At the start of the New Year I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Jenny Logico-Cruz, her husband Blonski Cruz and the rest of the Langgam Performance Troupe on the encore run of their debut theater production Swear Not By The Moon – an experimental take on the Shakespeare classic Romeo & Juliet. Please check out more about SNBTM here:

https://www.facebook.com/LPTSwearNotByTheMoon/?fref=ts

Final Performance Dates:

Earlier today I discovered through my friend’s Alessandro Pavone timeline that VICE journalist/producer Mohammed Rasool has been released by the Turkish authorities.

As I get ready to leave Afghanistan, possibly for a great long while, my thoughts go back to everyone I was fortunate enough to meet and befriend over the past year here in Kabul.

I will especially miss the great people I worked with on Afghan Star Season 10, Sesame Street: Afghanistan Season 4 and the 4th season of the Roshan Afghan Premier League.

I cannot possibly tag all the people I care about immensely but please know that I was proud to work with you all – and I very much hope to keep in-touch with many of you in the years to come. You represent the best hope for this country’s future and it was a privilege to work with you all.

Come on Turkey, you’re better than this. ‪#‎FreeRasool‬

Almost six months ago, a young woman named Farkhunda was beaten to death by angry mob – right here, in the heart of Kabul.

She was killed and her body was desecrated on a street I drove by everyday on my commute to work. I have never looked at the street or the people that walked along it the same way ever again.

Her death brought home again just how deadly it still is to be a woman in Afghanistan today. Now, her bruised and bloodied face will remain an iconic symbol in the movement to end violence against women here in Afghanistan.

That’s why I decided against sharing this short PSA for the Afghan Women Skills Development Center.

At the time, I felt it would have been inappropriate to call attention to it when the video of Farkhunda’s murder was far and away the most damning PSA this country could ever produce on the subject of violence against women.

But I am proud of it.

I am proud of the people that I worked with, like my production manager Hamid Reja and my brilliant editor Sam Ahmadi. I am proud of the people that contributed to the PSA, like actress Lena Alam, MMA fighter Baz Mohammad Mobarez, singer Farhad Ghafoor and even a courageous Mullah.

I am indebted to all of them for joining to speak up and call on Afghans around the country to end violence against women.

Thank you.

The 2015 season of the AfghanPremierLeague​ is in the bag. I would like to thank Boss Man Nasir Ahmadzai​ for bringing me along to ride with his posse and my colleague Harmansha Dhillon​ for being such as cool Co Event Manager.

It was a blast and buckets of laughs working with the rest of the team; Aziz, Nasim, Noorm, Salim, Samim and Shahnaz jan, thanks for welcoming me as part of the team!

Huge Props to the Grey Matter juggernaut for their essential work with the live broadcast of our matches and the Kaboora hordes for their support work.

And I must thank the High Generalissimo of the Freelance Photography Army (FPA) Eman Malik​ for leading his unit to photographic victory on this season’s green. This has been yet another unforgettable work experience for me here in Afghanistan.

Thanks for all the love peeps. ^_^ <3

The League in action!

Am updating my filmmaking resume and what do I find floating around YouTube? The behind the scenes documentary I produced and directed for the independent feature film Room 213 directed by Keith Sicat​ and Sari Dalena​. Am glad to see Viva making use of it.

INSIDE ROOM 213
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYMM_a_jVqw

Am still quite proud of it to this day. ^_^

While working at Tolo Tv طلوع​ I had the pleasure of working with Sajid Jannaty​ on Season 10 of Afghan Star​. We become close friends and I enjoyed working with him and Zuhal Nazari on the backstage program for the show.

But years before Sajid joined Tolo, he worked for several years as a translator for the US Marine Corp in Helmand, Afghanistan. He was very young and it was very dangerous work. Despite the hazards he faced, he served with distinction, impressing the US officers he worked for with his drive and intelligence. And the US military never leaves a comrade behind on the battlefield.

A few days ago Sajid immigrated from Afghanistan to the United States of America to start the long but rewarding journey towards American citizenship. I cannot be more happy for Sajid and I know that he’ll make a great contribution to both Afghanistan and America as a US citizen. Keeping going Sajid jan, my brother from another mother. <3

Dear Colleagues,

Before too much time goes by… It’s never too late… OMG SUPERSTAR is just about to start… Pick your line or reason, but we really need to talk about and celebrate AFGHAN STAR Season 10 before we close the books on it for good.

AFGHAN STAR, Tolo’s pride and joy. A program almost as old as Tolo TV itself. Loved in Afghanistan, immortalized abroad in Havana Marking’s documentary by the same name. My first gig with the company. The season was a wild ride. With most of the team jumping from THE VOICE: Afghanistan directly to AFGHAN STAR we had little time we had to prepare for Season 10, sometimes it felt like we were running a roller coaster, not a TV show!

But by God, we did it.

We delivered a TV show Tolo can be proud of – and us too. I am writing this for all of us.

… Every stage show at Tolo TV is born at the Content Department and AFGHAN STAR is no exception… Hamid and I provided guidance to Production Management, Post Production and Creative, directing the effort to deliver the show to Tolo all the way from pre production to the final broadcast export.

