Lichtblick-Kino

Yalda Yazdani is an ethnomusicologist and curator. She was born in Iran. Currently she is working as a research fellow and also completing her PhD studies at University of Siegen in Germany. In 2020 she was selected to receive a full scholarship from House of Young Talents Academy to work on her PhD project by focusing on Women’s music in post-revolutionary Iran. In 2021 she was the winner of the DAAD award (German Academic Exchange Service) which is the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers. Since 2009 she has been undertaking various fieldwork research about female vocal songs and music in different regions of Iran. From 2015 she has been organising various intercultural projects, documentaries, music workshops and concerts across Iran and Europe with the aim of creating collaboration bridges between European and Middle-Eastern musicians and artists. In 2017 and 2018 she founded and curated the festivals „Female Voice of Iran“ and in 2021 the festival “Female Voice of Afghanistan” in collaboration with Contemporary Opera Berlin. In the current times she has been collaborating with different documentary productions focusing mainly on music and the potential it offers to cross cultural borders. Her primary goal is to find ways to improve the situation of Middle-Eastern women musicians both in their home countries as well as internationally. The last cooperations have been with the documentary projects “Saz, The Key of Trust” (Arte, 2018), “The Female Voice of Iran” (Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin, 2020) and “Life After Life, The Female Voice of Afghanistan” (CrossGeneration Media 2022).

The wars that engulfed Afghanistan from the 1970s to the 90s curtailed music-making substantially but in recent years, a new era of music-making was taking shape, with many young women composers, conductors and musicians establishing new repertoires and new visions for different ensembles. These emerging musical voices were all abruptly silenced after the fall of Afghanistan in summer 2021. The country witnessed a humanitarian crisis with thousands of Afghans attempting to flee the country. In July 2022 in collaboration with Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin, Yalda; an award winning ethnomusicologist, travelled to Kabul to meet the female singers. No one could have guessed at the time that this would be the last opportunity to document the lives of these female artists before the Taliban took power. Many women musicians have left the country, their beloved homeland, unwillingly with many emotions and dreams. They cannot really arrive anywhere, they are restless and scattered in many different foreign countries now. What moves these women musicians now, looking back on what has happened and looking forward to the future? How are they going to continue their music? Right after the screening of their film “Female Voice of Afghanistan” Yalda’s talk will give an insight to the current situation of female singers of Afghanistan.

In July 2021, after the last German soldier had left the country, the film team led by ethnomusicologist Yalda Yazdani and German-Afghan journalist Sharmila Hashimi travelled to Kabul to meet female singers. No one could have guessed at the time that this would be the last opportunity to document the lives of these female artists before the Taliban took power. The speed of the dramatic changes surprised even the protagonists, who nevertheless did not let themselves be stopped in their different lives.

A year later, all involved have left the country, their beloved homeland, unwillingly and are now stuck ‘between worlds’. They all share similar feelings, worries and dreams. They can’t really arrive anywhere, they are restless and scattered in foreign countries. What moves these women now, looking back on what has happened and looking forward to the future? In a further undertaking and with reference to the filming in 2021, the same film team now approaches the protagonists once again, visits them and emotionally continues to tell their personal stories.