Milton Keynes Arts Centre invites you to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan and its people on Saturday, September 16, as part of this year's Heritage Open Days offering.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, over 24,000 Afghan men, women and children came to the UK seeking refuge. By March 2023, almost 9,000 remained in temporary hotel accommodation, including in Milton Keynes.
In January 2023, volunteers at the Mead Centre in Newport Pagnell invited Milton Keynes Arts Centre to meet a group of Afghan women who joined them there each week. There, the women cooked and shared their own food – a simple act not ordinarily available to them. As a thank you, the Arts Centre invited the women to Great Linford in April when they worked with artist Sarah Hunt in creating cyanotypes – an early form of photography using natural sunlight.
In April 2023 also, the UK Government began a process to stop all bridging accommodation. Around 250 Afghan people had been welcomed in Newport Pagnell in 2021; those remaining were now given just a few months to find new homes. Yet, however difficult their situation, the greatest concern of the women was for friends and relatives left behind in Afghanistan – in particular for women and girls.
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Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021, women and girls have been required to stay at home and to adhere to a strict dress code. They have been banned from entering amusement parks, public baths, gyms and sports clubs and from working in NGO offices.
Girls have been banned from secondary school and women from tertiary education. Women doctors have been stripped of their qualifications meaning many women and girls have no realistic access to medical care. Music has also been heavily restricted with instruments destroyed; many public artworks have been erased and galleries have closed.
For Heritage Open Day 2023, Milton Keynes Arts Centre celebrates the rich cultural history of Afghanistan and its people. They will be joined by the Afghan artist, Samira Kitman, who will demonstrating the use of traditional Afghan designs and techniques to make greeting cards; and by Ahmadzia Baktyari, who will be making and flying kites.
Veronica Doubleday will be singing traditional Herati folk songs and playing daireh, accompanied on the dutar and rubab by John Baily and on the tabla drums by Yama Shah. Traditional Afghan food and drink will also be on sale, provided by the Wolverton restaurant, Khyber Chefs.
Entry to the event - which will run between 11am and 5pm - is free.
Pic: Ahmadzia Baktyari
