the tutelage of Ustad Arif Pari Paikar, an eminent master musician. With over 23 years of experience, Meyazada is a well-known and respected tabla player both in Afghanistan and internationally. He taught tabla at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Meyazada is an accomplished performer and has participated in numerous concerts. As a valued member of the Safar Ensemble, his tabla playing is widely acclaimed.
Back
