Speaker 1: Let me tell you a little something about Afghan music.
Speaker 1: Back in the day. It was mainly classical and folk tunes,
Speaker 1: influenced by traditional music from places like India and Persia.
Speaker 1: It was poetic and romantic. You know what you need
Speaker 1: to hear it? Can I get some percussion? I'm thinking tabla.
Speaker 1: Now give me a little down, down, down, down on
Speaker 1: the rhubarb. Yeah, that's it. Now layer in some harmonium. Ooh,
Speaker 1: that's sweet. So music sounded like that for a while,
Speaker 1: but then this guy came along and he started mixing
Speaker 1: it up. His name was Akhmad Sayer and he came
Speaker 1: from a prestigious Afghan family, the son of a prime minister.
Speaker 1: So music that wasn't supposed to be his career path
Speaker 1: shoved off, but Akhmad Zahir didn't care. He rocked a
Speaker 1: pompadour and sideburns. He traveled the world seeking out musicians.
Speaker 1: He met saxophonists and trumpeters. He learned to play accordion.
Speaker 1: He listened to rock and jazz and flamenco, and he
Speaker 1: started to write songs that were like mad mashups of
Speaker 1: different genres.
Speaker 2: Indian raga and Western pop, folk and rock, jazz and poetry.
Speaker 1: He sang in Dari and Pashto and Russian and Urdu
Speaker 1: and even English, and the more people heard Akmanzayre's music,
Speaker 1: the more they fell in love. Women with Jane Fonda hairstyles,
Speaker 1: dangly earrings and mini skirts would shimmy and twist, and
Speaker 1: he sold out concerts. People would line up outside record
Speaker 1: stores to hear his latest release. Kabul in the seventies
Speaker 1: was Akman Zahir's city, and he became known as something else.
Speaker 1: The sideburns, the leather jacket he transformed into the Afghan elvis.
Speaker 1: And then in nineteen seventy nine, on his thirty third birthday,
Speaker 1: Zahir died. He got into a car crash. Mini and
Speaker 1: Afghanistan think he was murdered, murdered by the newly installed
Speaker 1: Soviet backed government who did not appreciate his songs about freedom,
Speaker 1: his vision of the future. And on this tragic night,
Speaker 1: instead of fans flooding the street to celebrate their idol's birthday,
Speaker 1: they marched through the city carrying his body. But Afghans
Speaker 1: never stopped listening. Even years later under the Taliban, when
Speaker 1: music it had been outlawed by the religious police, people
Speaker 1: would gather together in secret rooms and dance to Akhmad
Speaker 1: Zahir's music, Dance with their shirts sticking to their bodies,
Speaker 1: Dance as if the only thing that mattered at that
Speaker 1: moment was dancing. And although Akhmed Zahir would never know it,
Speaker 1: he became a beacon, an inspiration to a new generation
Speaker 1: of Afghans, a spark that lived inside them that could
Speaker 1: not be extinguished, however hard the Taliban try. I'm John Legend,
Speaker 1: I'm from Kaleidoscope, and iHeart podcasts. This is Afghan Stock.
Speaker 1: Previously Daoud Sidiki is hired to produce a show unlike
Speaker 1: any Afghanistan has ever seen. It's a nationwide singing competition
Speaker 1: for Afghans.
Speaker 3: I'm so thirsty and so angry and so exhausted that
Speaker 3: I can't think about anything.
Speaker 1: He works day and night to get the show on air,
Speaker 1: convincing judges to take part and traveling all around the
Speaker 1: country to audition singers Zindigiicasafer, But he has no idea
Speaker 1: if the public is ready for something like this, if
Speaker 1: they'll be outraged or excited. Because it was just a
Speaker 1: few years ago, making a show like Afghan Star could
Speaker 1: get you killed. Chapter one Cinema Paradiso.
Speaker 4: Un.
Speaker 1: Daoud Sidiki, the man who is the host and producer
Speaker 1: of Afghan Star, sits alone in his home office in America.
Speaker 1: He often pulls an Akhma Zahir cassette and slots it
Speaker 1: into the player on his desk models for hours, he
Speaker 1: just sits and listens and thinks of his old life
Speaker 1: in Kabble.
