In September 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan, two younger sisters, Parwana and Khorshid had been killed by a suicide bomber meant for the American army. Their 8-year-old sister Mursal survived. There have been seven Afghans killed together with the 2 little ladies. No People had been harmed.
A few years later California muso Lanny Cordola discovered himself simply over the border in Pakistan arranging a charity music occasion for ‘Peace by way of Music’. Someway drawn to that Afghan tragedy, in a then undefined mission he stored reaching out to see if somebody may introduce him to the household in Kabul and to satisfy the little woman who misplaced each of her sisters.
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After they lastly met, Mursal drawn to Mr. Lanny’s (as she known as him) guitar, requested him to show her play, as did her keen associates… Cordola knew this was a method he may assist. He may carry music to the youngsters.
He went into motion mode, calling upon his glitterati of muso associates in California to assist, and a yr later formally began a music faculty for women in Kabul, and a non-profit on their behalf. Initially named Lady with a Guitar, after Mursal, they grew to become The Miraculous Love Children, and with the varsity they might safely collect and observe day by day. Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland donated 15 guitars, so that they had been off and operating.
Over the subsequent six years they moved round completely different buildings in Kabul, from a stark army barracks to above a grocery store, the place the facility would go off and an explosion, so that they moved to a different place… All the time naked bones buildings, grassroots, however the ladies would eagerly collect after common faculty, they usually had been pushed.
Life was comparatively good. They had been glad, they had been studying guitar and English, and Cordola paid them to point out up by way of the inspiration he’d created. It inspired them, and likewise discouraged them from having to promote sunflower seeds or beg on the streets.
Cordola had discovered a brand new mission in life, and he needed to present them a world voice. The London Instances had known as him, flatteringly, the ‘guitar god of Kabul’. He enlisted his buddy Brian Wilson from the Seaside Boys, and nearly, over Zoom, they performed and recorded “Love and Mercy.” It was 2018.
By 2020 they had been singing the Eurythmics’ ‘Candy Goals’ alongside Kathy Valentine and Tom Morello from Rage Towards the Machine/Audioslave, an enormous supporter of the women. In Might 2021 they launched Steve Miller’s observe ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ with Sammy Hagar singing into his iPhone. You might have seen the women on Good Morning America or TMZ.
Their musical development was excellent, they usually continued to make movies.
They didn’t understand it on the time, however issues had been comparatively great then, assembly within the rundown scorching dusty rooms in Kabul, a few followers if the electrical energy was on, surrounded by damaged home windows, or on the nationwide monument above Kabul the place they gathered typically, and from different locations they made their movies. Sometimes, a bomb would go off within the distance.
The women didn’t perceive the magnitude of what they had been doing–it was all for enjoyable. That they had no concept who these musicians had been that they had been collaborating with. They simply beloved to play guitar. Cordola and his wonderful community of associates had discovered world recognition for the women. Outstanding contemplating.
Issues in Afghanistan had been slowly progressing. Earlier than they went barreling backwards.
In August 2021, Cordola took a aircraft out of Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan to resume his visa in Islamabad. Unbeknownst to him, he’d taken the final aircraft out earlier than the Taliban swooped in to take management of Kabul, after the US army’s sudden mass withdrawal.
The Taliban hate music. They actually hate it. It’s a menace to their regime. No pleasure allowed. They began capturing, beating, and torturing musicians, and artists, going home to accommodate. The women’ lives had been in peril. Cordola instructed them through video name from Pakistan to smash their guitars and went into overdrive on an evacuation plan for them to flee.
I managed to speak to one of many ladies, Jellybean, as she’s affectionately known as, briefly. The Taliban had taken over, she and the women had been hiding and ready. Nonetheless sounding optimistic, and hopeful, her English surprisingly good from six years of studying track lyrics. She was one of many first ladies to come back to the Miraculous Home as they name it. Immediately banished from faculty in her start nation and having to exit in a face veil, and by no means alone on the street. She learnt the arduous method, with a Taliban gun pushed in her face.
Getting out of Afghanistan was advanced, but Jellybean managed to and arrived in Pakistan by April 2022, the others quickly adopted through precarious smuggling routes, Cordola paying for his or her guides. Operating for his or her lives, with the chance of getting caught by the Taliban and harassment from border guards on the different finish.
Not precisely met with open arms, but it was the lesser of two harms on the time. What may they do however attempt to keep on, maintain collectively and wait. Pakistan having its personal political unrest (growing as I’m scripting this).
The women stored on with their music regardless. And Cordola continued elevating funds by way of miraculouslovekids.org, paying for hire, bills, medication, meals, and books.
By 2023 9 of the women had been residing in Islamabad, Pakistan “three separate houses shut to one another – six household items, 9 ladies and twenty relations.” Cordola proudly informed me for an article I wrote for WONDERLUST.
The Miraculous Love Children launched their final video shot in Afghanistan earlier than the Taliban takeover, ‘I Gained’t Again Down’, with Blake Shelton singing from the consolation of his studio, in all probability in Nashville, and these immensely courageous ladies hundreds of miles away, excessive up within the scorching dusty ruins of Kabul, Afghanistan. Two visible panels in a duet, a track in concord, collectively but far aside.
