June 5, 2024 • 26 mins
Setara Hussainzada is one of the first women to make it to the final rounds of Afghan Star. It’s a triumph. And then she does something that puts her life – and the lives of everyone who makes the show – at risk.
To purchase original Afghan Star artwork visit www.awastudios.com/afghanstar — proceeds go to support The Noor Initiative, who are on a mission to ensure every Afghan girl has access to education and opportunity.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
For a moment. Just before the spotlight hits, the crowd
goes silent. They've been waiting for Satara Hussein Zada to
sing her final song, but as she walks out onto
the stage, dressed head to toe in a long sleeved,
pale lime green outfit, the crowd goes wild. She's standing
(00:43):
on the biggest platform in the country, with cameras pointing
at her from every angle. Tonight, millions of viewers across
Afghanistan have tuned in to Afghanistar to see who's been
a limonated, and she isn't going to waste the opportunity.
(01:05):
Satara looks down at the microphone tightly gripped in her fist,
at the white, crinkled stage beneath her feet. In that moment,
she isn't thinking about her family back home or everything
(01:25):
she's sacrificed to perform here. She isn't thinking about her
safety or her reputation. Instead, as the first beats pulse
from the speakers, she thinks to herself, Tonight, I can
(01:49):
either fade away into the murky depths of talent show history,
or I can give them something to remember. Her voice
(02:12):
cries out to the audience, they clapped. They but as
the song goes on, something strange starts happening. The clapping
begins to die down, whispers grow.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I remember looking at the faces of the judges, looking
at the face of audience sitting there. They were, they were,
they were shocked.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Producer Habib Ami keeps looking back and forth between Satara
and the audience.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
They didn't believe this is happening. This is for the
first time after the Tolerant that the woman is singing
and dancing on the stage.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's right. The thing that Satara was doing, the thing
that shocked the audience was dancing. Habib realizes just how
dangerous this is. There are still a lot of Afghans
who don't think women should be on TV, definitely not
dancing on stage. They think it's shameful haram, a sacrilege
(03:33):
punishable by death.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Are we allowed to burchaste?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And so Habib has a decision to make because if
this hits the air, it will not only put Satara's
life in danger, it could also end afghanstar. Previously, the
(04:05):
show is a revolution.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Billions of dollars were spent to have elections in Avyonistan,
but we were the people who taught afghanst how to
be part of a democratic process.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And it changes the lives of everyone involved.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I was feeling too good on this stage, you know, like,
shall keep your flying right now You're free completely, No
one is there to destroy you.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I'm John Legend and from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcast. This
is Afghan Star Chapter one. The protege Habib Amri is
(05:10):
in his early thirties. Black rimmed glasses sit at the
top of his nose, framing his eyes, which are permanently
creased at the edges from smiling. Habib lives in Germany
now and he can't go back to Afghanistan because of
his work on Afghan Star.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay, are you recording? Yes, yes, it's very different now.
It's also very emotional for me to talk about because
I am very angry now that we're looking at the
Karen situation of Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Habib was born in the nineties and brought up in Iran.
He returned to kabl in two thousand and four as
a teenager. He was part of a new generation of Afghans,
young people who had no memory of the Taliban, and
so when he turned seventeen, he did what ordinary seventeen
year olds do. He tried to figure out what to
(06:01):
do with his life.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I was trying to decide if I want to study,
go to university and what do I want to study.
But also I was looking for opportunities. I was looking
for something interesting to do.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And luckily for Habib, Cabble in two thousand and four
was a good place to make a name for yourself.
