Islamabad, Pakistan – On a nice February afternoon in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, the sound of strumming guitars fills a small bed room in a two-storey house that homes tenants from neighbouring Afghanistan.
A flight of slippery marble stairs results in the room on the primary ground, the place the brilliant rays of the solar enter by way of the window and bounce off the musical devices, which belong to 4 younger guitarists.
These guitarists – 18-year-old Yasemin aka Jellybean, 16-year-old Zakia, 14-year-old Shukriya, and seven-year-old Uzra – are Afghan refugees who, with their households, fled the nation after the Taliban returned to energy in August 2021.
Yasemin and Uzra are sisters, as are Zakiya and Shukriya. That is the place Yasemin and Uzra are actually dwelling with their household.
The bed room is the place the women spend hours at a stretch working towards and jamming from Saturday to Thursday. Friday is their weekly break day.
On the day Al Jazeera visits, the women are busy tuning their guitars. They tease each other as they strum squeaky, off-key chords in between.
Wearing a gray sweatshirt, her head coated with a black scarf, Yasemin is the group’s lead guitarist and a fan of Blues legend BB King and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. “I actually wish to see and produce music with him,” says Yasemin on her dream to satisfy Gilmour, earlier than crooning a monitor by King.
As she tunes her sturdy wood guitar along with her reliable pink choose, Yasemin turns in the direction of her bandmates and guides them in adjusting theirs.
The ladies discovered to play the guitar at Miraculous Love Youngsters, a music college for youngsters in Kabul arrange in 2016 by Lanny Cordola, a rock musician from California. The ladies, whose first language is Dari, additionally discovered to talk primary English from Cordola in Kabul, the place they attended common college as properly.
Their world was turned the wrong way up when the Taliban re-took energy on August 15, 2021, after 20 years. The ladies have been afraid to step outdoors their properties following a spate of restrictions imposed on ladies. Cordola, who left Kabul for Islamabad the day the Taliban returned to energy, started hatching plans to pluck his college students and their households out of Afghanistan so the women may proceed to pursue their music goals.
After months of lobbying donors for funding and negotiating with brokers who promised to assist the households escape, Cordola lastly managed to get seven of his college students out, to Islamabad, in April 2022. Whilst he continued to show them there, Cordola labored in the direction of finally resettling them and their households in the US, which had introduced a programme to soak up Afghan allies and refugees who needed to flee Taliban rule.
Three of the seven women have been relocated to the US over the previous few months. Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra – and their households – have been alleged to fly on February 5.
“It felt like we had all the pieces in place. They [the US government] did all their medical checks, vetting, screening and interviews. We had the date,” says Cordola.
Then Donald Trump took workplace.
Virtually instantly, Trump issued a sequence of government orders, together with one which suspended all refugee programmes for 90 days. “Now, it’s all new once more,” Cordola says, including that the “devastating” transfer has postponed the relocation plans “indefinitely”.
However issues would get even worse.
On March 7, the Pakistani authorities introduced its personal plans to deport all Afghan nationals, even these with correct documentation, again to their nation by June 30.
For these Afghan refugees hoping to relocate to a Western nation – like Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra – the deadline to depart Pakistan is much more imminent: Islamabad has stated it should start deporting them on April 1.
‘Lady with a guitar’
To collect at Yasemin and Uzra’s home for apply, Cordola picks Zakia and Shukirya up in a van from their house just a few blocks away.
“We practise for about three to 4 hours,” says Cordola.
In a floral lilac gown and a white headband, Zakia’s slender fingers hit the chords on her guitar, which bears her preliminary, Z. She faucets her toes to match the rhythm – Chris Martin of Coldplay is her favorite musician.
Her youthful sister, Shukriya, sporting a double braid with two strands of hair resting on her rosy cheeks, is keen on American musician Dave Matthews, but in addition has a mushy spot for South Korean band BTS and its singer, RM.
“RM is my favorite. I like his dancing and rapping… it’s lovely,” says Shukriya, as her trainer, Cordola, shakes his head in disbelief – and mild disapproval.
Uzra, Yasemin’s youthful sister, wears a lime-coloured sport watch on her left wrist, a sequinned teddy bear sweatshirt and black, patterned trousers, as she grips her smaller guitar. She struggles to climb on to the chair, then breaks into mushy, husky vocals. “She is a traditional seven-year-old in numerous methods. However when she is within the studio, she could be very, very centered. I can’t joke along with her when she is in there,” says Cordola about his youngest scholar.
