Restrictions on actresses threaten Afghan theatre, cinema heritage

HERAT -- Restrictions on female performers over the past seven months are threatening to derail Afghanistan's film and theatre heritage, industry insiders say.

While most performers fled Afghanistan last August, some female actors who remained in the country have lost their jobs and now live in uncertainty.

Only five of about 30 actresses who were working in Herat province before the political upheaval are still in the country, according to the provincial theatre directorate.

All five are unemployed.

Fatema Hussaini, who acted in Herat plays and films for nearly two decades, said she is now jobless and confined to her home.

"I worked in the entertainment industry for 17 years, but all my efforts have been in vain," she said.

"I am the breadwinner for my family. I do not have a husband... but my work in the entertainment industry used to be enough to feed my family, and now I have been unemployed for six months," she said.

She had roles in 16 movies and 10 soap operas throughout her career, said Hussaini.

"I performed in over 1,000 plays," she said. "I also used to produce two plays per week, which were broadcast on national TV as well as a local private TV station in Herat."

Now that all of that has come to a standstill, Hussaini said she feels hopeless.

Women essential for cinema, theatre

On March 13, for the first time in two decades, male actors performed a show without their female counterparts at Herat's Provincial Information and Culture Directorate Hall, where men made up 95% of the audience.

Many talented actors have fled the country amid recent political changes, said Faridoon Fakori, director of Herat's theatre directorate.

"Most of the female artists were the sole breadwinners for their households, but they have been deprived of continuing their professional career," he said.

"If the ban on women performing and playing music in plays continues, all artists will ultimately give up and there will be no more theatre or cinema in Herat," Fakori said.

Without women's participation, theatre and cinema are incomplete, he said, adding that men cannot carry on alone.

The art scene will vanish without women, Jalil Ahmad Ahmadi, who has performed in plays and films in Herat for 28 years, agreed.

"The plays or movies that we produced with our sisters were all in alignment with Islamic values and were geared toward improving our society," he said.

"If we intend to produce a show to reflect on matters involving a family, we shall definitely need a woman to perform that woman's role," he said. "Having a sister and a mother is a must in a household, and only women can play such roles as the mothers and sisters in any given show."

Prohibiting women from appearing in cinema and theatre is wrong and will destroy Afghanistan's art heritage, he added.

Death of Afghan plays

Theatre productions in Herat go back at least 100 years, and many young people have chosen to be performers over the past several years.

Ghulam Sakhi Ghulami, who has performed in movies and plays for more than 30 years, said he is sad to see theatre dying in Afghanistan.

"First, they banned women from performing in plays, and since then, male performers don't have a safe space in the industry, either," he said.

"It is horrible to see Herat's theatre, which is over 100 years old, dying in the province," Ghulami said.

"It's very painful that a historical art of our country is on the brink of destruction."

Threatre thrived in Herat during the past two decades, but it has faced a downfall over the past seven months, said Mohammad Yaqub Amini, who has been working in the industry for more than 40 years in Herat.

He said he is disappointed about the future of the industry because of restrictions and the lack of support for it.

"Many theatre performers have left Afghanistan... while others who remain in the country are disillusioned and discouraged from continuing their profession," he said.

The death of the theatre and movie industries will lead to the loss of Afghan history and values, Amini warned.