There's investment in infrastructure. American taxpayers will spend about sixteen
billion dollars this year rebuilding Afghanistan. New businesses and storefronts
are opening up. Beauty salons have cropped up all over
(06:37):
the city. Finally, women can openly work at what they've
been doing in secret. Under the Taliband. The first mobile
phone network is launched is Excellency ham A Cars.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I made the first mobile phone call.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's a symbolic representation of the introduction of modern technology
and telecommunications into the country. And the kids are all
talking about a show called Afghan Star and the company
that makes it Tolo TV.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I think I was very fascinated by TV. I was
very fascinated by Tulu TV, the kind of programming they
were producing at that time. So Tulu was very unique.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's a new TV station for a new Afghanistan.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yang moderators presenters presenting music in a very different way.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So Habib sends in his resume and gets hired to
help Daou Sadiki on season one of Afghan Star, and
despite being the youngest member of the team, Habib made
himself essential.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
He became the man of logistics, hotels and our rental
cars do the paperwork.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Basically, Habib takes over all the crap jobs and he
does it with a smile, even when Daoud is shouting,
even when everything is going wrong, because he can tell
there's something special about this show.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I felt the power of Afghanistan and what it can do,
and how impactful this show was on the society. I
was trying to use this power to bring changes.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Habib wants to use Afghanistan to influence the country, to
spread the modern values of his generation and chip away
at the Taliban's legacy. Daoud wants exactly the same thing,
and he starts to see Habib is kind of his protege.
He promotes him and so by season three, Habib is
(08:49):
a producer and together they come up with a plan
to make this season the boldest season yet to push
Afghanistar to its limits. They want the show to be bigger, better.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I had the feeling that I can work very open
and take risks, try new ideas.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
They want to make it more slick.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Let's diy he figured out how to put moving lights
and changing LEDs inside these states.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
They sketch out fancier stages and book bigger venues.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
We had a bigger location, we had more audience.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
But it's not just the look they want to change.
It's also who comes on the show. Up to this point,
a lot of the contestants had been from in and
around Cobble. Now they want to get everyone everywhere involved.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
For a country like Afghanistan with conservative people, the religious
leaders have very very powerful impact on this society.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
They know there are people who rail against the the
ones who believe that women shouldn't sing on stage and
that Afghan Star is too western and it's corrupting the youth.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
We were fighting against all the challenges, but somehow we
always ended up producing a good show and there was
always a solution.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
It's ambitious, but they decide to take their show on
the road from Jalalabad with its Rawal heat surrounded by
mountains to the valley of Herat, the city filled with
art that could rival the Renaissance. They hold auditions and
to their surprise, people turn up in the thousands, and
women are showing up too, including one contestant who only
(10:43):
sang in Pashta.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
We had Lima from Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban singing.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Daoud and Habib can't believe what they're seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We know that the highest number of votes were from
this Pashtu speaking areas of the country. This is the
most conservative parts of the country.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
For all the saber rattling from these regions and supposed
anger over the show, conservative Afghans are voting. They're watching
Afghan Star and actually voting, and the show is not
just getting them to vote, it's also starting to bridge
ethnic divides.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
A Pashtun who was never listening to Hazara songs was
listening to Hazora contestant because it was not about where
they come from. It was not about their ethnicity anymore,
but it was about the performance.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
These ethnic groups, Huzaras and Pastuns are usually at odds
for Afghans. Your ethnic identity and loyalty comes before anything else,
and the divisions can be fractious, so seeing them singing
each other's songs and sharing in another group's culture, it's
a huge deal.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
They were talking to each other, they were supporting each other,
they were printing posters, they were printing billboards.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
To Daoud and Habib, and really, anyone watching the show
felt like it was bringing people together.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
This is a big change. I think we changed the people.
They look at Afghanistan as a whole and not as
different parts.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
The impact was so big. Somehow I enjoyed this, and
I was a little bit scared too.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
It felt like it was all moving in the right
direction until Satara started to dance. Hey, it's John Legend.
(12:56):
If you've been listening, you already know that Afghanistar is
a tale of resistance and hope. For fifteen years, Afghan
Star was a beacon, but when the Taliban returned to power,
they shut the show down along with so many Afghan rights.
They band music education for girls and women, and they
(13:17):
continue to clamp down on everyone's freedoms. But there are
ways to show your support. We've teamed up with a
WA Studios and their incredible graphic artists to illustrate some
of the most extraordinary moments in this podcast. There is
a unique print for each episode, bringing to life powerful
(13:38):
moments that are moving and inspiring, and there's an unforgettable
print based on a painting from Superstar artist Raza that
represents the spirit of hope embodied by the show. Art
and music have the power to uplift us all and
ordering a work for yourself or as again help support Afghans.