Cordola’s tenacity in bettering the women’ lives and educating them music grabbed the eye of an additional slew of famend musicians, who’ve jumped on board to assist, from the enigmatic Matt Sorum (G n’ R, Hollywood Vampires), to Beth Gibbons of Portishead, Nick Cave, Nils Lofgren, Rami Jaffee, Beth Hart, Nancy Sinatra, Gilby Clark, Nandi Bushell, Kathy Valentine, Joe Walsh, Chad Kroeger from Nickelback, and extra. Sia simply despatched them a video message after they lined her empowerment track “Unstoppable”. Roger Daltrey is working with them, and so is Peter Gabriel. They simply premiered an unbelievable model of “Crimson Rain”.
Cordola managed to get among the ladies into the US final yr, 4 of them, together with Mursal and her household. 4 went again to Afghanistan mid 2023, and an additional 4 are in hiding in Islamabad in Pakistan, as he works to discover a protected outlet for them.
These within the US at the moment are on the mercy of Trump’s agenda and his Govt Order of January 20, 2025, successfully halting all refugee admissions (together with, shamefully, these beneath Particular Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghans who assisted U.S. forces).
As of Might 2025, Afghan refugees within the US are dealing with huge challenges because of the suspension of the Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). It’s political bullshit taking part in with the lives of innocents. Youngsters caught between borders, their lives on maintain, and simply after they thought they had been protected. They’d had a plan.
Lanny has been in Pakistan the previous eight months with the women and their households. They’ve needed to go underground as soon as once more, the Pakistani police providing $20 to any native who provides up info on Afghans. The women and their households live in two rooms. Eighteen of them, households included. They will’t exit, they will’t go to the park, they will’t be seen. They’ve been in hiding for a lot of weeks now that the Pakistani authorities are rounding up and sending Afghans again to their nation and Taliban rule.
In April, 100,000 Afghans had been deported from Pakistan – despatched again to the Taliban and an unknown future. Pakistan has deported virtually 1,000,000 Afghans since 2023.
Round 10,000 are nonetheless in Pakistan, with US circumstances in limbo as a result of Trump blocked them.
Shawn VanDiver, who heads #AfghanEvac, says it’s outrageous and stresses the necessity for the US authorities to honor its commitments to those refugees. He’s additionally appealed to the federal government of Pakistan to present the refugees extra time. Asmat Ullah Shah, the Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees in Islamabad says that Afghans ready for resettlement maintain no authorized standing beneath Pakistani legislation.
The humanitarians on this story are the musicians who’ve stood up for these ladies by sharing their music, expertise and fame to uplift the state of affairs.
18-year-old Yasemin, aka Jellybean, 16-year-old Zakia, 14-year-old Shukriya, and seven-year-old Uzra and their households sit in tenacious hope.
So many youngsters in Afghanistan solely know a lifetime of extremes, operating from extremists, of unbridled/perpetual violence by savages. Cordola’s hoping to get them asylum anyplace now, if not the US, then the UK, or Canada, different areas. He informed me this morning from Pakistan, “Peter Gabriel has jumped in to do what he can, and is attempting to get them into Belfast which is a UNESCO metropolis of music—a company known as Past Pores and skin can be serving to, and the women simply launched their video of “Crimson Rain”, and a brand new video with Roger Daltrey and Brian Wilson comes out subsequent week”. He’s additionally in contact with the US Embassy in Islamabad, however they’re simply taking orders from DC.
Cordola hasn’t been again to Afghanistan since he left. A buddy went again and was arrested and thrown in Taliban jail.
Sure folks have metaphorical blood on their palms. Trump’s suspension of refugee admissions has upended the lives of hundreds of Afghan refugees and the communities attempting to help them. In Connecticut, organizations like Built-in Refugee and Immigrant Providers (IRIS) and Jewish Household Providers (JFS) have been gutted—shedding crucial funding, shedding employees, and shutting their doorways simply after they’re wanted most. In Virginia and Maryland, no less than 42 Afghan households have obtained eviction notices, left to face homelessness after the federal government withdrew the rental help it as soon as promised. And much from American shores, some 1,200 Afghans who risked every part to assist U.S. forces are nonetheless stranded at a base in Qatar, ready—deserted in bureaucratic limbo.
Cordola informed me the most recent information this morning {that a} decide had ordered those that had been accredited for getting into the U.S. and who had a scheduled flight, had been to be relocated there within the subsequent two weeks. If Trump complies—which is anybody’s guess. His thoughts modifications every day.
The Miraculous Love Children—so aptly named for all they’ve been by way of—simply launched “Love and Mercy” with Roger Daltrey and Brian Wilson. Whereas the state of affairs in Pakistan is more and more tense, with stifling warmth, the odd earthquake, and now conflict with India, with bombs touchdown near the place the women are staying, they carry on holding on.
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