Islamabad, Pakistan – On a pleasing February afternoon in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, the sound of strumming guitars fills a small bed room in a two-storey dwelling that homes tenants from neighbouring Afghanistan.
A flight of slippery marble stairs results in the room on the primary flooring, the place the intense rays of the solar enter by 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 training and jamming from Saturday to Thursday. Friday is their weekly day without work.
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 lined 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 picket guitar along with her reliable crimson 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 Children, a music college for kids in Kabul arrange in 2016 by Lanny Cordola, a rock musician from California. The ladies, whose first language is Dari, additionally discovered to talk fundamental English from Cordola in Kabul, the place they attended common college as nicely.
Their world was turned the wrong way up when the Taliban re-took energy on August 15, 2021, after 20 years. The ladies had been afraid to step outdoors their houses 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. At the same time as he continued to show them there, Cordola labored in the direction of ultimately resettling them and their households in the US, which had introduced a programme to absorb Afghan allies and refugees who wished to flee Taliban rule.
Three of the seven ladies had been relocated to the US over the previous few months. Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra – and their households – had been imagined to fly on February 5.
“It felt like we had every thing in place. They [the US government] did all their medical assessments, 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 mentioned it’s going to start deporting them on April 1.
‘Woman with a guitar’
To collect at Yasemin and Uzra’s home for observe, Cordola picks Zakia and Shukirya up in a van from their dwelling just a few blocks away.
“We practise for about three to 4 hours,” says Cordola.
In a floral lilac costume and a white scarf, Zakia’s slender fingers hit the chords on her guitar, which bears her preliminary, Z. She faucets her ft 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 tender spot for South Korean band BTS and its singer, RM.
“RM is my favorite. I like his dancing and rapping… it’s stunning,” 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 tender, husky vocals. “She is a traditional seven-year-old in plenty of methods. However when she is within the studio, she may be very, very targeted. 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 “Woman with a Guitar”, their very own authentic, instrumental tune.
Follow 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 buddies with the neighbours’ baby, and at all times 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 seek out some leisure time for themselves whereas the solar remains 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, and so they 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 be a favorite. There, Zakia sits on its contemporary, dewy grass whereas Uzra enjoys swaying backward and forward on the swings. Shukriya is dreaming of visiting a close-by meals avenue, the place she’s hoping for a deal with – pani puri, soup, ice cream and the basic samosa. Yasemin says she’s a fan of rice and loves consuming daal chawal (lentils with rice). To Zakia, hen 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 on your assist. I like you a lot. I like you a lot. I actually really feel for what you’re going by,” she mentioned 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 document producer Sarmad Ghafoor, a buddy of Cordola’s. The tune was launched on March 18.
On the time they recorded the tune, three ladies from Cordola’s Kabul college who’ve now moved to the US had 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 places, however we managed to do it by protecting up for one another and in addition having enjoyable the entire time,” remembers 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 extremely form and inspirational lady,” says Yasemin. “She spoke along with her coronary heart and gave us plenty of hope. Typically we lose hope and assume that we received’t be capable 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 immediately resembles what it did seven years in the past, when she first met Cordola.
At his college, Cordola “wished to deal with ladies’ schooling and rights”, he says. “It’s schooling by the humanities.” He satisfied the mother and father of a number of kids who labored on the streets, particularly these of women, to permit them at his music college.
He first met Yasemin at a park the place she bought sweet and chewing gum, whereas her father washed vehicles close by.
“I used to be 11 years outdated after I first met Mr Lanny in 2017,” Yasemin remembers. “I first noticed Mr Lanny within the park with plenty of kids. On the time, I didn’t discuss 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 worry of an explosion in such an area was at all times in my thoughts.”
Ultimately, Cordola reached out to her by one other lady, 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 buddy named Yalda was already going to the college, so I went to Miraculous along with her. After I held the guitar for the primary time there, it felt zabardast (superior),” she remembers.
Yasemin’s father initially didn’t need her to hitch the music college, fearful about how it will be considered within the conservative Afghan society. “However later when he acquired conversant in Mr Lanny, he agreed to it,” she says.
Cordola remembers 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 nicely on the college,” he says.
Fauzia, Yasemin and Uzra’s mom, was blissful when her daughter started finding out music. “I felt good as a result of [through the guitar] she [Yasemin] wished to rely on herself for her future. Now, I really feel proud that she isn’t solely doing this for herself but in addition for individuals who want assist.”
She was nicknamed Jellybean by Cordola after being confused with one other lady with the identical title on the Kabul college. “When Mr Lanny referred to as our title ‘Yasemin’, each of us would reply to him. This brought about plenty of confusion,” she chuckles.