(14:02):
With every purchase, we'll be donating to the Neor Initiative,
a nonprofit working to ensure that every Afghan girl has
access to education and opportunity. For more information on our
collaboration with AWA, the artworks available to listeners, and to
learn more about the Neor Initiative's efforts to educate, support
(14:25):
independent media, and transform lives across the region, head to
the link in our show notes below, Chapter two the decision.
Up until that point, women had never made it very
far in Afghan Star. The season one and season two
(14:49):
winners were both male, as were the runners up, But
this season two women make it into the top ten.
There's Lima from Condahar, the very conservative place of the Taliban,
and there's Satara Hussein Zana from the equally conservative city
of hrat. This is Satara speaking in a documentary filmed
(15:14):
at the time. She says what she thinks. She laughs constantly,
and she knows what she wants in life, in a
future husband, and in her career. She knows what's expected
of a woman in Afghanistan, and she knows that a
lot of conservative people think she shouldn't be on the show,
(15:36):
but she doesn't care. All she wants to do is
win Afghanistar and tour the world in sparkly dresses, performing familions.
(15:57):
Like Habib, Satara is part of the younger generation in Afghanistan.
She's not interested in what people are thinking back home,
and she's itching for society to progress faster than it is.
Afghanistar is her ticket out. Since auditioning, Satara has been
(16:26):
voted through every round of the show. From the thousands,
she's made it to the top eight, and that's where
we find her tonight.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Thought I happened.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
The lights dim? The results are in? How many the
safe contestants are announced? First, they leave the stage one
by one. It's just Satara and one man laughed, and
(17:19):
then Daou tells her the news. She's out. Her eyes
(17:45):
glaze over. She stares right ahead forces half a smile.
Now she's on the stage alone, she thinks to herself,
I don't want to be forgotten. This can't be the end,
(18:05):
and so she makes a decision to dance. If you
(18:30):
pull up the video, you'll see it's barely a dance.
There's a little swaying, some strutting around stage, gesturing of hands.
It's also tang when in Afghanistan this is unthinkable, and
Habib is sweating. What do we do?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Do we keep the cameras on the audience, or do
we do we do close shots? Or do be to
be sure the judge.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Is Habib's reputation and the future of the show are
resting on him making the right decision. But as he's
trying to do damage control, something happens on stage that
makes everything worse. Worse for Habibi, worse for Satara, worse
(19:17):
for everyone. Habib watches as the pale green scarf covering
Satara's head slips down, leaving her hair exposed. Habib freezes.
(19:37):
He waits for her to lift the scarf back up
to cover her hair again, but she doesn't. The scarf
hangs limp over her shoulders, and the audience's jaws hang open.
(20:07):
Satara is still dancing as if nothing's wrong. Maybe she
hasn't noticed, maybe she doesn't care. But Habib has to
do something now.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I was thinking about, Okay.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
What do we do?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
He knows he can't stop the live audience from seeing
the performance, but there's a two hour delay before the
show is broadcast across the country. Maybe he could edit
the performance out. He starts running around trying to find
someone to help, and then he sees the big boss,
the head of TOLO, Sad Mussni, and he flags him
down and Sad tells him keep the performance in the show.
(20:49):
If they want to change Afghanistan, they can't shy away
from broadcasting this. It's a risk. They have to tell.
Chapter three aftermath. The next day, Habib checks the headlines,
(21:15):
He scans the radio, and starts scouring social media, but
he already knows what everyone is talking about. Satara.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I was looking at the comments in social media and
there were people actually supporting the Taliban and they were saying,
this is happening because Tulu is bringing the Western culture
to us and we don't want that, and their anti
Islam or that blah blah.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Satara's friend Ahmed Nazami reads the comments with dread in
his stomach.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
There was religious people that even they're talking on the
mosque against her that did you see that Afghan star?