Then Cordola joins them within the jam session, strumming his black guitar. The ladies nod in tandem and break into “Lady with a Guitar”, their very own unique, instrumental music.
Observe ends at 1pm, and the women go about the remainder of their day – having lunch, praying, serving to their moms with chores and spending time with their households.
Uzra, Yasemin says, is mates with the neighbours’ baby, and all the time finds methods to step out of the home to play along with her. Virtually on cue, the little guitarist dashes out of the room.
Turning ‘Unstoppable’
On days when the women handle to search out some leisure time for themselves whereas the solar continues to be out, they and their siblings go to Islamabad’s parks and amusement areas with their trainer.
Cordola picks them up in his white Suzuki excessive roof, they usually head out to the favored picnic spot Daman-e-Koh within the Margalla Hills or a vacationer favorite, Pakistan Monument on the Shakarparian Hills.
The inexperienced F-9 Park can also be a favorite. There, Zakia sits on its contemporary, dewy grass whereas Uzra enjoys swaying back and forth on the swings. Shukriya is dreaming of visiting a close-by meals road, the place she’s hoping for a deal with – pani puri, soup, ice cream and the traditional samosa. Yasemin says she’s a fan of rice and loves consuming daal chawal (lentils with rice). To Zakia, rooster biryani and pani puri are one of the best meals that Pakistan has to supply.
However music is what makes the women happiest – and is what made it potential for them to attach with a number of Grammy-nominated Australian singer and songwriter Sia.
After they recorded a rendition of her feminine empowerment anthem, Unstoppable, in 2024, the Aussie vocalist despatched the women a particular message praising their expertise.
“Thanks a lot for singing ‘Unstoppable’ and in your help. I like you a lot. I like you a lot. I actually really feel for what you’re going by way of,” she stated in a video message to the women.
The video of Sia’s monitor is shot with the women singing in opposition to the backdrop of lush inexperienced parks and atop the Shakarparian Hills. The music was recorded on the studio of Pakistani report producer Sarmad Ghafoor, a good friend of Cordola’s. The music was launched on March 18.
On the time they recorded the music, three women from Cordola’s Kabul college who’ve now moved to the US have been additionally with Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra in Islamabad.
“We needed to change our costumes in between the shoot and it was difficult to do it on the areas, however we managed to do it by protecting up for one another and in addition having enjoyable the entire time,” recollects Shukriya.
When Sia reacted to their efficiency in a video message for them, the women couldn’t imagine it.
“She is somebody who didn’t must make a video for us, however she did. She is a very type and inspirational lady,” says Yasemin. “She spoke along with her coronary heart and gave us numerous hope. Generally we lose hope and assume that we received’t have the ability to do what we wish to do in life. However her highly effective phrases actually impressed and motivated us.”
Promoting sweet to strumming a guitar
Nothing about Yasemin’s life in the present day resembles what it did seven years in the past, when she first met Cordola.
At his college, Cordola “needed to concentrate on women’ training and rights”, he says. “It’s training by way of the humanities.” He satisfied the mother and father of a number of youngsters who labored on the streets, particularly these of ladies, to permit them at his music college.
He first met Yasemin at a park the place she offered sweet and chewing gum, whereas her father washed automobiles close by.
“I used to be 11 years outdated after I first met Mr Lanny in 2017,” Yasemin recollects. “I first noticed Mr Lanny within the park with numerous youngsters. On the time, I didn’t speak to him as a result of I used to be very shy and in addition afraid of seeing folks gathered in a single place. The concern of an explosion in such an area was all the time in my thoughts.”
Ultimately, Cordola reached out to her by way of one other woman, gave her 150 Afghanis ($2.11) and requested her to go to the music college along with her father. “I used to be hesitant at first, however a good friend named Yalda was already going to the college, so I went to Miraculous along with her. Once I held the guitar for the primary time there, it felt zabardast (superior),” she recollects.
Yasemin’s father initially didn’t need her to hitch the music college, frightened about how it might be considered within the conservative Afghan society. “However later when he bought accustomed to Mr Lanny, he agreed to it,” she says.
Cordola recollects that Yasemin’s father gave in when he discovered that his daughter wouldn’t must work within the park any extra. “I gave a month-to-month stipend to the youngsters who did properly on the college,” he says.
