‘There is no country in the world like my homeland, a proud nation,” he sang: ‘Our beautiful valley, our great-grandparents’ homeland.”
PRAVASISAMWAD
Afghan folk singer Fawad Andarabi’s killing shocked every music lover in the world.
A true patriot Andarabi played the ghichak, a bowed lute, and sang traditional songs about his birthplace, his people and Afghanistan as a whole. A video online showed him at one performance, sitting on a rug with the mountains of home surrounding him as he sang.
“There is no country in the world like my homeland, a proud nation,” he sang. “Our beautiful valley, our great-grandparents’ homeland.”
Karima Bennoune, the United Nations special rapporteur on cultural rights, wrote on Twitter, “We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the #humanrights of #artists.”
Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, too condemned the killing.
“There is mounting evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent, repressive Taliban of 2001,” she wrote on Twitter. “20 years later. Nothing has changed on that front.”
Fawad Andarabi was killed in the Andarabi Valley for which he was named, an area of Baghlan province.
The slaying of comes as the United States winds down a historic airlift. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from Kabul’s international airport. The killing reignited concerns among activists. The fear that the insurgents would return after their military blitz toppled the government, loomed large.
Karima Bennoune, the United Nations special rapporteur on cultural rights, wrote on Twitter, “We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the #humanrights of #artists.”
Chaos has engulfed Kabul since the Taliban took over. After an Islamic State affiliate’s suicide attack that killed over 180 people, the Taliban increased its security around the airfield as Britain ended its evacuation flights Saturday. US military cargo planes continued their runs into the airport.
The Taliban previously came out to Andarabi’s home and searched it, even had tea with the musician, his son Jawad Andarabi said. “He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people,” his son said. “They shot him in the head on the farm.”
A Taliban spokesman has said they had no other details on the killing.