Did you see that girl? She danced in front of
the men.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
They think her dancing is indecent, shameful, provocative.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I was like shocked. We are playing the Bollywood movies
every night, loss of ladies are dancing. Why there's no
reaction for that, Like she didn't do anything crazy, but
the reaction was so big.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
They're taking her performance so personally, and that would realizes why.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Basically, at the mind of people, she represented a common
guir of Cobble Street or any city in Avonstan, a
daughter of anyone.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Satara is the girl next door. She's like a daughter
to them, or a sister or a wife. But right
now she represents something that they don't want in their homes, defiance.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
People kind of reacted that like this idea of freedom
or in our streets and our households.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Everyone hopes it will blow over, but the Satara storyline
just keeps snowballing. Politicians are taking advantage of it, using
it to rile up their base. Within a week, a
Cabinet minister and former Mujahideen warlord appears on TV from
Satara's hometown, Hurrah. He shot. He condemns her performance and
(23:32):
says that if the muja Hadeen were still in power,
this insult to the country would never have occurred.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
It was a direct triit warning in front of the camera.
It was about Afghanistan. It was about Afghanistan. Contestant that
you are not Ala, come here.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
The fear over Afghanistar is everywhere. Clerics are railing about
the show's Western influence and how it's corrupting the youth.
They call Satara a loose woman. Someone paints the word
whore onto her parents' front door.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
They say, you're not from us. We don't want you'll
hear if you want to walk into this province, you
want to shot on.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Afghanistar is a Kaleidoscope production in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts,
produced by Samizda t Audio and hosted by me John Legend.
From Samiz dat Audio, the series producer is Meera Kumar.
Our executive producers are Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisitsina. Mix
(25:08):
and sound designed by Jeff Emtman, Story editing by Joe Sykes,
with original composition by Kyle Murdoch. Recording engineer Tim McClain.
Chapter artwork by A W. A Studios. From Kaleidoscope, the
executive producers are Kate Osborn, Mangesh Hattikur Oz Wolshyn and
(25:33):
Costas Linos. From iHeart, the executive producers are Ali Perry
and Katrina Norvell. Social Media by Dara Potts and Vahini Shori.
Special thanks to Tom Freston, Lizzie Jacobs, Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman,
Nikki Ettore, Bob Pittman, John Sykes. Conal Byrne, Saad Mohseni
(25:56):
and the Mohseni Family, Matthew Anderson and Axel Alonzo
For a moment. Just before the spotlight hits, the crowd
goes silent. They've been waiting for Satara Hussein Zada to
sing her final song, but as she walks out onto
the stage, dressed head to toe in a long sleeved,
pale lime green outfit, the crowd goes wild. She's standing
(00:43):
on the biggest platform in the country, with cameras pointing
at her from every angle. Tonight, millions of viewers across
Afghanistan have tuned in to Afghanistar to see who's been
a limonated, and she isn't going to waste the opportunity.
(01:05):
Satara looks down at the microphone tightly gripped in her fist,
at the white, crinkled stage beneath her feet. In that moment,
she isn't thinking about her family back home or everything
(01:25):
she's sacrificed to perform here. She isn't thinking about her
safety or her reputation. Instead, as the first beats pulse
from the speakers, she thinks to herself, Tonight, I can
(01:49):
either fade away into the murky depths of talent show history,
or I can give them something to remember. Her voice
(02:12):
cries out to the audience, they clapped. They but as
the song goes on, something strange starts happening. The clapping
begins to die down, whispers grow.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I remember looking at the faces of the judges, looking
at the face of audience sitting there. They were, they were,
they were shocked.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Producer Habib Ami keeps looking back and forth between Satara
and the audience.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
They didn't believe this is happening. This is for the
first time after the Tolerant that the woman is singing
and dancing on the stage.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's right. The thing that Satara was doing, the thing
that shocked the audience was dancing. Habib realizes just how
dangerous this is. There are still a lot of Afghans
who don't think women should be on TV, definitely not
dancing on stage. They think it's shameful haram, a sacrilege
(03:33):
punishable by death.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Are we allowed to burchaste?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And so Habib has a decision to make because if
this hits the air, it will not only put Satara's
life in danger, it could also end afghanstar. Previously, the
(04:05):
show is a revolution.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Billions of dollars were spent to have elections in Avyonistan,
but we were the people who taught afghanst how to
be part of a democratic process.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And it changes the lives of everyone involved.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I was feeling too good on this stage, you know, like,
shall keep your flying right now You're free completely, No
one is there to destroy you.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I'm John Legend and from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcast. This
is Afghan Star Chapter one. The protege Habib Amri is
(05:10):
in his early thirties. Black rimmed glasses sit at the
top of his nose, framing his eyes, which are permanently
creased at the edges from smiling. Habib lives in Germany
now and he can't go back to Afghanistan because of
his work on Afghan Star.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay, are you recording? Yes, yes, it's very different now.