Fauzia, Yasemin and Uzra’s mom, was joyful when her daughter started finding out music. “I felt good as a result of [through the guitar] she [Yasemin] needed to depend upon herself for her future. Now, I really feel proud that she is just not solely doing this for herself but in addition for many who want help.”
She was nicknamed Jellybean by Cordola after being confused with one other woman with the identical identify on the Kabul college. “When Mr Lanny known as our identify ‘Yasemin’, each of us would reply to him. This brought about numerous confusion,” she chuckles.
In the identical neighbourhood by which Yasemin and her father labored, Zakia and her father used to promote sunflower seeds. Cordola gave Zakia a visiting card and advised her to go to the music college along with her father, 52-year-old Muhammad Sabir.
“The subsequent day, I went there with my father to Miraculous. There, I noticed the guitars and different women enjoying it. I actually favored it. Initially, my mom didn’t permit me as a result of she was sceptical and scared about Mr Lanny. However I insisted on attempting my luck. After I went there, I started practising the guitar and drawing, and by no means went again to the hill to work once more,” says Zakia.
Shukriya, who first visited the college along with her elder sibling out of curiosity, was so fascinated by the guitars that she too quickly joined Cordola’s rising class.
Their father, Cordola recollects, was excited on the concept of sending his daughters to his music college. “Zakia’s father was smiling after I first met him. He requested, ‘Can we come now?’ However I advised him to come back the subsequent day. He got here the subsequent day and stated, ‘that is nice.’”
A tall Sabir smiles as he recollects that point. Sitting at his residence in Islamabad, he says he was “joyful for the youngsters and supported them to play the guitar”.
“I favored music myself earlier than I even met Mr Lanny,” says Sabir. “When the chance got here, I didn’t need my daughters to lose it. It was for his or her higher future.”
All of it modified with the Taliban’s return.
Escaping the Taliban – and ready on Pakistan
All of a sudden, the women have been afraid to depart their properties following a spate of restrictions imposed on ladies. “When the state of affairs in Afghanistan worsened, I advised the women to not use it (the guitar). The Taliban don’t permit music and think about it haram (forbidden). I hid Shukriya’s small guitar and broke Zakia’s as a result of it was greater,” says Sabir.
Yasemin recollects one time when she stepped out to go to the bazaar.
“I wasn’t sporting a masks and the Taliban pointed a gun at me asking me to put on it proper there after which,” she says, referring to a face veil. “It was actually arduous, particularly for ladies in Afghanistan.”
Cordola, in the meantime, labored with donors to lift cash to get passports made for the households of his college students, and to rent guides to deliver them to the border – after which throughout into Pakistan.
After many false begins, the seven women and their households lastly made it to Pakistan in April 2022. At this time, Cordola funds their lease, bills – and the women’ guitars – by way of donations.
However all of these efforts now seem in danger.
Lately, Pakistan has stepped up its deportation of Afghan refugees – a few of whom have spent most or all of their lives in Pakistan.
Pakistan deported 842,429 Afghan refugees, per the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), between September 2023 and February 2025.
In line with Pakistan’s Ministry of International Affairs, about 40,000 Afghans in Pakistan await resettlement after “virtually 80,000” have been welcomed by totally different nations. No less than 10,000 to fifteen,000 among the many refugees nonetheless in Pakistan have been cleared for resettlement within the US, in accordance with #AfghanEvac, a coalition of US veterans and advocacy teams, earlier than Trump blocked their transfer.
Philippa Candler, the nation consultant of the UNHCR, in an announcement stated: “Pressured return to Afghanistan may place some folks at elevated threat. We urge Pakistan to proceed to supply security to Afghans in danger, no matter their documentation standing.”
Shawn VanDiver, who heads #AfghanEvac, stresses the necessity for the US authorities to fulfil its guarantees. “Our nationwide commitments can’t be conditional and non permanent. Nations world wide are by no means going to belief the phrase of the US if our presidents can’t be counted on to hold out the commitments they’ve made,” he says. “That is simply outrageous.”
He additionally has an enchantment to the federal government of Pakistan.
“The 90-day mark [when Trump’s pause on refugee resettlement ends] is round April, so we want Pakistan to offer them [Afghans] a bit of bit of additional time. We hope they are going to however we haven’t gotten any optimistic indications by way of motion, solely phrases. All of the motion we’re seeing is destructive,” says VanDiver.
