美国国家公共电台 NPR All-Female Orchestra From Afghanistan Is A Force For Change

All-Female Orchestra From Afghanistan Is A Force For Change

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

Decades of war and extremism in Afghanistan have ravaged¹ that country's ancient culture including its music. A school in Kabul started by an Afghan musicologist is trying to change that, and this month introduced the first ever all-female Afghan orchestra which played at the World Economic Forum² in Davos. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson caught up with them during a recent concert in Berlin and files this report.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOHRA ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL)

SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE³: There's a brief hiccup⁴ as the young Afghan women in brightly colored headscarves and dresses rehearse before their concert is to begin here at a landmark⁵ church in the German capitol.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Speaking Dari).

AHMAD SARMAST: (Speaking Dari).

NELSON: One performer complains to orchestra founder⁶ Ahmad Sarmast that there isn't enough room to play. He waves at the others to scoot over and give her more space.

SARMAST: (Speaking Dari).

NELSON: "From the top, girls," he says, and they oblige.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOHRA ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL)

NELSON: The conductor for this piece is 18-year-old Zarifa Adiba. She moves her arms as gracefully⁷ as a ballerina.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOHRA ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL)

NELSON: The girls and young women, ages 14 to 20, play traditional Afghan instruments like the rubab, similar to a lute⁸, and the drum-like tabla as well as Western instruments like the piano and oboe. Adiba, for example, is not only a conductor but a violist. She was born in the Taliban-rife Ghazni province where girls are often forced to marry when they are still children, but Adiba had bigger ambitions.

ZARIFA ADIBA: The thing that I loved was music from my childhood. And my mother is a great supporter of me, and she told me that what you love, go ahead and find out. I had a kind of view about pop singing, rock singing, and I wanted to be a pop singer actually.

NELSON: But then she enrolled⁹ at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul and discovered girls could play instruments. The school was started by Sarmast, who had moved back to his native Afghanistan from Australia after the Taliban were driven from power. His goal, which almost cost him his life in a suicide attack two years ago, is to create a new generation of Afghan musicians to bring back their country's musical tradition and infuse it with Western ones. On this night, for example, the female orchestra performs Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOHRA ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF BEETHOVEN'S NINTH SYMPHONY)

NELSON: Sarmast says his quest for diversity is not only musical, but of gender¹⁰. That isn't always popular in Afghanistan's ultra-conservative society that is strictly¹¹ segregated¹² by sex.

SARMAST: But that situation cannot continue forever, and Afghanistan should move in the same path that every other nation goes. And the girls and the women of Afghanistan should also enjoy the freedom that other girls and women are enjoying outside Afghanistan.

NELSON: All of which appeals to Adiba, who managed to get into the school even though she was a ninth-grader and the cut-off is usually fourth grade. She says she loved playing in Europe this month, but is eager to go home, especially after learning that an uncle who disapproved¹³ of her playing recently told her mother how proud he is of his niece.

ADIBA: I'm happy that at least I changed my family, and these all girls who are in the orchestra, they are going to change their family. And their family - when their family is going to change, you can have a society which is changed.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOHRA ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE)

NELSON: The group's last European and performance is tonight in the eastern German city of Weimar. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Berlin.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOHRA ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE)

1 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

2 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 hiccup   

n.打嗝

参考例句：

• When you have to hiccup,drink a glass of cold water.当你不得不打嗝时，喝一杯冷水就好了。
• How long did he hiccup?他打嗝打了多久？

5 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 gracefully   

ad.大大方方地；优美地

参考例句：

• She sank gracefully down onto a cushion at his feet. 她优雅地坐到他脚旁的垫子上。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line. 新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

8 lute   

n.琵琶，鲁特琴

参考例句：

• He idly plucked the strings of the lute.他漫不经心地拨弄着鲁特琴的琴弦。
• He knows how to play the Chinese lute.他会弹琵琶。

9 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

11 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

12 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

13 disapproved   

v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My parents disapproved of my marriage. 我父母不赞成我的婚事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She disapproved of her son's indiscriminate television viewing. 她不赞成儿子不加选择地收看电视。 来自《简明英汉词典》