Our content team was packed with many talented young producers, among them I would like to thank Tamim jan for the countless packages he effortlessly directed for the team. I would like to thank Zuhal and Sajid jan for the great Backstage Shows they produced for us and our devoted AFGHAN STAR fans. I would like to thank Fatema jan for her great work running our social media content with Creative and Musadiq jan, always ready to do whatever the team needed. And Mujtaba jan, untested and newly transferred over from Post Production; I would like to thank him for the many incredible episodes he directdc for us. And our host Mustafa jan has my thanks and respect for pulling double duty as an incredible presenter and expert post production supervisor. We’re all indebted to his charm and relentless energy and work ethic.

And lastly and most importantly, what about my Brother in Arms Hamid jan? He had a monumental job in front of him, dealing with several departments and dozens of people throughout Tolo and beyond. Despite many challenges, Hamid jan worked with everyone to deliver one of the best season’s of AFGHAN STAR in recent history. It was an honor and a pleasure working with him and rest of the Content team on AFGHAN STAR S10.

If shows are born at Content, they grow up and mature with the support of Production Management… I must thank Hasib and his team, Hameedullah Reja, Ahmad Milad, Sayed Basir Sadat and Farid Ghawsi, Rona Aziz and Naveed Khawari for coordinating the immense logistics involved with running a program like AFGHAN STAR, running the Guest House for the contestants, managing the studio floor during recording days and for keeping us all schedule. I know that it was a tough job but Hasib and his production staff tried their best to provide the show with what we needed. We are indebted to his hard work.

The Floor Managers spent most of their time on sets built by Hussain Amiri and his staff at Set Decor. It was always amazing to see the set designs Hamid and I planned on paper with Creative eventually take shape under Hussain jan’s supervision. He and his colleagues are some of the hardest working people at Tolo, putting in long hours to build our sets under extremely unforgiving deadlines. We all owe them our thanks for the fine work they do.

And once the sets are built, Aber Naibkhail and his huge team show up from our Technical Operating Department to run the cameras and lights we need to produce our program. Together, working with Shams Rahman from our Sound Department, they did a great job working with Content and Production Management to produce this season of AFGHAN STAR. I would like to thank Aber jan, Shams jan and Naeem Sarwari for their unflagging support to Hamid jan and myself.

And when the lights would come up, audiences across Afghanistan would see our contestants transformed ordinary boys and girls into Pop Superstars through the wardrobe and make up Karima Hassanzada, Sayed Mukhtar Jafary and the rest of the Make Up & Wardrobe team. Karima and her team will always have my thanks for doing such a great job adding extra color and personality to our contestants through your wardrobe and make up choices!

And when all the excitement of a recording day was over, several data cards would be delivered to Mirwais Amiri and his editors at Post Production. The rough is cut away and everything is sharpened into a diamond, to shine in the eyes and imagination of the Afghan public… AFGHAN STAR was so a program large, we required 3 full time editors working everyday, throughout the week to get ready episodes for broadcast. I would like to personally thank Mirwais Khan for adjusting the post production schedule of AFGHAN STAR to give us more time to work on all our shows and for assigning to us 3 talented editors to work with.

And the editors I worked with, Ramin, Rashid and Sameer all put in long hours to cut together gripping episodes of AFGHAN STAR. Theirs and Mirwais’s support allowed us to deliver (possibly for the first time in the history of the program) content to our colleagues at Quality Control some hours before broadcast, a first in the history of AFGHAN STAR’S production from what I understand. I will always be thankful for the great effort and pride they put into their work and I would I hope that I’ll have the opportunity to work with all of them again at some point in the near future.

Over at Creative we had a great ally in Ahmad Reshad. AFGHAN STAR had tight Creative deadlines it was a challenging assignment but Ahmad and his colleagues went about their work with great cheer and enthusiasm and I now have the pleasure of considering him a close friend. I would like to thank him and Mohammed Sayed for working with us to craft the image of AFGHAN STAR Season 10. And whenever our tens of thousands of fans visit our online portals, they were treated to Warekzai jan’s beautiful photography. Every recording day Warekzai would provide us with photos that perfectly capture the spirit and excitement of AFGHAN STAR and the contestants. Thank you for sharing how you see AFGHAN STAR with the rest of us Warekzai jan.

… And when the program wrapped up on-air, Shaheer Mohseni at the Online Department would step-in to help run our popular YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter social media platforms. I cannot imagine how busy Shaheer and his small team must be on a daily basis – but they never missed a beat. Those social media platforms allowed us to engage with our viewers and attract viewers to our on-air broadcasts and I must thank Shaheer and his team for doing such a fine job for us.

We make this program to not only entertain and inspire Afghans throughout the world but to also make money for Tolo TV. And in that effort, I must thank our colleagues at Sales & Marketing, Jonathan Flender, Mujeebuddin Sahil, Sayed Hafiz Rahimi and Cliff Tendler for their drive and enthusiasm in finding significant corporate sponsors to help pay for the production of AFGHAN STAR and to make it profitable for the TV station, ensuring many more years of great singing for the people of Afghanistan. It was an absolute pleasure working closely with Cliff & Co. to make Season 10 one of the best sponsorship experiences for our Gold and Silver sponsors.

