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Dr. Ahmad Sarmast is the visionary Founder and Director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), established in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. ANIM was created as a modern, inclusive conservatory, welcoming children in need, and open to girls, who had long been banned from access to education. ANIM sought to rescue and revive Afghanistan’s rich, musical heritage which was nearly eradicated under Taliban rule.
Sarmast’s mission came at great personal risk. Despite death threats and a targeted suicide bombing that left him with grave injuries, Sarmast persisted and ANIM flourished, until the sudden return of the Taliban in 2021.
He refused to be deterred. After several months in hiding, and in an extraordinary act of defiance and hope, the students and teachers escaped and re-established the school in Portugal – reborn as a “conservatory in exile.”
Dr. Sarmast vividly recounts and speaks with raw emotion about the harrowing experience, the ache of separation from home and the enduring strength his students and faculty find in music. Through it all, he continues to champion music as not only an art form, but a basic human right.
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