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Zahra Elham is the first woman to win the show in 14 years. Photo: AFP
The first woman to win the Afghan version of American Idol states that she will fight the Taliban with her music, embracing a symbolic victory while her country is facing an uncertain future.
Zahra Elham won the 14th Afghan Star last week after winning the trophy for the popular TV singing competition for the 13th consecutive year.
Elham, of the Afghan ethnic minority Hazara, delighted the audience with her shrill, rasping voice, playing Hazara and Persian folk music in traditional Afghan outfit and heels, full and colorful
The result made the headlines at a time when many women in this deeply patriarchal country fear that their hard-won rights will be threatened as Washington searches for a way out of the war, talks with the Taliban.
Elham, who spoke with AFP in an interview with the private television channel Tolo, which produces Afghan Star, was caught off guard by his new celebrity n – but determined to s & d To use it to inspire other girls.
"I was very proud of myself but at the same time shocked to be the first woman to win the contest" The young woman in her twenties said, her Elegantly covered hair with an olive green scarf, visibly always uncomfortable with a camera.
Nobody sings in her family, she says. She was inspired by the competition after watching idol videos on YouTube, like Aryana Sayeed, an Afghan pop singer and social media star often compared to Kim Kardashian, an badertion that in conservative Afghanistan , is bold and deeply political.
If, like Sayeed, she is now a role model for young Afghan women, Elham's answer underscores the importance of her new platform in a country where women are largely absent from the country. 39, public space.
"Yes, my voice is important to women.
" Other girls will have courage and sing, as if I followed Aryana Sayeed … when I saw a girl like Aryana Sayeed, I thought, "If she can, then I can I. She has two hands and two legs, just like me."
"Gives a bright future"
Despite his pbadion, Elham, also a fan of Justin Bieber and Maher Zain, says that she does not intend to enter politics.
But if the Taliban returned to Somalia In Afghanistan, she said: "I will fight with my music because I want to make my life a music and a song."
The Taliban used their strict interpretation of Islam to ban music and force women to hide. and under the burkas during their austere regime in Afghanistan from 1996 to their ouster in 2001.
Since then, they have led an increasingly bloody insurgency against the Afghan government and international troops under US command.
The progress of the United States and fears are strong in Kabul that Washington will be eager to leave Washington, paving the way for the return of the Taliban to a semblance of power in Afghanistan.
Young women, aware of how their gender was repressed under the Taliban regime – and still facing severe restrictions in Afghanistan today – are among the strongest warnings that they will not compromise not their rights if the insurgents come back.
For the moment, however, Elham says her victory is a matter of pride – and that she stays focused on her music and plans to learn the guitar and create more video clips of herself. .
"I see my future in music and I can make my future bright by singing," she says.
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