It's also very emotional for me to talk about because
I am very angry now that we're looking at the
Karen situation of Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Habib was born in the nineties and brought up in Iran.
He returned to kabl in two thousand and four as
a teenager. He was part of a new generation of Afghans,
young people who had no memory of the Taliban, and
so when he turned seventeen, he did what ordinary seventeen
year olds do. He tried to figure out what to
(06:01):
do with his life.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I was trying to decide if I want to study,
go to university and what do I want to study.
But also I was looking for opportunities. I was looking
for something interesting to do.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And luckily for Habib, Cabble in two thousand and four
was a good place to make a name for yourself.
There's investment in infrastructure. American taxpayers will spend about sixteen
billion dollars this year rebuilding Afghanistan. New businesses and storefronts
are opening up. Beauty salons have cropped up all over
(06:37):
the city. Finally, women can openly work at what they've
been doing in secret. Under the Taliband. The first mobile
phone network is launched is Excellency ham A Cars.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I made the first mobile phone call.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's a symbolic representation of the introduction of modern technology
and telecommunications into the country. And the kids are all
talking about a show called Afghan Star and the company
that makes it Tolo TV.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I think I was very fascinated by TV. I was
very fascinated by Tulu TV, the kind of programming they
were producing at that time. So Tulu was very unique.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's a new TV station for a new Afghanistan.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yang moderators presenters presenting music in a very different way.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So Habib sends in his resume and gets hired to
help Daou Sadiki on season one of Afghan Star, and
despite being the youngest member of the team, Habib made
himself essential.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
He became the man of logistics, hotels and our rental
cars do the paperwork.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Basically, Habib takes over all the crap jobs and he
does it with a smile, even when Daoud is shouting,
even when everything is going wrong, because he can tell
there's something special about this show.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I felt the power of Afghanistan and what it can do,
and how impactful this show was on the society. I
was trying to use this power to bring changes.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Habib wants to use Afghanistan to influence the country, to
spread the modern values of his generation and chip away
at the Taliban's legacy. Daoud wants exactly the same thing,
and he starts to see Habib is kind of his protege.
He promotes him and so by season three, Habib is
(08:49):
a producer and together they come up with a plan
to make this season the boldest season yet to push
Afghanistar to its limits. They want the show to be bigger, better.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I had the feeling that I can work very open
and take risks, try new ideas.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
They want to make it more slick.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Let's diy he figured out how to put moving lights
and changing LEDs inside these states.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
They sketch out fancier stages and book bigger venues.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
We had a bigger location, we had more audience.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
But it's not just the look they want to change.
