For The Love Of Pashtun Music.(Arts)

Byline: Fasih Ahmed

A pair of talented cousins wins an unexpected following in Pakistan.

Haniya Aslam was sitting in her family home in the turbulent, deeply conservative North-West Frontier province of Pakistan in October when a deafening blast shook the neighborhood, rattling doors and windows in their hinges. Tufts of black smoke billowed violently over the flat, gray rooftops of Kohat town. aOur handyman came in and said, aOh, itas nothinga,a recalls Aslam. a aTheyave only blown up a CD shopa.a But for Aslam and her cousin Zeb Bangash, such attacks feel intensely personal.

The cousins, both 29, make up Zeb & Haniya, one of Pakistanas hottest pop duos, whose debut album, aChup!a (Hush!), hits stores next month. But itas been quite a journey. In October 2002, the elected state government, led by a coalition of religious parties, banned music on public transport, incarcerated and evicted musicians and artists and condoned bomb attacks on music and video shops. Aslam and Bangash are at the forefront of a group of independent-minded Pashtuns who have harnessed the power of the media to beat back the conservative tide. Today the Frontieras capital, Peshawar, boasts two privately owned, Pashto-language TV channels and three radio stationsaall set up over the last few years in defiance of the previous Islamist government. That the religious parties are out of power and a new, moderate interim government has been put in place by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf should certainly help. aThe [Pashtun] people love to dance and have a good time,a says Bangash. aThe superimposition of extremist views has not been able to snuff out centuries of musical tradition.a

Zeb & Haniyaas brand of folksy music draws on that Pashtun heritage and can easily fit into the provinceas longstanding Sufic tradition. Their songs can be playful and sensual, addressing the themes of love and longing ato God through the conceit of a lover,a says Bangash. Their song aI Stopped Cryinga tells a careless lover: aYour conversation broke my heart/You glanced and turned your face away/Clouds rumbled but a little/Rain fell, this heart longed/ After a little while/I stopped crying.a Bangash describes this as their emancipation anthem. aSometimes it feels like the world has turned its back on you, but oneas got to make the best of a bad situation with the faith that God never abandons,a she says. Their music uses guitar, drums and trumpets, as well as more exotic stringed instruments like the sarod, to express aWestern and Eastern melodies arranged for a global audience,a says Bangash.

The foundations for Zeb & Haniya were laid in ...