Speaker 4: By card.
Speaker 5: Zitch And.
Speaker 1: As a kid, Daoud was obsessed with music and movies.
Speaker 1: He would spend all day either listening to tapes or
Speaker 1: glued to the screen.
Speaker 3: The vcor was kind of a magical box fermit.
Speaker 1: Daoud tore through every record and VHS tape in his
Speaker 1: family's collection multiple times. But when he wasn't watching or
Speaker 1: rewatching videos, you could find him at the local cinema.
Speaker 1: He remembers the short walk from his house, the bustling shops,
Speaker 1: the neighbors who would wave or get give him a
Speaker 1: little pat on the back, and he remembers the cinema itself,
Speaker 1: big windows, heavy curtains, and ice cream shop next door.
Speaker 1: It's his favorite place in the world. With his feet
Speaker 1: barely touching the floor, this is where Daoud would see
Speaker 1: his first Bollywood movie, Captivated for three straight hours by
Speaker 1: the colorful saris and plot twists and perfectly choreographed dance numbers,
Speaker 1: and in years that followed, each time he emerged from
Speaker 1: that little cinema, he'd been.
Speaker 3: I grew up watching lots of Bollywood movies and I
Speaker 3: loved him. I love Amitabachan movies. I love like Metan
Speaker 3: Chickut renting movies big stars, and we will talk about
Speaker 3: it for the entire week, maybe monson, we will buy
Speaker 3: the music and go and buy the posters and find
Speaker 3: the clothes and style. And still sometimes I believe like
Speaker 3: I kind of imagine myself as a Bollywood actor, or
Speaker 3: I hear it in a movie.
Speaker 1: So that's Daoud's cobo. It's Bollywood have sensed. But it
Speaker 1: isn't just Hindi music that fills his memories. To hear
Speaker 1: Daoud tell it, afternoons were scored by harmoniums wafting from
Speaker 1: the playground, kids played drums in the streets. Open shop
Speaker 1: windows piped the sounds of the Afghan elvis to the
Speaker 1: delight of passers by. But it isn't long before those
Speaker 1: magical sounds that Daoud loves so much are replaced.
Speaker 3: When the bullets camped. It has a very interesting sounding
Speaker 3: zip zip zip zip.
Speaker 1: By the time Daoud is in his early teens, he's
Speaker 1: grown accustomed to falling asleep to the sound of bullets
Speaker 1: being sprayed into the night, the sounds of civil war.
Speaker 3: The war was a kind of a jungle low war.
Speaker 1: In the nineties, war had broken out between groups of
Speaker 1: rebel fighters called the Mujahideen.
Speaker 3: These are the mujah Hadeen, the fighters of the Jihad,
Speaker 3: the Muslim Holy War.
Speaker 6: They are men of faith of Islam.
Speaker 1: The Mujahadeen was made up of regular people who rose
Speaker 1: up to defend their country against a Soviet invasion.
Speaker 3: Of Soviet bloodshed and battle into five minutes ahead of
Speaker 3: schedule as the Soviet army completed its retreat.
Speaker 1: But then the Mujahideen fighters turned on each other.
Speaker 3: Early this morning, the airport was shelved.
Speaker 1: Throughout the day, heavy artillery thundered in the hills around Kabo,
Speaker 1: and the streets descended into a battlefield.
Speaker 3: Kobl was not a safe place to live. You will
Speaker 3: be killed very easily. Just someone will come and should you.
Speaker 1: Some shops have reopened today, however, most people are staying
Speaker 1: off the streets, saying it's still too dangerous to leave home.
Speaker 3: Even that is risky.
Speaker 5: Many rockets are landing in residential neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: Families across Kable were terrified. They couldn't lead their homes
Speaker 1: for fear of getting caught in the crossfire. So anyone
Speaker 1: with means moved to a different part of the city,
Speaker 1: trying to outrun the fighting. But as Daoud's family quickly discovered,
Speaker 1: the war was always right behind them them.
Speaker 3: No one is talking. There's no conversation that house. Even
Speaker 3: the kids were quite. Everyone was quite. This quietness was
Speaker 3: kind of a hardest time of my life.
