Fieldnotes on Humanity

While other ethnic groups in Afghanistan are trying to stay busy fighting and killing each other, the Hazaras of Afghanistan are doing something different, the art. Here is an example, Anahita Ulftat is a Hazara girl who last year participated in Afghan Star - Afghan idol - has just released a new video clip, which is astonishingly beautiful and artistic in post-modern context. By Afghan standard, this kind of art is astoundingly rare and new. This is an example of how freedom, education, and liberalism benefit the very people who Ms. Ulfat belongs to, have been excluded from all basic rights. It has been only a decade since the Hazaras have been through a period of relatively peacefulness, which bestowed freedom under the protection of the U.S. and the international community. Hazaras are proud of their identity and country. In sport, Hazaras have often took their country's flag to the international stage and garnered gold medals for their country. Last year, in February, I...

Anahita Ulfat in traditional Hazaragi dress performing live on stage  Solemnly, but smiley, Anahita in her unique traditional Hazara dresss, gently walks up onto stage. When she turns her charming smiley face towards the audience, her beauty pervades gloom all over the place, and as soon as she starts singing, the audience goes wild. Anahita sings with a vital rebellious voice against discriminatory attitudes towards her ethnic group. With her voice, she expands the horizon of hope for the Hazara women, for those who have long dreamt to bid defiance to limitations, and ignoring. Anahita Ulftat is back on the stage of Afghan Star, the Afghanistan’s pop idol that broadcasts on a local TV channel, “Tolo TV.” She is a Hazara girl from Ghazni who rings the bravery bill of all Hazara women. With her unique serene gesture, but exciting voice, she melodizes unwritten songs; songs of silence, songs of an oppressed minority that for centuries has been deprived from their basic rights....