And then there’s the music, strip everything away and all you have left is the music. And the music at Tolo TV means Barbud. While we had many challenges this season, somehow we made it to the end together. I must thank the entire Barbud team, Vaheed Kaacemy, Rohullah Roozbeh, Arash Barez and the arrangers for the tremendous amount of work they put into coaching the Season 10 contestants and arranging great music for them, week after week.

A small army of people work on AFGHAN STAR, too many to list and thank. For all you unsung heroes, please know that the Content Team appreciated everything you contributed. I would like to thank the Tolo leadership for supporting us throughout an action packed and challenging season and lastly, most importantly, I would like to thank all the contestant from Season 10.

Salim Naikzad, Mustafa Mehryar, Omid Rahimi, Shokran Khan, Hasher Ehsas, Mursal Farhmand, Majid Andkhui, Ziba Noori, Nayeb Noorzai, Elyas Isar, Panjshanba and Ali Saqi, have my deepest thanks for having the courage to believe in themselves and to pursue a dream. They all shined so brightly, I hope that they enjoyed their time with us. I hope they made some friends and created some new opportunities for themselves while on the program.

And I hope they all keep singing.

Yrs,
– Waise Azimi
Co-Showrunner, Afghan Star

Just Moi

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to produce and direct a Public Service Announcement decrying violence against women here in Afghanistan. The client was a local NGO that provides shelter and skills training to Afghan women that have fled domestic violence. I leapt at the opportunity to work on the project.

That PSA remains the highlight of my short time here Tolo Tv طلوع​. I was immensely proud of the work that my team put into the production and the bravery of the men and women that agreed to participate in the PSA. I couldn’t wait to share it with my friends and family.

… But after what happened here last week, I don’t have the heart to share it. It wouldn’t do any real justice to the life and death issues women face here in Afghanistan.

Instead, heartbreakingly, I am going to share another video that was filmed just last week, before the Islamic New Year here in Afghanistan.

In case you can’t make out what’s happening in the video, that’s a group of men beating to death a 32 year old woman named Farkhunda.

She was the same age as my sister Sara.

The reason for this incredible, mindless mob violence? They thought she burned a copy of the Holy Qu’ran. After they killed her, they set her body on fire and then threw into the Kabul river, like a piece of garbage.

What happened to Farkhunda shook me badly. I have always known that Afghanistan is a dangerous country to both live and work. I have frequently driven by the sights of car bombings and gun battles, sometimes just hours apart. And my sister and father narrowly escaped being caught up in a terrible attack on the Serena hotel that killed scores of people.

There is no denying that Afghanistan is an unpredictable, violent place.

But what made the killing of Farkhunda so horrific, so unimaginable was to realize her killers were not the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or ISIS. They were not diehard religious fanatics ready to strap a suicide vest to themselves and enter Paradise in a blaze of glory.

They were just ordinary, average young Afghan men. The kind of men I see everyday on my drive to work. And they almost gleefully took this woman’s life.

And there weren’t many of them. As you can clearly see in the video, there were scores of men around watching the attack unfold. Any one of these men could have stepped forward and tried to put to a stop to the madness. Instead, they all watched a young women get slowly beaten to death as if they were watching a cricket game. That was probably even more frightening to me than the handful of thugs directly responsible for Farkhunda’s death.

They simply stood aside and watched.

The police that were present at the scene stood aside and watched.

And the mullah of the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque, where the attack took place, stood aside and watched.

How could a killing like this have happened in the heart of Kabul? My route to work takes me past the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque everyday. It is a landmark here in the city; in the mornings it is surrounded by flocks of pigeons, drawn to the bird feed that’s put out for them. And it has been the backdrop for many film shootings here in the city. I will never look at it the same way again. I will never look at the ordinary Afghan men I see in the streets the same way again. I will never trust my safety or wellbeing with them.

I could have passed by the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque on my back home. I could have seen the attack on Farkhunda taking place and I will always wonder about what I might have done. Would I have tried to stop it? And if I had tried to stop it, would I still be here or would I have died trying to save that woman…

… Or would I have done like the rest did – and simply stood aside, and watched…

God bless Farkhunda. Happy Islamic New Year Afghanistan, you still have very long, long way to go.

—

Since the attack, President Ghani ordered a full investigation into the killing of Farkhunda. Twenty-six people have been arrested in connection with the killing, including the mullah of the Shah-e-Do Shamshera Mosque and the police officers that were present at the time of the attack.

Farkhunda’s casket was carried through the streets of Kabul by an encourage of women, they made their way through the streets of Kabul surrounded by a group of men that formed a human shield around them in case they were attacked during the procession.

My TV station broke the story first. We contacted her parents first – and across the globe, all major news networks cited our brave journalists as they dug at the truth and shined a light on those responsible for Farkhunda’s death.

The Tolo newsroom’s pool of journalist and producers are without a shadow of a doubt, some of Afghanistan’s greatest heroes.