How does normal social, cultural, religious life survive in constant turmoil? How can the people flourish? These basic questions are examined and answered by Razia Sultanova's academic analysis and deep fieldwork, with extensive eye-witness and personal contacts and conversations with a wide variety of Afghan men and women. She looks at basic questions of gender, identity, nation, tradition, history, popular culture and especially the role of music - classical, popular, modern and contemporary - as a vital element for survival. And all is over-shadowed by the Taliban with on-going threat of terror and repression especially for women and girls. Here is a classical story of a people's struggle for everyday normality and preservation of cherished traditions in a war-torn society. AUTHOR: Dr Raza Sultanova is a musicologist and social scientist with an international reputation. She graduated from the Uzbek State Conservatory and her PhD is from Moscow State Conservatory. She was a Research Fellow at Goldsmith's College and the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. She is Visiting Professor at Charles University, Prague, Chair of ICTM SG on Global Music, Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopaedia of the Turkic-Speaking World, Research Fellow, Sarajevo University, Research Fellow, University College, Cork, and Research Fellow, Cambridge Muslim College. She authored major studies including From Shamanism to Sufism: Women, Islam and Culture in Central Asia; On the Ruins of Empire: Central Asia migrant's music in 21st century Russian metropolises; Why Women Sing: Female performance in traditional societies; The non-Russian sound of post-Soviet Moscow. 16 b/w illustrations