Speaker 1: The days are long, no one really talks. Plus there's
Speaker 1: nothing more to talk about. A silence fills the house.
Speaker 1: Thou doesn't have much to keep him occupied, so most
Speaker 1: days he sits by a small window in the attic alone.
Speaker 1: From the right angle, he can just about see into
Speaker 1: his favorite cinema, the chairs, the curtains. It feels so
Speaker 1: close he could just about touch it.
Speaker 3: I was watching the sward from the small window. That
Speaker 3: rocket came from the mountain. I can see this rocket
Speaker 3: with like a fire behind it. He came and hit
Speaker 3: the cinema.
Speaker 1: Daoud leaps forward to get a better look. His forehead
Speaker 1: pressed hard against the window, his breath fogging up the.
Speaker 3: Glass, and I saw the inside the window. There fire started.
Speaker 3: Maybe if it gets the curtains, it will destroy the
Speaker 3: entire cinema. Sits paralyzed, and I'm watching, just watching my
Speaker 3: memories the city. The seat that I grew up. The
Speaker 3: cinema was kind of an image that I can't forget
Speaker 3: that I always in my heart. Leg It was kind
Speaker 3: of symbol of art, music, cinema. Just it was so
Speaker 3: painful to see my past life was destroyed in front
Speaker 3: of my eyes.
Speaker 1: Chapter two, Angels of Peace. It's nineteen ninety six and
Speaker 1: Cabo has suffered years of civil war. To Doude, everything
Speaker 1: feels lost. His home has been destroyed by rockets, his
Speaker 1: town reduced to rubble. And that's when a group of
Speaker 1: people come barreling down the dusty streets.
Speaker 3: People called Toliban Angels of Peace.
Speaker 1: Taliban means students in Pashta, and its members are quite
Speaker 1: literally students from traditional religious.
Speaker 6: Schools, Muslim seminarists trained in the madrasas the Kuranic Institute
Speaker 6: of Western Pakistan.
Speaker 1: Formed in Kandahar. The Taliban resisted the Mujahideen and took control.
Speaker 6: After sweeping across the country. The Taliban now controlled three
Speaker 6: quarters of Afghanistan and have long claimed to be the
Speaker 6: only force to bring stability to a country to rent
Speaker 6: asunder by factional fighting.
Speaker 1: And now here they are wearing white and wielding white flags.
Speaker 1: Come to save Kabu.
Speaker 5: Taliban militia moved into the city shortly after one o'clock
Speaker 5: this morning. They just swept into the city. Most government
Speaker 5: soldiers and commanders led to the north.
Speaker 3: People were so happy. Oh my god, Western forgot I've
Speaker 3: one son.
Speaker 1: The Taliban promised to restore peace and law and to
Speaker 1: rid the city of corruption and crime.
Speaker 4: So people are incredibly tired and they want and into
Speaker 4: the fighting. I've talked to dozens of people so far
Speaker 4: today on the street, and they just keep saying, maybe
Speaker 4: this seems is an end to the fighting.
Speaker 1: Like so many people in the region, Daoud is overjoyed.
Speaker 1: He's just finished school and can finally go back to
Speaker 1: being a teenager obsessing over how to style his hair
Speaker 1: and what to study at university, and for a while,
Speaker 1: life actually feels normal. Dawoud's family has food on the table.
Speaker 1: They aren't dodging bullets or cowering in the basement, and
Speaker 1: everyone is obsessed with a new movie called Titanic. There
Speaker 1: are Titanic shaped wedding cakes on sale gum package with
Speaker 1: photos of the movie on it, and long lines of
Speaker 1: boys wanting a floppy haircut like Leonardo DiCaprio trailing out
Speaker 1: of barbershop doors. Everyone loves Leo, but Daoud quickly realizes
Speaker 1: that these angels of peace aren't quite what they see.
Speaker 3: What tollibuns bring with them pure religious fanaticism.
Speaker 1: They execute the former president the.
Speaker 4: Haltim out of the un compound and to the Presidential Palace,
Speaker 4: and he was beaten and there were several bullets booths.
Speaker 5: To his lower body.
