I believe deeply in the freedom of my homeland, in the bright future that awaits Afghan women, and in the hope for an end to their long struggle. We all yearn for a better world for every human being.
As I write this from Washington, DC, where I’ve been exiled since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, I reflect on Sima's Song during a time when women’s voices were silenced and their faces hidden from the world. In my country, they are forbidden to stroll in parks or bask in the warmth of the sun. Reading and writing have become acts of rebellion, and art and cinema are viewed as unforgivable sins.
Each day, I hold my breath, waiting for the next news of a woman stoned to death for daring to love. In my homeland, even the simple act of breathing is a defiant statement against a suffocating reality. Love, art, and life are held captive in the shadows, tortured by oppression. Listen to these voices—the world needs to embrace these souls in their quest for justice. Sima's Song is not just a story; it is the anguished cry of a nation, a beacon of hope in a sea of despair. With every brushstroke and every note, we wage war against the filth and darkness that suffocate our spirits, revealing the harsh truths of our existence and shining a light on the corruption that governs our lives.
We stand at the precipice of change, yearning for a world where women’s rights are not mere slogans but sacred promises—a world where morality and humanity are woven into the fabric of our reality, guiding us toward a future filled with hope and dignity.
As an Afghan filmmaker, I have lived in constant struggle as my country went through long periods of oppression and political and social instability. During the first Taliban regime, like thousands of Afghan girls, I had to leave school and stay at home. Television and radio were banned, and I decided to focus on the clandestine reading of film books that my father had. Years later, after the fall of the Taliban, I founded my own production company and began producing and directing films and TV series. My goal was to encourage a change in the perception of women through stories about strong female characters—breaking gender stereotypes and talking about equality, democracy, freedom, and justice, values that need to be reinforced in my country.
According to Amnesty International, Afghanistan is the worst country in the world for women to live in. But this has not always been the case. In the 1960s and 1970s, women could go to university, walk alone in the street, participate in politics, dress as they wished, and enjoy freedom. It was in the 1970s that political instability degenerated into a conflict which, with the direct aggression of the USSR and the intervention of the United States, led to civil wars and the rise of the Taliban.
For years, I have devoted myself to collecting the forgotten stories of many of the women who were involved in this tumultuous period from all sides, drawn in by the hidden interests of corrupt politicians. And it is from their stories that I created Sima’s Song. The film tells the true story of Sima and Suraya, two women who spent their youth in the 1970s fighting for freedom and equality—two women with radically different political visions who challenged power at the height of the Cold War and gave us a powerful lesson about what loyalty, freedom, and friendship truly mean.
An intimate and moving portrait of our recent past, this story can help us understand the current situation in my country, Afghanistan, with the resurgence of the Taliban.
Sima’s Song is a bright, colorful, and lively film that portrays the atmosphere of Afghanistan in the 1970s through a subjective and feminine cinematic approach. Although it is linked to real events, the film is not a slave to realism, and its story unfolds in a timeless universe of its own. The color palette of the film is inspired by the deep hues of famous Afghan stones like lapis lazuli, emerald vases, and silk fabrics with light brown backgrounds. Politically active students—both men and women—wore colorful clothing in keeping with the hippie fashion of the 1970s. Immersed in music and art, beauty and love became the fronts of a peaceful life, at least as long as politics had not prevailed.
This film is a reminder of all the forgotten stories of countries that have found themselves in periods of upheaval and ideological tension. And now that the rights of the women and people of Afghanistan are in jeopardy, I believe making this film is more important than ever.