'First' Afghan female rapper seeks reason with rhymes

Sporting a long leather coat and western jeans under a headscarf, Soosan Feroz looks like many modern women in Kabul. But she is a surprising new phenomenon in this conservative Islamic country - she is the nation's first female rapper with a string of local performances already under her belt, including at the US embassy in Kabul. Her lyrics are not unfamiliar for many of her fellow countrywomen though, as she raps of rape, abuse and atrocities that Afghan women have endured during decades of war in a country gripped by poverty. "My raps are about the sufferings of women in my country, the pains of the war that we have endured and the atrocities of the war," Ms Feroz said. Like most fellow Afghans, the 23-year-old said her life is filled with bitterness with memories of war, bombing and life at refugee camps in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. Told that rap and hip hop had become a way for many artists around the world to express daily hardships in their lives, Ms Feroz said: "If rap singing is a way to tell your miseries, Afghans have a lot to say". "That's why I chose to be a rapper," she said. Feroz's first recorded piece of music, Our neighbours, which recalled her woes at Iranian refugee camps was posted on YouTube and has been viewed nearly 100,000 times. The lyrics, which spoke of becoming "the dirty Afghan", were borne from personal experience. "As a child when I was going to bring bread from our neighbourhood bakery, the Iranians would tell me, 'go back, you dirty Afghan'," Ms Feroz said. "I would be the last one in the line to get my bread." Afghan pop star Farid Rastagar had offered to help the young artist release an album, the first song of which would be released in January. One of the songs is called Naqis-Ul Aql which could be translated as "deficient in mind" - a common belief about women among Afghan men. "In this rap, she sings about the miseries of the women in Afghanistan, about abuses and wrong beliefs that still exists about women," Mr Rastagar said. Afghan women had made some progress since the fall of the Taliban, but many still suffered horrific abuse including so-called "honour killings" for perceived sexual disobedience. Not surprisingly Ms Feroz, who had the support of her parents to sing, has already made enemies not only among conservatives but within her own family. After the release of her first song on the internet some of Ms Feroz's uncles and their families shunned her, accusing her of bringing shame on them. Others, mostly anonymous callers, have threatened to kill her. "I always receive phone calls from unknown men who say I'm a bad girl and they will kill me," she said. But with the strength of her father Abdul Ghafaar Feroz, who says he prides himself on being her "personal secretary", she said she was not deterred. "Somebody had to start this, I did and I don't regret it and I will continue," she said. "I want to be the voice of women in my country."