Speaker 1: They bring in their own leader and before long they
Speaker 1: remodel the country around their own interpretation of Islam.
Speaker 3: They say, you need to have a long here, very
Speaker 3: long or very sharp. This is a two wist.
Speaker 1: They don't want any fancy hairstyles, no fades, no perms,
Speaker 1: no pompadoors, and absolutely no Leonardo DiCaprio cuts.
Speaker 3: You need to have a long beer, traditional clothes.
Speaker 1: They start banning everything fun kite flying, pigeon racing, dancing.
Speaker 1: Before long, Daoud's sisters are pulled out of school because
Speaker 1: women are no longer allowed access to an education. They
Speaker 1: can't even go outside without a male chaperone. And then
Speaker 1: Daoud hears the latest band. The Taliban declares.
Speaker 3: No TV, no music, no sound.
Speaker 1: Daoud feels like all the air has been knocked out
Speaker 1: of him. He realizes this means no more Afghan Elvis,
Speaker 1: no more Bollywood movies. The music which once was his
Speaker 1: lifeblood has been replaced by the constant drone of Taliban chants,
Speaker 1: hymns in praise of the Taliban's leaders and cars. To Daude,
Speaker 1: this band feels heavy, stifling.
Speaker 7: Talibhasan Kisu the shy Fuckermani bestudo sada sunny sunny dena sound.
Speaker 1: Daoud watches as the Taliban set up checkpoints to stop
Speaker 1: cars and carry out inspections.
Speaker 3: They will come and check the dash forth you have
Speaker 3: a tip, and if they do, they will beat the
Speaker 3: driver or the passenger in the car.
Speaker 1: And then they'll confiscate the cassette, unspool the black tape
Speaker 1: and string it up like Christmas lights for all to see.
Speaker 3: Music instruments like guitar, tabla, roubaub TVs VCRs, they will
Speaker 3: break them and hang them above their checkpoint.
Speaker 1: Anything that produces sound or provides entertainment is gutted and
Speaker 1: hung from trees by its internal wiring.
Speaker 3: That was kind of a symbol of their achievement.
Speaker 1: Daoude keeps his head down, terrified of bumping into the
Speaker 1: Taliban in the street and being assaulted. He spends most
Speaker 1: days studying for his medical degree at university and then
Speaker 1: going straight home as fast as he can, until one
Speaker 1: day when he sees a crowd in the middle of
Speaker 1: the square.
Speaker 3: I was coming from the university and everyone is watching
Speaker 3: up happening in the sky.
Speaker 1: He weaves his way through, trying to get a peek.
Speaker 1: The people around him are muttering to each other, their
Speaker 1: necks extended, trying to get a better view.
Speaker 3: I'm also watching the sky. I tried to find what's
Speaker 3: going on. I can't see anything. Then I realized, oh
Speaker 3: my god, people are watching something hanging.
Speaker 1: THOU can't quite figure out what he's looking at.
Speaker 3: I just saw a glimpse of it.
Speaker 1: He squints a little harder, and then his stomach twists.
Speaker 3: Feets and hands are hanging. Catted feets and hands. Maybe
Speaker 3: I watched it for five or ten seconds, and then
Speaker 3: I left.
Speaker 1: The image of the severed limbs is etched into Daoud's brain.
Speaker 1: It's a warning to him of what can happen if
Speaker 1: someone tries to break the rules. Fundamentalist groups like the
Speaker 1: Taliban will give a load of reasons why they bring
Speaker 1: in bands like these bands on television and blue jeans
Speaker 1: and music. I've seen something like it myself. When I
Speaker 1: was a kid, I wasn't allowed to listen to secular
Speaker 1: music for a time because it was considered to be
Speaker 1: the devil's music by the Pentecostal church I belong to.
Speaker 1: They wanted us to be different, distinct, sanctified. The generous
Speaker 1: interpretation is that they want you to be holy. But really,
Speaker 1: I think all of these fundamentalist religious groups recognize how
Speaker 1: powerful music can be, and it might scare them a little.
Speaker 1: It's all about control, controlling the information you get, controlling
Speaker 1: how you express yourself, because they don't want to lose
Speaker 1: you to the world. In Kabbo, Daoud watches as the
Speaker 1: Taliban set up checkpoints to stop cars and carry out inspections.
