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Afghan Theatres Since 9/11: from and Beyond Kabul

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Afghan Theatres Since 9/11: from and Beyond Kabul Afghan theatres since 9/11: from and beyond Kabul A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2016 Chin Min Edmund Chow School of Arts, Languages and Cultures List of Contents List of Figures and Images 3 List of Plays/ Performances Analysed 5 Abbreviations 6 Foreign Expressions 8 Abstract 9 Declaration and Copyright Statement 10 Acknowledgements 11 The Author 12 Chapter 1 Afghanistan: 13 Lights, Camera, Death Threats Chapter 2 Historical Brief: 70 Tropes about Afghanistan Chapter 3 ‘From Kabul’: 112 Locating Afghan Cultures Chapter 4 ‘From and Beyond Kabul’: 166 Saving Afghanistan Chapter 5 ‘Beyond Kabul’: 219 Imaginary Texture of the Real Chapter 6 Circulation of Afghanistan 274 References 289 Appendix 1 Cultural Timeline: 324 Afghan Theatres and other Cultural Activities in view of Wider Politics Appendix 2 Images 335 Final word count: 80, 217 2 List of figures and images Figure 1 The ‘circuit of culture’ model 29 Figure 2 Administrative Divisions in Afghanistan 2009 335 Figure 3 Afghanistan and the Durand Line 336 Plate 1 Afghan audiences at Kabul Nanderi, c. 1974 337 Plate 2 Afghan women’s dressing, c. 1974 337 Plate 3 Performance with actress on stage at Kabul 338 Nanderi, c. 1974 Plate 4 Farida Raonaq in a play by Molière 338 Plate 5 Costume design in Molière’s plays 339 Plate 6 Parwaz Puppet Theatre performance 339 Plate 7 Parwaz Puppet Theatre performance in rural 340 province Plate 8 Storyteller at the beginning of Kaikavus 340 Plate 9 Sohrab defeats Rustam and throws him down 341 in Kaikavus Plate 10 Sohrab (left) confronts Rustam (right), in 341 Kaikavus Plate 11 Devastated by Sohrab’s death, Rustam 342 becomes a drunkard Plate 12 Realism in An Enemy of the People 342 Plate 13 Actors being thrown potatoes and onions 343 during the performance of An Enemy of the People Plate 14 Memory Box Exhibit A 343 Plate 15 Memory Box Exhibit B 344 Plate 16 Memory Box Exhibit C 344 Plate 17 Aesthetics of the Oppressed workshop for 345 widows in Memory Boxes 3 Plate 18 Tableau during Heartbeat: Silence after the 345 Explosion Plate 19 Dance movements during Heartbeat: Silence after 346 the Explosion Plate 20 Scene from Heartbeat: Silence after the Explosion 346 Plate 21 Another scene from Heartbeat: Silence after the 347 Explosion Plate 22 Scraggly branches used for catching kites 347 Plate 23 Kite-snatchers in action on top of Nader Khan Hill 348 in Kabul Plate 24 Makeshift kite-shop for buying and selling of kites 348 4 List of plays/ performances analysed Kaikavus (2013) 113 (Azdar Theatre; director: Haroon Noori) An Enemy of the People (1882/2014) 113 (Kabul University theatre department; playwright: Henrik Ibsen; director: Haroon Noori) Memory Box Initiative (2013) 129 (director: AHRDO) Heartbeat: Silence after the Explosion (2014) 145 (Azdar Theatre; director: Berta Bauer) Blowing Up Bamiyan Buddhas (2001) 167 (director: Taliban) Infinite Incompleteness (2010) 182 (director: AHRDO) The Comedy of Errors (2012) 200 (playwright: William Shakespeare; director: Corinne Jaber) with brief mention of: Love’s Labour’s Lost (2005) (playwright: William Shakespeare; director: Corinne Jaber) Homebody/Kabul (2001) 220 (playwright: Tony Kushner) The Great Game: Afghanistan (2009) 239 (Tricycle Theatre; director: Nicolas Kent) & Miniskirts of Kabul (playwright: David Greig) with brief mention of: The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn (playwright: Abi Morgan) On the Side of the Angels (playwright: Richard Bean) The Kite Runner (2007/2014) 257 (adaptor: Matthew Spangler) 5 Abbreviations 3-D Three Dimensional ACKU Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University AHRDO Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organisation AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome AK-47 Avtomat Kalashnikova (Soviet assault weapon) AKDN Aga Khan Development Network AKTC Aga Khan Trust for Culture ALECSO Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation ANIM Afghanistan National Institute of Music ANT Afghan National Theatre BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BCE Before Common Era c Circa (approximately around this year or date) CD Compact Disc CE Common Era CEC Citizen Exchange Corps CIA Central Intelligence Agency CUNY City University of New York DNS Den Nationale Scene DRA Democratic Republic of Afghanistan DVD Digital Video Disc FATA Federally Administered Tribal Areas FCCS Foundation for Culture and Civil Society ICOMOS International Council on Monuments and Sites ICTJ International Center for Transitional Justice IFA Institut Français d’Afghanistan IPSO International Psychosocial Organisation INGO International Non-Governmental Organisation ISPRA Italian Institute for Protection and Environmental Research IR International Relations ISESCO Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation KNT Kabul National Theatre LSE London School of Economics and Political Science MMCC Mobile Mini-Circus for Children MoU Memorandum of Understanding MPR Minnesota Public Radio NatGeo National Geographic NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NOK Norwegian Krone NPR National Public Radio NUPI Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, in Norsk language) 6 NWFP North West Frontier Province ODA Official Development Assistance OIC Organisation of Islamic Cooperation PAJ Journal of Performance and Art PBS Public Broadcasting Service PDPA People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan TCG Theatre Communication Group TED Technology, Entertainment and Design (Conference) TEDx Technology, Entertainment and Design (Independent Conference) UK United Kingdom UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees US United States of America USD United States Dollars USIP United States Institute of Peace 7 Foreign Expressions ceteris paribus (Latin) other things being equal; with other conditions remaining the same ghossa (Dari) harsh anger, cruelty in media res (Latin) ‘into the middle of things’, especially starting a narrative in the middle of an action in-situ (Latin) in the original place khapa (Dari) angry, annoyed, irritable, distressed, sad, worried, anxious, unhappy shalwar khameez (Dari) baggy shirt and trousers worn by Afghans and Pakistanis loya jirga (Dari) Great Council. The traditional meeting of tribal chiefs, ulema and other representatives that enact and regulate laws, including the choosing of Afghan kings Mujahideen (Dari) holy warriors fighting a jihad Sharia (Dari) the canon of Islamic law tabula rasa (Latin) an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate Taliban (Arabic) ‘talib’ means ‘student’; it is now a term to describe an fundamentalist organisation founded by Mullah Mohammed Omar who enforces a very conservative set of religious values ulema (Dari) Islamic scholars 8 Abstract The two most visible representations of Afghanistan are arguably Steve McCurry’s ‘Afghan Girl’ on the cover of National Geographic (June 1985) and Khaled Hosseini’s award-wining novel The Kite Runner (2004). These two products laid the basic premise that images and ideas about Afghanistan have been circulated and commodified worldwide, especially qualities of the exotic, oppressed, and weak. Since print photography and literary works belong to the culture industry, this research seeks to enquire if performing arts, more specifically theatre, projected Afghanistan in similar ways. More precisely, this research asks how Afghan cultures and identities have been represented in the post-9/11 period. Borrowing the circuit of culture model (1997) from Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, this research then examines ten specific theatre performances within Afghanistan and outside Afghanistan in a spatio-temporal framework illustrating dynamic tensions from, and beyond, Kabul. Case studies from Kabul illustrate that Afghan cultures can be owned and regulated by competing stakeholders, including the Taliban, within its geopolitical boundaries. Case studies from/beyond Kabul show the export of Afghan cultures and performances outside Afghanistan, underscoring tropes of impoverishment and suffering while inviting or inciting international interventions and conciliations. Case studies beyond Kabul tend to imagine ‘Afghanistan’ by offering an ambivalent, and sometimes, contradictory response to the war on terror. This thesis argues that projective closure – the act of filling in absences and gaps to make sense of an Afghan narrative – often circulates and entrenches Afghans in victimhood tropes. Because there are constant fluctuations and contestations at what ‘Afghanistan’ was, is, and should be, Afghanistan as an imagined entity – or a global cultural commodity – becomes more evident. Derek Gregory was right to observe in The Colonial Present (2004) that Afghanistan has been an object of international geopolitical manoeuvrings since the nineteenth century, and, as this thesis will show, even early twenty-first century. But the claw of the “colonial present” does not stem from hostilities enacted by imperial power, but a series of intimate engagements with non-government organisations, government agencies, embassies, foreign theatre directors, and even global audiences who uncritically celebrate narratives of Afghan heroism. This is further complicated by the readiness of local Afghan practitioners to consume and project themselves as victims of war who are in ‘need’ of foreign help. As such, the value that is being demanded and
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