Top human Tom Morello is spearheading a push to evacuate a number of female musicians out of Afghanistan in the wake of a Taliban takeover.
The Rage Against The Machine guitar legend has penned an open letter asking for support for his friend Lanny Cordola, who runs a music school for girls in the region.
Six years ago, with the support of Morello’s Miraculous Love Kids NFP organisation, Cordola launched a program in Kabul dubbed ‘Girl With a Guitar’, which has taught close to 200 students, who’ve gone on to record collaborations with Morello, Brian Wilson, Nick Cave and more.
Now, Morello says, all the girls are in “grave danger”.
“[Girl With a Guitar] takes in street orphans and other girls that have endured significant trauma and uses music as a rehabilitation tool and means of working through their problems, their histories, and their hopes. I’ve had the honor of collaborating with these wonderful kids,” Morello writes in the letter, published by Billboard.
“Since the Taliban takeover their school has been destroyed and the girls are in hiding. They are at extreme risk because they are widely known to have performed Western music and have been educated by a male American teacher. Anything you could do to help save their lives would be much appreciated.”
Morello’s mate Cordola has since fled to Pakistan (he was in Islamabad to get his visa renewed when the Taliban took control), where he’s working to get 12 girls, their families and his driver out of harm’s way.
“We’re trying to investigate if getting them to the Pakistan border is a possibility,” he tells the magazine, adding that he’s in daily contact with his students.
“We’ve been talking to a lot of different people, rescue organizations. We need to get them out of Afghanistan to start a new life somewhere… because their lives are in peril.”
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