Speaker 1: When Daoud gets home, he sees his neighbors getting ahead
Speaker 1: of any suspicion, showing that they are following the Taliban.
Speaker 3: Code, they destroyed and burned their own media stuff in
Speaker 3: front of the people.
Speaker 1: The fire crackles as it devours cassette tapes and violins,
Speaker 1: watches as everything melts, the smell stinging in his nostrils.
Speaker 4: Liked.
Speaker 3: They just get rid of them. We cannot take this risk,
Speaker 3: And some families put them under the ground, or some
Speaker 3: there that no one can find them.
Speaker 1: The ground becomes a graveyard of Afghan culture. Everything that
Speaker 1: Daoud loves most is buried six feet under radios, TVs, vhs, tapes, cassettes,
Speaker 1: all covered in dirt and purged from their owner's minds.
Speaker 1: But Daoud, he isn't interested in bearing his identity. He's
Speaker 1: got a plan. Hey, it's John Legend. If you've been listening,
Speaker 1: you already know that Afghan Star is a tale of
Speaker 1: resistance and hope. For fifteen years, Afghan Star was a beacon,
Speaker 1: But when the Taliban returned to power, they shut the
Speaker 1: show down along with so many Afghan rights. They band
Speaker 1: music education for girls and women, and they continue to
Speaker 1: clamp down on everyone's freedoms. But there are ways to
Speaker 1: show your support. We've teamed up with a WA Studios
Speaker 1: and their incredible graphic artists to illustrate some of the
Speaker 1: most extraordinary moments in this podcast. There is a unique
Speaker 1: print for each episode, bringing to life powerful moments that
Speaker 1: are moving and inspiring. And there's an unforgettable print based
Speaker 1: on a painting from superstar artist Raza that represents the
Speaker 1: spirit of hope embodied by the show. Art and music
Speaker 1: have the power to uplift us all, and ordering a
Speaker 1: work for yourself or as a gift help support Afghans.
Speaker 1: With every purchase, we'll be donating to the Nore Initiative,
Speaker 1: a nonprofit working to ensure that every Afghan girl has
Speaker 1: access to education and opportunity. For more information on our
Speaker 1: collaboration with AWA, the artworks available to listeners, and to
Speaker 1: learn more about the Nore Initiative's efforts to educate, support
Speaker 1: independent media, and transform lives across the region, head to
Speaker 1: the link in our show notes below. Chapter three the
Speaker 1: Rebels Handbook, How to Get Away with Music and Movies
Speaker 1: Under the Taliban. It's a cultural wasteland out here. If
Speaker 1: you miss flying kites and blasting music until three am,
Speaker 1: like da who does? This is how you do it
Speaker 1: without being killed or tortured. One get a group of
Speaker 1: friends together. Friends you can trust, rebels who want to
Speaker 1: party and find a secret clubhouse.
Speaker 3: We have this area in Kabul called Mcruraean. There are
Speaker 3: apartment buildings six floor, seventh floor, eighth floor.
Speaker 1: A lot of these apartments are empty since residents fled
Speaker 1: the country to escape the Mujaiden, So it's a good
Speaker 1: spot for a clubhouse. Plus, the apartments are so high
Speaker 1: up that you can blast music without fear of getting caught.
Speaker 3: I listened to live music a lot. I partied a lot.
Speaker 3: We went to this building and we were have live music.
Speaker 3: We have preparing a food for us. That was party.
Speaker 3: How if I tell you that I listened to more
Speaker 3: live music during the Taller One than my entire life,
Speaker 3: you will laugh.
Speaker 1: Step two, make friends with a smuggler. If you love movies,
Speaker 1: you're gonna need a guy on the inside. You can't
Speaker 1: just go out and buy VHS tapes from the store.
Speaker 3: People were bringing it from Boston, mostly moving a VC
Speaker 3: or moving a TV. It was kind of like you
Speaker 3: moving a truck full of drugs in the United States.
Speaker 3: That's how hard it was.
Speaker 1: Dawood's friends put him onto a smuggler. They tell him.
Speaker 3: Here's a house you need to go to the evening times.
Speaker 3: Knock the door. Special v you have had like secret
Speaker 3: word password correct.
Speaker 1: Go into the smuggler's house and shut the door behind you.
Speaker 1: He'll give you the movie.
Speaker 3: You put the cassette behind your belt, put the shirt
Speaker 3: about it, give the guy the money.
Speaker 1: You might think that's the hardest part of the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Well you'd be wrong. What comes next is the hard part.
Speaker 1: You need to get home without being caught by the Taliban.
Speaker 3: These VCR tapes were so big, and when you walk,
Speaker 3: it has some purses, makes noise.
Speaker 1: Tighten your belt around the tape. You don't want it
Speaker 1: to slip out. It's going to make a sound every
Speaker 1: time you take a step. Walk fast, but not too fast.
Speaker 1: You don't want to look like you're in a hurry
Speaker 1: to get somewhere. If a member of the Taliban spots
Speaker 1: you run step three infiltrate the smuggler network. Daoud is
Speaker 1: an electronics guy, and the Resistance needs more of them.
Speaker 1: Daud has been fixing stuff since he was in high school,
Speaker 1: and since the Taliban have been destroying TV antennas and
Speaker 1: VCRs always break. Having a guy like him around is
Speaker 1: pretty handy. The smuggler hooks Daoud up with his customers,
Speaker 1: and just like that, he's got a thriving business.
Speaker 3: We have our own style of doing business, like how
Speaker 3: what times you should come, how you should come.
Speaker 1: You need to give your clients a cover story just
Speaker 1: in case they're questioned by the Taliban.
Speaker 3: You should just know my name of my father, my brother,
Speaker 3: and if someone comes, you should say this, yea is
Speaker 3: my relative. I'm coming to my reltive house. It's not
Speaker 3: a big deal or something like. This was the situation,
Speaker 3: like it was so scary, honestly.
Speaker 1: Step four, Stay cool. Things are gonna get hairy. Like
Speaker 1: one day you might be in your repair then surrounded
Speaker 1: by BCRs and broken cassettes and you hear a pounding
Speaker 1: at the door. Don't panic, Oh.
Speaker 3: My god, there's no time for me to clean up
Speaker 3: this mess. It's no time, just impossible. When this happened,
Speaker 3: I went to a shock. I don't know what to
Speaker 3: do and what happened to me? Now I imagine O come
Speaker 3: and take me, destroy everything but me and the jail
Speaker 3: kill me. What happened? I'm thinking about this second time.
Speaker 3: The door is kind of like crazy knocking. I'm lost.
Speaker 3: I am here. I accepted the consequence of my work
Speaker 3: and said, I can't move even I can move, run put,
Speaker 3: go to the neighbor house, something, do something, run at least,
Speaker 3: but I can't do it.
Speaker 1: So that would sit ready to accept this. Paid the handcuffs,
Speaker 1: the lashes, all of it. But when the door opens,
Speaker 1: he hears giggling. It's not the Taliban, it's his kid nephews.
Speaker 3: You're so eager to come to our house. Both of
Speaker 3: them with hand them and foot. They are knocking out
Speaker 3: our door. Oh my god. When my haird this sack,
Speaker 3: I became with my own switch, and I said for
Speaker 3: thirty minutes without.
Speaker 1: Moving like I said, don't panic. Chapter four Freedom. It's
Speaker 1: November two thousand and one, six am. The food is
Speaker 1: startled by the commotion outside. It's music. Someone is playing
Speaker 1: music in the street. No one has played music in
Speaker 1: the streets for five years. Daoud rips the covers off,
Speaker 1: gets dressed, and practically tumbles down the stairs to see
Speaker 1: where the noise is coming from.
Speaker 3: They had this big giant cars with the big speakers,
Speaker 3: high quality speakers.
Speaker 1: People are hanging out of their car windows blasting tunes
Speaker 1: while they drive through the city music daoud used to
Speaker 1: listen to in secret alone.
Speaker 3: Lots of people on the street. People are celebrating your
Speaker 3: music are loud. Some people are shaving their beards, They're
Speaker 3: making their rear styles.
