A famous Afghan musician has been reunited with his son in New York City, after Fox Corp. helped his family evacuate Afghanistan following a Taliban threat against them.
On August 15, the Taliban left a threatening letter on Ahmad Fanoos’ instrument box warning them and his family to stop playing music or anything else.
“All your family members are busy with these dirty activities,” the letter read. “We warn you for the last time to leave …”
Under Taliban rule, music was illegal in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Since then, Fanoos rose to fame by playing harmonium and singing Ghazal or Afghan epic poetry. As a talent judge in the TV show “Afghan Star”, Fanoos became a household name and a target for the Taliban when it regained control of Afghanistan this summer.
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“It was very shocking for him,” Elham Fanous, Ahmad’s 24-year-old son, said of the Taliban letter. “He actually couldn’t really focus on the music anymore.”
A famous Afghan classical pianist in his own right moved Elham to the United States to study in 2015 after his music school was bombed.
Desperate to save his father and the remaining family members, Elham asked his sponsor, Lesley Rosenthal, COO of Juilliard School, for help.
“I was just trying to think of how we could help him,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal discovered that Fox had a significant stake in Moby Media Group – the television station that broadcast “Afghan Star”.
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She warned Fox about the situation, and in less than a week, Fanoos and five of his family members were evacuated on a plane with Fox staff.
FILE PHOTO: US Air Force loadmasters and pilots attached to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load passengers aboard a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 24, 2021.
(US Air Force / Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen / Handout via REUTERS / File Photo)
“We asked Fox if they could find some more seats on the plane for the whole family,” Rosenthal said, “and quite rightly they brought the whole family of six out to safety, to freedom.”
Fanoos filmed the heartbreaking escape from Afghanistan and turned it into a music video honoring religious freedom, tolerance and personal responsibility.
“It was very difficult for us … it was very dangerous,” Fanoos told Fox News. “There was a lot of Taliban at the gate to the airport.”
Fanoos, his daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren have been hosting in Qatar for the past two months. They arrived in the United States on October 29 and a few days before Thanksgiving, Ahmad and Elham were together again in New York for the first time since 2016.
“We just really hope to represent Afghanistan and Afghan music,” Elham said. “Afghan music runs in my veins, and it’s because of my father.”
Taliban fighters escort women in support of the Taliban government outside Kabul University, Afghanistan.
(AP Photo / Bernat Armangue)
Before leaving Afghanistan, Elham studied at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, founded in 2010.
Elham says that without the US military, music in Afghanistan would have perished.
“Do not lose hope. You did a lot,” Elham said of U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan, some of whom were discouraged by the Taliban’s takeover. “Without them, I do not think we would have been here in the United States. I do not think we would have been musicians.”
Father and son are now on a mission to save Afghan classical music and help the sound develop with Western influence.
“We are trying to show that Afghan people can have a positive impact on American society,” Elham said.
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The Fanoos family believes that as long as Afghan music is alive, so is the hope for a better future for the war-torn nation as well.
“[The music] is very necessary for the Afghan people, “said Ahmad.” That is my life. My Beloved. Music is my love. “
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