OUR LIPS ARE SEALED

Setting up Afghanistan's first Girl Group - the Burka Band (Thomas Gross, 7 July 2003, Die Zeit)

It is quite likely that insomniacs, early-risers and other unorthodox music television viewers recently thought they were hallucinating. There they were, minding their own business, watching a few killer barbie girls vying for screen time with hyperkinetic heavy metal dudes - the usual music tv thing - when all of a sudden the whole pop scene imploded, revealing a barren landscape filled with people leading meagre existences. On screen, images of an obviously female trio tinkering about with microphones and a drum kit were followed by flashes of street scenes from Kabul reminiscent of a hastily shot amateur video. It is impossible to see just who these women are because all three of them are wearing burkas.

In this media age, the irony of it all is that Afghanistan's first pop group is actually faceless. "My mother wears a burka, my father wears it too, I have to wear a burka, the burka it is blue". These are just some of the lyrics performed by the band in broken English to the rhythm of a stubborn drumbeat. It is also the only bit of personal information given. But the burka - which Afghan women have been obliged to wear since the victory of the Taliban - is not the only veil in this video: in an industry where journalists are usually overwhelmed with more information than they know what to do with, this video also features a veil that blocks communication and has to be drawn back. The singers can't be reached by phone; only the most important people in Kabul have phones. And while there is an e-mail address by which the burka band can supposedly be reached in a rather roundabout way, my e-mail initially goes unanswered.

Then one day, an answer pops up in my in-box: "Yes, it's ironic," it reads. The writer goes on to say that the video was indeed intended to be a sort of play on the obligatory burka. "No never," is the answer given to the question as to whether some women are already wearing the burka like a costume in their day-to-day lives. And how does it feel to have passed such a milestone in setting up Afghanistan'??s first girl group? "Actually we did it just for fun and we are not real singers". This is certainly no chit-chat. The young woman fromKabul who doesn't want to be named for fear of reprisals - let's call her Faranaz - tells me in concise sentences that while officially it's no longer obligatory to wear the burka, many women still do; that it is still unthinkable for a women without a burka to appear on television; that she's heard of Madonna but as an amateur singer, can't pass any judgement on her. In fact, Faranaz's longest sentence is about fear: in it she says that while there is music in Afghanistan nowadays, a bomb exploded recently in the Paghman district killing two musicians and several guests at a party.

To find out more about the casting of the burka band, it was necessary to contact German voluntary overseas workers. Frank Fenstermacher from the band A Certain Frank explains that the idea arose during a
trip to the Panschir valley.

Beware--the song is weirdly hypnotic.

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Burqa Band: Afghan girls go places Sify.com, 03 August , 2003)

It began in Kabul as a joke, but with the help of a few German musicians Afghanistan's all-girl rock group "Burqa Band" was formed in the space of a day and has hit the airwaves and clubs in Germany.

All that remains of the ephemeral alliance of the Burqa and rock is an amateur video clip and a song remixed by Berlin DJ Barbara Morgenstern which has become a modest summer-time favourite.

The female trio appears on screen as three blue ghosts in a makeshift studio in Kabul; bound by their robes they nevertheless let it all hang out on the drums, electric bass and microphone.

"You give me all your love, you give me all your kisses, and then you touch my burqa, and don't know who it is..." the lead singer moans in halting but determined English.

"Burqa, burqa bluuueee" they sing, in ironic lyrics that still manage to tell the tale of how Afghan women were oppressed by the former Taliban regime.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 9, 2003 11:37 AM