Author: Balatch Baluch
Whenever I remember my childhood, unconsciously my mind flies to the period in which our mothers used to sing to us and for a moment, the joy of music mixed with motherly love fills me again.
It was as if the whole joy of music was hidden in those Zahirok [efn_note] Baluchi music/song of longing [/efn_note] and our whole being was filled with longing and peace. I am sure I share this feeling with people from my generation, who have had similar experiences. Their childhood was accompanied with the beautiful melodies of our mothers, melodies that are inherited from one generation to the other and they have safeguarded those melodies like treasure to pass on to their own children.
Maybe that is why even now, whenever we hear the voices of artists such as ‘’Zobeida Azadi’’ and ‘’Shamshuk’’ who are the successors of that generation, we fade away from their beautiful music, and we search for the soothing voice of our mothers in their throats, and for a moment we experience the peace of childhood again. Alas, many children of our generation are strangers to this experience and many mothers are alien to this tradition. The voice of women is banned in the new Baluch generation to the extent that even our children are deprived of the melodies of their mothers and our homes are strange to ‘’Nazink’’ [efn_note] Baluchi music/song of praise especially on the occasion of wedding [/efn_note] and ‘’Zahirok’’.
The ban, whether caused by custom or tradition, or by religion and sharia law, have had a great impact on Baluch culture, and unfortunately a large part of Baluch culture has been plundered with a great betrayal of the past being committed. We were not able to safeguard this great treasure that we have inherited, we treated it as an enemy and wiped it out of our ceremonies and weddings.
And by eliminating the role of women from Baluch music, we deprived our girls from their unique artistic tastes and alienated our daughters from Baluchi art. Inevitably, in such a silent society, where art is a crime and the artist a criminal, silent mothers are raised who are alienated from the pleasure of art and devoid of artistic and musical taste, and even if they want to sing a song for their children, it will certainly not be in Baluchi.
As it appears, now more than any other time, the new generation needs artists like ‘Zobeida’ and ‘Shamshuk’ to reconcile the mothers and children with a new generation of Baluchi music. And to share our beautiful experiences, that results in a dynamic and tasteful society. It will be a society in which art is not limited to a particular gender, where everyone will enjoy this blessing, regardless of gender. Building such a society requires increased courage to break the deterrent of taboo and chains of prejudice .