In the identical neighbourhood through which Yasemin and her father labored, Zakia and her father used to promote sunflower seeds. Cordola gave Zakia a visiting card and informed 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 ladies enjoying it. I actually appreciated it. Initially, my mom didn’t enable 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 remembers, was excited on the thought 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 informed him to return the following day. He got here the following day and mentioned, ‘that is nice.’”
A tall Sabir smiles as he remembers that point. Sitting at his residence in Islamabad, he says he was “blissful for the youngsters and supported them to play the guitar”.
“I appreciated 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
Instantly, the women had been afraid to depart their houses following a spate of restrictions imposed on ladies. “When the state of affairs in Afghanistan worsened, I informed the women to not use it (the guitar). The Taliban don’t enable music and take into account it haram (forbidden). I hid Shukriya’s small guitar and broke Zakia’s as a result of it was greater,” says Sabir.
Yasemin remembers 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 onerous, particularly for girls in Afghanistan.”
Cordola, in the meantime, labored with donors to boost cash to get passports made for the households of his college students, and to rent guides to carry them to the border – after which throughout into Pakistan.
After many false begins, the seven ladies and their households lastly made it to Pakistan in April 2022. Right now, Cordola funds their hire, bills – and the women’ guitars – by 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 accordance with Pakistan’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs, about 40,000 Afghans in Pakistan await resettlement after “virtually 80,000” had been welcomed by completely different international locations. A minimum of 10,000 to fifteen,000 among the many refugees nonetheless in Pakistan had been cleared for resettlement within the US, in keeping 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 a press release mentioned: “Pressured return to Afghanistan may place some folks at elevated threat. We urge Pakistan to proceed to offer 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 short-term. Nations all over the world 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 wish Pakistan to present them [Afghans] slightly bit of additional time. We hope they are going to however we haven’t gotten any constructive indications by motion, solely phrases. All of the motion we’re seeing is unfavourable,” says VanDiver.
“If nothing adjustments these folks [Afghans] are in actual bother.”
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 shifting them to different international locations.
“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 court docket has given aid till the top of June to some Afghan refugees in Pakistan, that doesn’t cowl the 4 guitarist ladies and their households, who don’t have the documentation wanted for that short-term 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 international locations that had promised to absorb Afghan refugees however haven’t processed functions of these nonetheless in limbo in international locations like Pakistan.
“Their lives have been on pause for the final 4 years. They haven’t been in a position to get an schooling or discover jobs,” he says, including that Pakistan’s transfer to now ship these refugees “again to Afghanistan is basically giving them a loss of life 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 dissatisfied many occasions after getting hopes of going overseas. We’d be ready to listen to excellent news, however would then discover out that it may’t occur,” Yasemin says. “However the latest information was nonetheless very surprising to us.”
The ladies and their households know that going again to Afghanistan would doubtless imply giving up on music for good.
Zakia says she needs to turn out to be an expert guitarist. She’s nonetheless unhappy about her father breaking her earlier guitar out of worry it will be discovered by the Taliban. “That evening was very onerous for me. I cried quite a bit,” she says. However after arriving in Pakistan, all the women obtained new guitars from their trainer.
In the meantime, Shukriya misses going to the music college again dwelling. “I miss the time in Kabul once we performed collectively, talked (to our buddies) after observe and ate collectively,” she says, recalling what she is aware of she received’t be capable to relive if she had been to return to Kabul now.
However Cordola and the women refuse to surrender.
The trainer has been reaching out to musicians and other people 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 few of the most well-known musicians within the US and UK. We aren’t in search of additional 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 possibility to resettle to the US, they are going to be deported again to Afghanistan, the place they are going to be vulnerable to being subjected to “imprisonment, and even punishment by loss of life”.
“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 prepared to go and play slightly live performance for President Trump if he would have an interest.”
The ladies, Cordola provides, may be relocated to different international locations which can be “prepared to welcome them and supply authorized and protected residence”, including {that a} main advocate for feminine Afghan musicians is focused on 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 could have them.
“After I’m out of right here, it’s my dream for all the women to return collectively and stand sturdy on our ft. I can’t do it alone. When all of us ladies come along with Mr Lanny on the identical 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 had been in danger in Afghanistan and even in Pakistan there isn’t a peace. Whether or not it’s the US or every other authorities, we request assist for these whose lives are in peril,” she says.
Till then, the women have their guitars, their music and their goals to reside with.
“Each time I’m unhappy, I maintain my guitar and neglect all the unhappiness,” says Yasemin. “It has modified my life.”
