"Celebration of the Arts"
Remarks by Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Embassy of Afghanistan
05/13/2004
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
I am honored to welcome you to our embassy. Thanks for joining
us to celebrate Afghanistan’s rich heritage of arts and
culture.
Please allow me to acknowledge some of the Afghan
artists that are here and have contributed to this event:
• Professor Amanullah Haiderzad, Founder
and the Head of Fine Arts
Department at Kabul University – and a world renowned
artist
• Professor Hamed Naweed, former Professor of Art at Kabul
University
and a well-known Afghan poet
• Mr. Ibrahim Habibzai, Master Painter and the Head of
Union of Afghanistan Artists
• Ms. Sima Azimi, an afghan designer
• Ms. Zarmina Sayd, an Afghan designer
• Mr. Sulaiman Sherzad, musician
• Our beautiful models
We are also grateful to
• Ms. Heidi Kuhn and the Roots of Peace for their generous
support and contribution to this event. Roots of Peace, through
their initiative of turning Mines to Vines, is restoring another
cultural legacy of our country, the thousands years old heritage
of growing grapes in Afghanistan;
• the American Society of Afghan Professionals, and Fawzia
Afshari
• Mr. Ata Amin, social Activist
• Mr. Sediq Alem, from Ariana Muska Video Production
• Mr. Rafi Habibi, from Afghan Market
• Ms. Nahid Azimi, our wonderful Florist
This event would not have been possible without
the leadership and commitment of
• my wife, Shamim Jawad, and
• very hard work of Homa Naderi, our media and public
relations officer, and Laila Waziri, social affairs officer
and event organizer and all my staff.
Thank you for your wonderful work.
Afghanistan is a mosaic of various beautiful and
rich cultures. My country is at the cross-roads of Asia and
once was a center and hub of learning and commerce, connecting
China with the Middle East and India with Europe through the
historic Silk Road.
Greek, Indian, Persian, Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist
and Muslim philosophers, poets, artists, merchants and conquerors
traversed Afghanistan and greatly contributed to the emergence
of magnificent civilizations and art styles.
The Afghan Emperors, monarch and courts, such
as the Ghaznawid and Temourid of Herat attracted world class
poets and artists, such as Ferdoussi and Behzad.
The work of great poets, such as Rahman Baba and
Khoshal Khatak crystallize our love for freedom, and devotion
to mysticism and Sufism.
The Kabul Museum used to be one of the richest
museums of Asia.
The invasion, war and violence in Afghanistan
did not only destroy the country but also ruined many of our
cultural heritages.
The world community sadly witnessed the mindless
destruction of the giant Buddhas by the Taliban in early March
of 2001 in Bamiyan province. The two giant Buddhas are thought
to have been carved into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan in
the third century.
Today, Afghans are putting their lives and country
back tougher. Once again, as President Karzai has said, Afghanistan
is emerging as model of cooperation of civilizations.
Now that we are rebuilding Afghanistan, nothing
can serve better than art to deliver the message of unity, beauty,
love, peace and reconciliation in our war-torn society.
Today, we are pleased to present to you a collection
of paintings, sculptures, photos, colorful jewelry, beautiful
traditional costumes and artifacts of Afghanistan.
What you see is a very small part of our cultural
heritage. This collection includes pictures from the of prehistoric
sculptures; one carved from stone 17000 years ago, the oldest
sculpture found in Asia; artifacts from the Greco-Bactrian and
Greco–Buddhist styles of art that flourished in Afghanistan
from 200 BC–to through the fifth century; the Islamic
Art that flourished in the cities of Balkh, Ghazni, Herat, Kandahar,
and Kabul from 9th to 15th century to the modern work by Breshna
and Professor Haidarzad and a 12 year old Afghan painter, living
in Kabul.
Last but not least, I want to mention and thank
my staff members, who are doing a wonderful job, working very
long hours to help their country, their people and their embassy:
• Gen. Payenda Mohammad Minister Counselor&
Military Attaché
• Ghafar Oaman Counselor
• Hekmat Karzai First Secretary
• Farooq Mayel First Secretary
• Jamil Ahmadzai Second Secretary
• Omar Ghafoorzai Third Secretary
• Mariam Nawabi Commercial attaché
• Ashraf Haidari Gov't & Media
• Khatera Attay Protocol officer
• Schahn Sideqi Technology officer
• Wagma Paindakhail Visa Officer
• Shafiqa Nabi Receptionist
• Tariq Hanif Intern
• Arsenio Garcia Staff
• Fatah Eshaqzai Staff
• Ceasar Staff
Thank you. Heidi, would you like to share a few words with us.