It's also who comes on the show. Up to this point,
a lot of the contestants had been from in and
around Cobble. Now they want to get everyone everywhere involved.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
For a country like Afghanistan with conservative people, the religious
leaders have very very powerful impact on this society.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
They know there are people who rail against the the
ones who believe that women shouldn't sing on stage and
that Afghan Star is too western and it's corrupting the youth.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
We were fighting against all the challenges, but somehow we
always ended up producing a good show and there was
always a solution.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
It's ambitious, but they decide to take their show on
the road from Jalalabad with its Rawal heat surrounded by
mountains to the valley of Herat, the city filled with
art that could rival the Renaissance. They hold auditions and
to their surprise, people turn up in the thousands, and
women are showing up too, including one contestant who only
(10:43):
sang in Pashta.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
We had Lima from Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban singing.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Daoud and Habib can't believe what they're seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We know that the highest number of votes were from
this Pashtu speaking areas of the country. This is the
most conservative parts of the country.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
For all the saber rattling from these regions and supposed
anger over the show, conservative Afghans are voting. They're watching
Afghan Star and actually voting, and the show is not
just getting them to vote, it's also starting to bridge
ethnic divides.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
A Pashtun who was never listening to Hazara songs was
listening to Hazora contestant because it was not about where
they come from. It was not about their ethnicity anymore,
but it was about the performance.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
These ethnic groups, Huzaras and Pastuns are usually at odds
for Afghans. Your ethnic identity and loyalty comes before anything else,
and the divisions can be fractious, so seeing them singing
each other's songs and sharing in another group's culture, it's
a huge deal.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
They were talking to each other, they were supporting each other,
they were printing posters, they were printing billboards.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
To Daoud and Habib, and really, anyone watching the show
felt like it was bringing people together.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
This is a big change. I think we changed the people.
They look at Afghanistan as a whole and not as
different parts.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
The impact was so big. Somehow I enjoyed this, and
I was a little bit scared too.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
It felt like it was all moving in the right
direction until Satara started to dance. Hey, it's John Legend.
(12:56):
If you've been listening, you already know that Afghanistar is
a tale of resistance and hope. For fifteen years, Afghan
Star was a beacon, but when the Taliban returned to power,
they shut the show down along with so many Afghan rights.
They band music education for girls and women, and they
(13:17):
continue to clamp down on everyone's freedoms. But there are
ways to show your support. We've teamed up with a
WA Studios and their incredible graphic artists to illustrate some
of the most extraordinary moments in this podcast. There is
a unique print for each episode, bringing to life powerful
(13:38):
moments that are moving and inspiring, and there's an unforgettable
print based on a painting from Superstar artist Raza that
represents the spirit of hope embodied by the show. Art
and music have the power to uplift us all and
ordering a work for yourself or as again help support Afghans.
(14:02):
With every purchase, we'll be donating to the Neor Initiative,
a nonprofit working to ensure that every Afghan girl has
access to education and opportunity. For more information on our
collaboration with AWA, the artworks available to listeners, and to
learn more about the Neor Initiative's efforts to educate, support
(14:25):
independent media, and transform lives across the region, head to
the link in our show notes below, Chapter two the decision.
Up until that point, women had never made it very
far in Afghan Star. The season one and season two
(14:49):
winners were both male, as were the runners up, But
this season two women make it into the top ten.
There's Lima from Condahar, the very conservative place of the Taliban,
and there's Satara Hussein Zana from the equally conservative city
of hrat. This is Satara speaking in a documentary filmed
(15:14):
at the time. She says what she thinks. She laughs constantly,
and she knows what she wants in life, in a
future husband, and in her career. She knows what's expected
of a woman in Afghanistan, and she knows that a
lot of conservative people think she shouldn't be on the show,
(15:36):
but she doesn't care. All she wants to do is
win Afghanistar and tour the world in sparkly dresses, performing familions.
(15:57):
Like Habib, Satara is part of the younger generation in Afghanistan.
She's not interested in what people are thinking back home,
and she's itching for society to progress faster than it is.
Afghanistar is her ticket out. Since auditioning, Satara has been
(16:26):
voted through every round of the show. From the thousands,
she's made it to the top eight, and that's where
we find her tonight.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Thought I happened.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
The lights dim? The results are in? How many the
safe contestants are announced? First, they leave the stage one
by one. It's just Satara and one man laughed, and
(17:19):
then Daou tells her the news. She's out. Her eyes
(17:45):
glaze over. She stares right ahead forces half a smile.
Now she's on the stage alone, she thinks to herself,
I don't want to be forgotten. This can't be the end,
(18:05):
and so she makes a decision to dance. If you
(18:30):
pull up the video, you'll see it's barely a dance.
There's a little swaying, some strutting around stage, gesturing of hands.
