After winning Best Newcomer at the 2017 Songlines Music Awards, Kefaya notch up another memorable victory for their collaboration with the Afghan-born singer Elaha Soroor. On the album Afghan folk songs that have been passed down from mother to daughter are backed by violin, sax, flugelhorn, dombra (Turkic lute), percussion and washes of electronica. Growing up in Kabul, Soroor ran up against the immense opposition to female singers that is rife in traditional Afghan society and often found herself in personal danger. Full of stories of joy, pain and resilience, the album also features Sarathy Korwar on tabla and dholak and the Iranian singer Mohsen Namjoo, who’s under a fatwa. ‘In the eyes of the world, Afghan identity is defined by terrorism, war and the Taliban,’ Soroor says. ‘I have tried to show other associations such as the beauty of our language and the diversity of our music.’

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