By Carolyn Webb
The ancient festival of Nowruz marks the new year, and thousands of members of our Afghan community celebrated it, as is the custom, by stepping out in colourful new clothes on Sunday.
In Dandenong Park on a sunny autumn day, there were the sounds of traditional guitars and drums, the smell of kebabs and the sights of children running and playing.
Afghan families celebrate Nowruz, or New Year, at Dandenong Park on Sunday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Such public displays are haram, or forbidden, in Afghanistan under Taliban rule because Nowruz is a pre-Islamic tradition dating back 3000 years.
It’s all the more reason, said the Dandenong event’s co-ordinator, Zabi Mazoori, for the community to celebrate here.
“They’ve [the Taliban] banned Nowruz itself, and music, and women’s participation in public events,” he said. “Events like this are currently not possible in Afghanistan, so we want to keep that tradition alive.”
Nowruz day was on March 20 but the festival in Dandenong Park was held over to also celebrate the end of Ramadan, or Eid al-Fitr, which this year fell on April 10.
Celebrating Nowruz is forbidden in Afghanistan under the Taliban.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Before the first Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Mazoori had happy memories of Nowruz as a child when he picknicked on the mountain foothills on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, with his family. In Afghanistan, Nowruz heralds the arrival of spring.
Mazoori, a minority ethnic Hazara, was beaten by the Taliban when they first seized power. He came by boat to Australia as an asylum seeker in 2001.
He is now community engagement lead at the non-profit organisation Foundation House in Dandenong, which supports refugees to rebuild their lives after torture and other trauma.
Mazoori said attending the Dandenong Nowruz festival, which has become the community’s big day of the year, could benefit refugees, some of whom have been in Australia only a few months.
“This is a good opportunity for them to come and meet the rest of the community,” he said.
In Afghanistan, Nowruz heralds the arrival of spring.Credit: Luis Ascui/The Age
Festival-goer Maliqa Karimi, of Cranbourne West, said that when she arrived in Australia 11 years ago, she knew no one except her husband, Besmillah, and her two children, Matin and Atifa.
She missed her family and community in Afghanistan, so attending the Dandenong Nowruz festival a few months later made her happy.
On Sunday, she came with her smartly dressed husband and other family members. Karimi, her four daughters — including toddler twins – and her sister Farrukh Liqa all wore beautiful traditional dress. Karimi’s now adult son, Matin, was to arrive later.
The family settled on a rug on the lawn among the crowd and had brought from home Afghan bread, nuts, pastries, cakes and sweets. They drank black tea.
Maliqa Karimi (right) with her twin toddlers Lyana and Lina and (from left) Maliqa’s sister Farrukh Liqa, daughters Atifa, 16, and Marwa, 9, and husband, Besmillah.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Karimi had hard-boiled 150 eggs for a traditional Nowruz game, which she ran from a stall, that involves two people at a time dropping hard-boiled eggs to see which person’s eggshell cracks first.
An ethnic Hazara, she said it was sad people in Afghanistan could not celebrate Nowruz.
“When I think about my family there, I cry for them,” she said. “I’m really sad for them because we have everything here [in Australia]; we’re happy here, we celebrate here, but there, they can’t do everything because they’re frightened of the Taliban.”
Karimi now wouldn’t miss the Dandenong Nowruz festival.
She said the aim of her kids on the day is to “have fun, walk around, watch the singing. They enjoy it so much because it’s fun. All the community are there.”
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