The New York Times, which spoke with Naghma’s fans at a concert, reported that these individuals have little respect for Afghan politicians due to the “humiliating” collapse of the republic.
According to the paper, they consider artists like Naghma to be the “real heroes” — those who launched fundraising campaigns for recent earthquake victims and repeatedly urged the Taliban to reopen schools for girls.
Naghma’s real name is Naima Shah Pari, and she was born in Kandahar.
She loved poetry and music from childhood and wrote her first poem at the age of thirteen. In school, she was among the students who performed poems and songs at national ceremonies. Because of her insistence on singing, she was repeatedly beaten by her mother.
At sixteen, she moved to Kabul to live with her uncle and began singing for Afghanistan’s Radio and Television.
It was during that period that she married Mangal, and both of them were threatened by mujahideen during the communist governments of Afghanistan.
Naghma told the New York Times: “The story of my life is really tragic. We were five brothers and three sisters. All my brothers were killed in the army. One of my sisters was killed in Kabul. Only one sister of mine is alive.”
Her 17-year-old sister, Gul Pari, was killed in her home in the early 1990s. Naghma said that she herself had been the intended target.
Naghma, who avoids revealing her age publicly, is in fact around 60 and still wears a smile.
She performs folk and modern songs around the world. Since the Taliban returned to power, she has been unable to sing in Kabul.
A rumor has circulated that Naghma was once abducted by a commander from Afghanistan’s civil war era. In her interview with the New York Times, she denied this for the first time, saying the story was fabricated to tarnish her reputation.
She expressed despair about Afghanistan’s future and mentioned a girl who had fallen into depression due to the closure of schools.
Naghma sings in both Farsi/Dari and Pashto, but her popularity is greater among Pashtuns.
In Afghanistan’s conservative culture, singing has always been a serious challenge for a woman.
She said that despite everything, she still has fans among former mujahideen and even within the Taliban.
