Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello is asking Americans for help getting female guitar students out of Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover.
In an open letter he called attention to the imperiled students of guitarist Lanny Cordola’s “Girl with a Guitar” program, which has twelve minor girl guitarist students ranging from the ages of 8 to 17 years old, who are hiding in fear for their lives because of their participation in the program.
“I’m writing on behalf of some very special girls in Afghanistan who are in grave danger,” Morello said in the letter. “[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.”
“Since the Taliban takeover their school has been destroyed and the girls are in hiding,” he continued. “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.”
Cordola launched the Girl With a Guitar program in 2015, and has instructed close to 200 children. His students have remotely recorded songs with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, country superstar Blake Shelton, Foo Fighters’ Rami Jaffee, former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, and covered the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams” with Morello in 2020.
Cordola is attempting to get the 12 girls and their families out of the country after a mission to retrieve them failed days ago.
“We’re trying to investigate if getting them to the Pakistan border is a possibility,” he said. “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.”
When Cordola was asked what would happen if he couldn’t successfully evacuate the children from Kabul, he remarked, “That’s not an option. I’m not thinking that way yet.”
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