The only female whirling dancer in Afghanistan was due to kick off her biggest tour around the country.
A group of young Afghans – both women and men – is coming together in the country’s war-torn capital to practice a mystical Sufi Islamic dance.
Fahima Mirzaie, a 24-year-old student, founded the Kabul-based Sufi dance and performing arts group, which has strong female leads as well as members who are both male and female. The group is called Shohod Arefan and means ‘The Intuition of Mystics’.
As she spins, one hand reaches toward heaven and the other toward the earth, her white robe flowing, in the familiar image of a so-called “whirling dervish” seen across the Middle East and Central Asia. Dancers spin repetitively in prayer, chanting Allah and gaining in speed, seeking to lose themselves in a spiritual trance that they believe unites them with God.
She was hoping to help her students fight depression and find inner peace in a war-torn country where dancing is widely considered taboo.
The group’s founder says she sees their whirling dance is as a way of carving out a space in the country’s deeply conservative society, particularly when it comes to expectations about gender discrimination and dancing in mixed groups.
The ritual is well-loved for its beauty and mystical qualities; and the practice has traveled far and wide, even gaining popularity with western audiences. The tradition of the whirling dervish ceremony is said to have originated from the 13th-century philosopher and poet, Jalaluddin Rumi who was born in Afghanistan. He founded the ‘Mevlevi’ Sufi order who are the proponents of this beautiful synchronized spiritual dance.
Sufism has a long-standing tradition in Afghanistan. The country has been home to many Sufi saints and their shrines. Devotional songs and dance were commonplace here.
Watch the full documentary on @BBCWorld @BBCNews being repeated today and tomorrow. I followed the extraordinary journeys of whirling dervish Fahima Mirzaei and three other youths from Afghanistan whose world changed overnight after the collapse of Kabul. https://t.co/2dOdinVzwb
— Kawoon Khamoosh (@KawoonKhamoosh) September 19, 2021
Mainly involving swirling movements, Sama has spread throughout the Muslim world and is most famously associated with the Whirling Dervishes.
The dance is a part of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam that emphasizes the inward search for God. Islamist militants who view mystical traditions of Islam as heretical have attacked Sufi shrines in some Muslim countries.
Unfortunately, the situation in the country forces her to leave Kabul. Now Fahima is in France.
The Taliban sees Sufi whirling dervishes as against Islamic law.
Women have won hard-fought rights in Afghanistan since the austere rule of the Taliban was ended by a U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2001. Today the Taliban took over the country once again.
Many Afghan women now are facing the Taliban returning to power, recalling the years of oppression under a strict form of Islamic law.
