Muslim Girl Band Praagaash Quits After Fatwa Issued in Kashmir

The all-girl rock band, Praagaash caused quite a buzz in late 2012 when they were the only female group to compete in a Battle of the Bands in Srinagar, Kashmir.

The band’s name, Praagaash, means “From Darkness to Light,” and the teenage rockers credit The Beatles and Billie Joe Armstrong as some of their musical influences.

But now after a slew of threatening messages on Facebook and a fatwa issued over the weekend by a top Kashmir cleric, the girls have called it quits.

Anchor, Marco Werman, interviews Nazir Masoodi, bureau chief of NDTV, an Indian TV network, who has been speaking with the teenage band members now in hiding.

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Marco Werman: Still, entertainment in that world doesn’t quite work by the same rules as it does here. A case in point can be found not too far from Abbottabad across Pakistan’s disputed border with Indian-controlled Kashmir. That is a pretty rare sound in Muslim-majority Kashmir. It’s a song performed by the first ever all girl rock band in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The band is called Praagaash, which means darkness to light. The three high school rockers created quite a buzz this past December as the only female group at a battle of the bands show held in Kashmir. It seemed like a great start. Then came the threatening comments on their Facebook page, and this past weekend one of Kashmir’s top Muslim clerics issued a fatwa against the trio. Overwhelmed by the attention, the teenage rockers turned to Facebook and announced they quit. One of the band members explained her reasoning to the BBC earlier today: “We didn’t do anything wrong. We wanted to pursue music, but we just quit now because in Islam it’s not allowed, so we won’t do anything against their wishes because people are that unhappy, so we can’t continue. That’s it.” A top Indian official in Kashmir has offered the girls protection, and the three band members have decided to keep a low profile for now. Their managers told reporters they are scared and just want the controversy to go away. Nazir Masoodi is the bureau chief for NDTV news network in Kashmir. He’s been in contact with the teen musicians.

Nazir Masoodi: These girls literally have gone into hiding. Today they told me that they are not going to perform anymore. These are all teenage girls aged between 15 and 16.

Werman: Well, they’ve only performed twice. It sounds as if they didn’t really do anything. Is it just the fact that it’s a female band that earned them this fatwa?

Masoodi: Well, it is not the first time that Kashmir has had female musicians or artists. We have here a great tradition of music. Nobody has ever objected to the performance of women, but this is something-a rock band is some new form of music, and the one cleric in Kashmir is saying that this music is un-Islamic. It is forbidden in Islam.

Werman: Now I know in Pakistan there’s a lot of tension over musical expression, especially hard line clerics, but this fatwa came in India-controlled Kashmir. Do you find that odd?

Masoodi: That is most unusual in Kashmir. As I said, there’s a great tradition. We have here the Muslim singers who have been performing and singing the music, which is about the religious faith of the Hindus. And the Hindu singers, they are performing the music which is related to Islam. So, great tolerance-no one has raised a question mark on it all these years, but now all of the sudden three girls just perform twice, and there’s a huge outcry, and these girls have been forced to quit this band. If they go against it, they won’t feel safe anymore.

Werman: Why do you think Praagaash got the fatwa?

Masoodi: These girls have chosen guitar.

Werman: It’s the aesthetics of it. It’s a modern music. Is that right?

Masoodi: Yeah, it is a modern music, it is a rock band, and this is something perhaps it will take a while to digest. There have been offers from Bollywood. They have invited these girls. They say that no, they can’t do it simply because of fear. Kashmir has a history of violence. Thousands of people have died in this conflict, and that’s why the fear of guns has forced these girls into silence.

Werman: Nazir Masoodi with NDTV news network. He’s the bureau chief in Kashmir based in Srinagar telling us about a fatwa declared on the rock trio Praagaash. Nazir, thank you very much. You can see a video of the teenage trio Praagaash rocking out before they disbanded. That’s at theworld.org.

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Here’s a video of one of the their performances — there have only been two: