Hello, everybody, how are you today? I hope you and yours are well and if not that you find all the support you need.

Today is “International Women’s Day” and that is why I try to go all-female on you with “Come Away With Me”. I try to emphasise women’s work anyway but today I try to choose only female creators too for my post. Please be so kind and follow them and show some love and solidarity! Thanks so much!

Introduction to Afghanistan

Afghanistan on the news has been around all of my life. In the 70’s and 80’s rebels fought the Russians. In the 90’s and 00’s the Taliban were news and today we mainly hear about Malala and bombs that go off all over Kabul and other places.

I suspect Afghanistan is for most of us a synonym for war and discriminated women. And probably for opium poppies. That is apparently still the most exported product from Afghanistan. Lately, I realised that I have “experienced” many countries and cultures via reading. It does, in fact, not only entertain but teach you a lot. If you haven’t read “The Kite Runner” yet you should because it shows you what life in a war-torn country looks like. But as we do not have that much time at the moment a couple of videos should show you a little about the country:

To find out more check out this post at Thought.Co.

An Artist of Afghanistan

In so many of the countries I have virtually visited with “Come Away With Me” where women have more right than in Afghanistan, it was rather difficult to find a female artist to feature. So I was really surprised when Shamsia Hassani directly popped up without me having to look very long.

She is a creative young woman who is courageous enough to do graffity art on the streets of Afghanistan. Now that is impressive. I suspect she must make a difference but I wonder what her graffiti means to the women there. It’s such a new art to Afghanistan it must be absolutely mindboggling. What is great is that she wants to make a difference in the country instead of going abroad and earning a lot. She speaks about the differences between doing graffiti in a Western country and in Afghanistan here at Culture Trip and Creators introduces her in this video:

You can find out more about her art and even buy some here at her page.

Climate Crisis in Afghanistan

I mentioned in my Syria post that the climate crisis is one reason for rising Terrorism all over the world. It’s no different in Afghanistan. This is an interesting report by PBS about young Afghan women, their education or not-education and climate change:

You can also read about this report here on The Ground Truth Project.

Food of Afghanistan

I have nothing much to say about Afghan food as I never had any and wasn’t introduced to it either. However, this video by Around the World says that unlike their neighbours Afghans do not like their food too spicy so it should be a good one for Western tastes 😉

I love any culture where bread is important and that uses dried fruit and nuts a lot. Hmmmmm, am getting hungry 😉

If you like to try some out then check out Afghan Kitchen Recipes.

A Poetess of Afghanistan

When looking up “Afghan Poetess” I came a cross a wonderful page and project: It’s the Afghan Women’s Writing Project and looks like there are many female poets. One of the most famous is Rabia Balkhi who I would consider Afghanistans Julia to a poor Romeo.

This video shows you about her life even though it is voiced very fast.

The Afghan Women’s Writing project introduces her a little differently: The Story of Rabia Balkhi

You can also find one of her poems here but feel free to check out the rest of the page which introduces you to other Afghan poets.

Mental Health in Afghanistan

In a country that has seen war for at least 50 years you can imagine that mental health problems are rife. Journalist Sahar Zand made an enlightening report about it for the BBC and she shares it on her channel:

Some musicians of Afghanistan

And now, at last, we come to the music part. While the Taliban were rulers of Afghanistan music was not allowed therefore, it is great to see women make music in Afghanistan. I found three with some lovely tunes:

If you want to know more about music in Afghanistan check out this post on SongLines.

And where are we going next week?

Come Away With Me 2021 Musical Challenge Country for Monday, March 15th, 2021

I am taking a rather random route around the world, but sometimes it makes sense. Next week we venture further East to Pakistan. Please find musicians from Pakistan at the LastFM.page.

As for the suggestions to take part:

1. Join in! No matter where, when and with what. You missed the first week? Don’t worry. Just jump in when it suits you.
2. Send us the link! The ping-back option does not always work so please leave a link in the comments of the post on the day you take part. Or leave it at the “Come Away With Me 2021 FB page“
3. Tag your post either with ” Come Away With Me Musical Challenge”/ #CoAwWiMeMuCh” / “Come Away with Me 2021 Musical Challenge” o/“CoAwWiMe2021MuCh” / . You can also use these as hashtags for Twitter and other Social Networks to give your post more exposure. If you add #blog and #music with your hashtags it will get you more readers.
4. No matter which music or country the prompt favours you create with it whatever you please. This is supposed to be a fun challenge and no chore.
5. I post a prompt for the next week with every “Come Away With Me 2021 post” I write.
6. If you like, use this picture for your readers to find the posts.

Just one more thing before you go: The hospital that is treating me is fundraising for a dedicated breast cancer unit which would allow some same-day diagnosis and better premises for patients and staff.

Please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. So far the campaign has raised about half the amount needed: £446,604 of £800,000 (March 2021).

Your support means a lot to me! Thank you very much.

Thanks, my dears, for staying with me until the end.

I appreciate your presence.

Please stay safe, stay kind and remember that you rock!