In the Studio: Ghawgha

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ghawgha is a singer-songwriter originally from Afghanistan. Growing up between Afghanistan and Iran, she now lives in Norway, as part of ICORN programme - a residency for artists at risk. However, the situation facing women and minorities in her native country still run deep in her music and her songs reflect the current situation in Afghanistan under a second Taliban rule. Ghawgha’s single of 2019, I Kiss You Amid the Taliban, celebrated the hard-gained freedoms of the new generation in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover in 2021. Kawoon Khamoosh follows Ghawgha as she works on and records her new album called Qaf. Qaf refers to a mysterious mountain that exists in legends where the mythological bird Simurgh had her nest and Ghawgha has been working with both poets from Afghanistan, as well as writing her own lyrics.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi Namalanta Combo here with some very exciting news.
0:04.0	Dear Daughter is back for a new series.
0:07.0	I'm putting together a handbook to life for daughters everywhere
0:10.0	full of stories and advice to help navigate life.
0:13.0	That's dear daughter from the BBC World Service.
0:16.0	Find it wherever you get your BBC podcast.
0:19.0	Welcome to the documentary Indosid Studio from the BBC World Service.
0:26.0	Today we are following the singer, songwriter and composer Gawa,
0:30.0	a powerful voice of resistance from Afghanistan who is using her songs to highlight the inequality
0:36.6	and injustice happening in her country and across the region.
0:40.4	It's not an easy life to be refugee. I hope that musicians just keep going and even though it's hard time for all of us
0:49.9	It's important to to sing. It's really important to have our own stories.
0:56.0	It has been almost three years since the Taliban returned to power and now teenage girls are banned from education.
1:02.0	Women can't go to work, access parks, gyms and beauty
1:06.7	salons, and with a massive crackdown on women and girls protesting in the country. The Taliban have also banned music and many singers
1:16.4	and other creatives have left the country with those remaining going
1:20.6	into hiding or if caught enduring public shaming by the authorities.
1:25.0	We are not afraid and we have hope you know I believe that hope is one of the biggest things that we need. People from Afghanistan, they should not lose their hope.
1:37.0	I'm Kaun Hamush and I'm a journalist working for the BBC World Service.
1:42.0	I grew up in Afghanistan and I have known Gawa for almost five years.
1:47.0	I am accompanying her as she writes a very personal album
1:51.0	Sanguine Farsi which portrays her ordeals and her turbulent journey into Europe.
	...

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