“If nothing adjustments these folks [Afghans] are in actual hassle.”
Asmat Ullah Shah, the Pakistan authorities’s chief commissioner for Afghan refugees in Islamabad, says Afghan nationals awaiting resettlement maintain no authorized standing as per Pakistani legislation.
However, he insists, authorities haven’t taken any motion in opposition to them as a result of embassies and worldwide organisations have dedicated to transferring them to different nations.
“When issues started to extend, affecting Pakistan’s safety, a timeframe was set for these embassies to fulfil their commitments and guarantee resettlement. However, some have evaded their guarantees,” he says.
Whereas a courtroom has given reduction till the top of June to some Afghan refugees in Pakistan, that doesn’t cowl the 4 guitarist women and their households, who don’t have the documentation wanted for that non permanent reprieve.
Saeed Husain, a founding member of the Joint Motion Committee for Refugees (JAC-R), an advocacy platform for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, blames the disaster on Western nations that had promised to soak up Afghan refugees however haven’t processed purposes of these nonetheless in limbo in nations like Pakistan.
“Their lives have been on pause for the final 4 years. They haven’t been in a position to get an training or discover jobs,” he says, including that Pakistan’s transfer to now ship these refugees “again to Afghanistan is actually giving them a dying sentence”.
A letter to Trump
Once they discovered about Trump’s pause on refugee entries, after which Pakistan’s plans to deport Afghans, the women say they couldn’t imagine the information.
“We had been disillusioned many instances after getting hopes of going overseas. We’d be ready to listen to excellent news, however would then discover out that it might’t occur,” Yasemin says. “However the current information was nonetheless very surprising to us.”
The ladies and their households know that going again to Afghanistan would seemingly imply giving up on music for good.
Zakia says she desires to change into knowledgeable guitarist. She’s nonetheless unhappy about her father breaking her earlier guitar out of concern it might be discovered by the Taliban. “That night time was very arduous for me. I cried rather a lot,” she says. However after arriving in Pakistan, all the women acquired new guitars from their trainer.
In the meantime, Shukriya misses going to the music college again house. “I miss the time in Kabul once we performed collectively, talked (to our mates) after apply and ate collectively,” she says, recalling what she is aware of she received’t have the ability to relive if she have been to return to Kabul now.
However Cordola and the women refuse to surrender.
The trainer has been reaching out to musicians and folks with contacts within the US authorities to make the relocation potential.
“I’m sending out messages to individuals who can maybe contact the higher echelons within the American authorities. The ladies have collaborated with a number of the most well-known musicians within the US and UK. We aren’t on the lookout for further favours, however to get them alternatives,” he says.
Cordola says he has additionally written an open letter to Trump on behalf of the younger musicians, urging the US president to permit them into the nation.
In his letter, the musician wrote that if the women are denied the prospect to resettle to the US, they are going to be deported again to Afghanistan, the place they are going to be prone to being subjected to “imprisonment, and even punishment by dying”.
“They’re able to assimilate and contribute. They aren’t there to take. They wish to be part of the American dream,” he says. “We’re keen to go and play a bit of live performance for President Trump if he would have an interest.”
The ladies, Cordola provides, is also relocated to different nations which can be “keen to welcome them and supply authorized and protected residence”, including {that a} main advocate for feminine Afghan musicians is desirous about relocating them to Northern Eire’s Belfast, a UNESCO-recognised metropolis for its music.
Most of all, the women simply wish to keep collectively – in whichever a part of the world may have them.
“Once I’m out of right here, it’s my dream for all the women to come back collectively and stand sturdy on our toes. I can’t do it alone. When all of us women come along with Mr Lanny on the similar place, we are going to do one thing,” says Yasemin.
Fauzia, Yasemin and Uzra’s mom, says she is grateful to Pakistan for internet hosting them. However she is aware of that the household’s future hinges on Western governments giving them sanctuary quickly. “Our lives have been in danger in Afghanistan and even in Pakistan there isn’t a peace. Whether or not it’s the US or another authorities, we request assist for these whose lives are at risk,” she says.
Till then, the women have their guitars, their music and their goals to reside with.
“Every time I’m unhappy, I maintain my guitar and overlook the entire unhappiness,” says Yasemin. “It has modified my life.”