Speaker 1: Daoude feels disoriented. It's like he's woken up in a
Speaker 1: different country. What on earth is going on? Where are
Speaker 1: the Taliban?
Speaker 3: I see some people with jeans. Most of the restaurants
Speaker 3: and story are playing loud music.
Speaker 1: He walks around in a daze. Speakers are hooked up
Speaker 1: in the streets competing for attention. Radio sit proudly on
Speaker 1: window ledges.
Speaker 3: I was enjoying going outside, cobble and see the city
Speaker 3: that was coming back to life.
Speaker 1: And that's when he figures out what's happening. They're gone,
Speaker 1: the Taliban are gone. And only if I'm gon sing
Speaker 1: in the city last night, last night, this is God
Speaker 1: no problems. And if the Taliban are really gone, if
Speaker 1: they've really fled like everyone says, then it's finally safe
Speaker 1: to do the thing he's been waiting to do.
Speaker 3: I tried to shave my there, but I didn't know
Speaker 3: how to do it.
Speaker 1: He runs straight home and grabs a razor. Daoud was
Speaker 1: only a kid when the Taliban came to power with
Speaker 1: barely a few whiskers on his chin, and ever since
Speaker 1: he's been forced to grow out his beard. But now
Speaker 1: he can finally shave it off. The only problem is
Speaker 1: he's never learned how to work a razor. I mean,
Speaker 1: dud could line up at the local barbershop, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't have the patience for that. So he stands in
Speaker 1: front of the mirror, razor in hand and starts running
Speaker 1: it all over his face.
Speaker 3: And I like, cut it my face so many visa
Speaker 3: when I went outside, my friends were laughing at me.
Speaker 3: What you did to your face? Oh my god, why
Speaker 3: you're not going to a barber shop or sambia or
Speaker 3: what you did to your face? You just almost killed yourself.
Speaker 1: But Doud doesn't care. He just wants to walk around
Speaker 1: and drink in the sounds of freedom. The chatter in
Speaker 1: the barbershop lives, the laughter and squeals as friends reunite
Speaker 1: in the street, the shouts of parents as their kids
Speaker 1: run off into the playground to play again. Daoud is
Speaker 1: reveling in it all, a huge smile plastered across his face.
Speaker 1: He closes his eyes and lets the music lead him
Speaker 1: down the street.
Speaker 3: People are running toward freedom.
Speaker 1: In the absence of the Taliban, music seeps through. Before
Speaker 1: long there will be concerts and radio shows. And yes,
Speaker 1: Afghan Star Kabbo is on the cusp of a culture
Speaker 1: revolution and Daou doesn't know it yet, but he'll be
Speaker 1: the face of that revolution. He'll change the country.
Speaker 3: Yesterday I was driving in the streets and no one
Speaker 3: noticed me. But today everyone is talking about my show
Speaker 3: and me, and they even recognized me.
Speaker 1: But he'll also put the lives of everyone he knows
Speaker 1: at risk. The bomb was placed in a taxi which
Speaker 1: then crashed into the minibus. Definitely this bomb, that's next
Speaker 1: time on Afghan Star. Afghan Star is a Kaleidoscope production
Speaker 1: in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts, produced by Thomas d Audio
Speaker 1: and hosted by me John Legend from samas dot Audio.
Speaker 1: The series producer is Mira Kumar. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Joe Sikes and Dasha Lissitsina. Mix and sound designed by
Speaker 1: Jeff Imptman, story editing by Joe Sikes, with original composition
Speaker 1: by Kyle Murdoch, Recording engineer Tim McClain. Chapter artwork by
Speaker 1: A w A Studios from Kaleidoscope, The executive producers are
Speaker 1: Kate Osborne, Mengesh hatikadur Oz Volisian and Costas Linos. From iHeart,
Speaker 1: the executive producers are Ali Perry and Katrina Norvel. Social
Speaker 1: Media by Darra Patts and by Heiney Shorey. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to Tom Freston, Lizzie Jacobs, Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman, Niki Etore,
Speaker 1: Bob Pittman, John Saik, conn O Byrne Sad Mosenni and
Speaker 1: the Mossenne Family Matthew Anderson and Axe Alonzo