It's also tang when in Afghanistan this is unthinkable, and
Habib is sweating. What do we do?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Do we keep the cameras on the audience, or do
we do we do close shots? Or do be to
be sure the judge.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Is Habib's reputation and the future of the show are
resting on him making the right decision. But as he's
trying to do damage control, something happens on stage that
makes everything worse. Worse for Habibi, worse for Satara, worse
(19:17):
for everyone. Habib watches as the pale green scarf covering
Satara's head slips down, leaving her hair exposed. Habib freezes.
(19:37):
He waits for her to lift the scarf back up
to cover her hair again, but she doesn't. The scarf
hangs limp over her shoulders, and the audience's jaws hang open.
(20:07):
Satara is still dancing as if nothing's wrong. Maybe she
hasn't noticed, maybe she doesn't care. But Habib has to
do something now.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I was thinking about, Okay.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
What do we do?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
He knows he can't stop the live audience from seeing
the performance, but there's a two hour delay before the
show is broadcast across the country. Maybe he could edit
the performance out. He starts running around trying to find
someone to help, and then he sees the big boss,
the head of TOLO, Sad Mussni, and he flags him
down and Sad tells him keep the performance in the show.
(20:49):
If they want to change Afghanistan, they can't shy away
from broadcasting this. It's a risk. They have to tell.
Chapter three aftermath. The next day, Habib checks the headlines,
(21:15):
He scans the radio, and starts scouring social media, but
he already knows what everyone is talking about. Satara.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I was looking at the comments in social media and
there were people actually supporting the Taliban and they were saying,
this is happening because Tulu is bringing the Western culture
to us and we don't want that, and their anti
Islam or that blah blah.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Satara's friend Ahmed Nazami reads the comments with dread in
his stomach.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
There was religious people that even they're talking on the
mosque against her that did you see that Afghan star?
Did you see that girl? She danced in front of
the men.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
They think her dancing is indecent, shameful, provocative.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I was like shocked. We are playing the Bollywood movies
every night, loss of ladies are dancing. Why there's no
reaction for that, Like she didn't do anything crazy, but
the reaction was so big.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
They're taking her performance so personally, and that would realizes why.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Basically, at the mind of people, she represented a common
guir of Cobble Street or any city in Avonstan, a
daughter of anyone.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Satara is the girl next door. She's like a daughter
to them, or a sister or a wife. But right
now she represents something that they don't want in their homes, defiance.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
People kind of reacted that like this idea of freedom
or in our streets and our households.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Everyone hopes it will blow over, but the Satara storyline
just keeps snowballing. Politicians are taking advantage of it, using
it to rile up their base. Within a week, a
Cabinet minister and former Mujahideen warlord appears on TV from
Satara's hometown, Hurrah. He shot. He condemns her performance and
(23:32):
says that if the muja Hadeen were still in power,
this insult to the country would never have occurred.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
It was a direct triit warning in front of the camera.
It was about Afghanistan. It was about Afghanistan. Contestant that
you are not Ala, come here.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
The fear over Afghanistar is everywhere. Clerics are railing about
the show's Western influence and how it's corrupting the youth.
They call Satara a loose woman. Someone paints the word
whore onto her parents' front door.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
They say, you're not from us. We don't want you'll
hear if you want to walk into this province, you
want to shot on.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Afghanistar is a Kaleidoscope production in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts,
produced by Samizda t Audio and hosted by me John Legend.
From Samiz dat Audio, the series producer is Meera Kumar.
Our executive producers are Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisitsina. Mix
(25:08):
and sound designed by Jeff Emtman, Story editing by Joe Sykes,
with original composition by Kyle Murdoch. Recording engineer Tim McClain.
Chapter artwork by A W. A Studios. From Kaleidoscope, the
executive producers are Kate Osborn, Mangesh Hattikur Oz Wolshyn and
(25:33):
Costas Linos. From iHeart, the executive producers are Ali Perry
and Katrina Norvell. Social Media by Dara Potts and Vahini Shori.
Special thanks to Tom Freston, Lizzie Jacobs, Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman,
Nikki Ettore, Bob Pittman, John Sykes. Conal Byrne, Saad Mohseni
(25:56):
and the Mohseni Family, Matthew Anderson and Axel Alonzo
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