Burka Band - Burka Blue (2002)
Why are burqas actually blue? It all started with this question, back in 2002. A trip to Afghanistan, a workshop at the Institute of Learning Music there. At the invitation of the Goethe-Institut, Frank Fenstermacher and Kurt Dahlke from Fehlfarben and “a certain frank,” along with drummer Saskia von Klitzing—also from Fehlfarben—were set to teach the basics of pop music. But almost no one wanted to learn to play the drums—except for the only woman who happened to be there, Nargis. A few drumbeats later, she was born: Afghanistan’s first girl band, Burka Band. With Klitzing, Fenstermacher, and Dahlke as her midwives.
The lyrics for their first single, “Burka Blue,” were written during a trip to the countryside. Questions from the German guests began to shake their certainties: “You accept many things as they are, but you don’t question them anymore,” says Nargis. Why is the burka blue? How do you know who’s underneath it? And why do you actually have to wear it? Back in Kabul, the lyrics were written and a video was quickly shot—and it became a worldwide sensation, with airplay on major music TV channels, a performance at Popkomm before Fehlfarben and Blumfeld, and reports about Burka Band all over the world.
What remains? A vision of what could be. Because given the so-called peace negotiations with the Taliban, it remains unclear what the future holds for Afghanistan. “In politics, the first thing people tend to do is cut back on ‘luxuries’ like women’s rights,” Nargis fears. Nevertheless, she hopes that something will remain from the developments of recent years and the memory of the Burka Band: “I hope that we can take everything...and to question religion and culture, and for men to stop dictating everything to women. No one should tell another person what to do. Whether here—or over there in Afghanistan!”
