Winners announced in Afghan National Poetry and Song Competition

19 February 2004

Poems were submitted around a theme to raise awareness among Afghans that all have a role in the development process

The Bank Information Center (BIC) asked the Kabul-based Foundation for Culture and Civil Society to organize a poetry and song competition focusing on two themes:

• National unity
• The right of all Afghans to participate in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development.

The competition has been organized into three phases. Phase one was a poetry competition. Phase two is a song-writing competition in which the winning poems are set to music. Phase three will be the recording of the winning song and distribution to local Afghan radio stations.

The poetry competition concluded in December, and sixty-eight entries were received. Names were removed from the poems before being reviewed by an independent panel of judges who selected the winning entries.

Winners

We would like to congratulate the winners of the poetry competition. Prizes were awarded December 20, 2003 at a ceremony held at the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society:

First Place, $200: Mohammed Firoz Khawar, a shopkeeper in Mazar-i-Sharif

• "Unanimity" (translated from Dari)

Second Place, $125: Amanullah Husa, staff member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Kabul

• "National Unity" (translated from Pashtu)

Third Place, $75: Bari Ghairat, a mullah (religious leader) in Wardak Province

• "The Hands of Unity (qasida style)" (translated from Pashtu)

Panel of Judges

• Azam Rahnaward Zariab, Deputy Minister for Arts
• Engineer Siddiq Ghiam and well known musicologist and composer
• Partau Naderi, Poet and Acting Head of Afghan Civil Society Forum (Swiss Peace)
• Abdul Hadi, BBC-Pashtu Service and Poet
• Timor Shah Hakimyar, Director of the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society

Afghan musicians are now being asked to set the winning poems to music. This phase of the competition will be officially announced at Afghanistan’s National Music Festival, to be held over Nau Roz (Afghan New Year), March 21-23, 2004 in Mazar-i-Sharif. The Foundation for Culture and Civil Society is organizing the festival and will have additional information at a later date.

BIC advocates for greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation at the multilateral development banks and this competition was seen as a way to raise awareness among Afghans that all have a role in the development process.