Afghan Women and Men Perform Sufi Islamic Dance Known as Sema or Sufi Whirling
By Ashley Thompson
September
25, 2020
A group of
young people are dancing in public in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. The women
and men perform a Sufi Islamic dance known as Sema.
The group’s
members hope that dancing in mixed groups changes expectations about gender in
the deeply conservative country.
Fahima
Mirzaie performs a Sema dance (Sufi Whirling) in Kabul Afghanistan, Thursday,
Aug. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
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Fahima
Mirzaie is the group’s founder. She is 24 years old and works as an economist.
“I just
wanted to express myself and my feelings with Sema dance,” Mirzaie said.
Mirzaie
recently danced alongside male members of her group at a cultural event held at
an Italian restaurant in central Kabul. That night, she was the only woman from
her group dancing, although other women watched and read poems.
As she
spins in circles, one hand reaches toward the sky and the other toward the
earth. Her white clothes are flowing, in a familiar image seen across the
Middle East and Central Asia.
Dancers
spin repetitively in prayer as they say Allah’s name and gain speed. They seek
to lose themselves in a spiritual state that they believe brings them close to
God.
But
Afghanistan is not widely accepting of the activity. The powerful Taliban
political group rejects Sufism, dancing and singing.
Many Afghan
women worry about a return of Taliban rule as part of a future peace deal. They
remember the years of oppression under a severe form of Islamic law.
But even in
today’s Afghanistan, most people consider women and men dancing together in
public to be a violation of the country’s culture, traditions and religious
beliefs.
Mirzaie’s
dance group brings men and women together to perform in public. Most of the
members are Shiite Muslims. They are a minority in Afghanistan that has been
targeted for attacks by the Islamic State group. The militant group considers
Shiites – including Sufis – to be anti-Islam.
Mirzaie
says she does not think about what people may say about her dancing. She is
part of the generation that has grown up during Afghanistan’s latest war. She
remains concerned about the violence in her country. She hopes she can change
that through Sufism and the written works of Rumi, possibly the most well-known
Sufi.
Her group
has also used Sufi dance to help them get through the coronavirus crisis.
During a lockdown earlier this year, Mirzaie closed her center and provided
training to her students online.
Now, she is
back dancing in person. At the Italian restaurant, Abdul Ahad, a civil rights
activist, said he had been to a few private Sufi events in Afghanistan. But
this was the first time he had seen women doing the dance.
Mirzaie’s
father, her sister and her mother are among her few supporters. But they also
worry. Her mother Qamar says she stays awake at night, waiting until Mirzaie
returns home after dancing.
“There’s no
security and girls are taunted on their way out to work,” she said.
Mirzaie
says she cannot live by someone else’s rules. She said she does not plan to
stop performing.
“I never
asked anyone’s permission for starting it and I will not need anyone’s
permission to end it, so I will never stop or surrender to anyone,” she said.
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I'm Ashley Thompson.
The Associated Press reported this story.
Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the
editor.
Original Headline: Young Afghan Women, Men
Perform Sufi Dance Together
Source: The Voice of America News
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/afghan-women-men-perform-sufi/d/122956
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