Ajit Rai

Roya Sadat's adventure film 'Sima's Song' starts in 1972 Afghanistan much before the Taliban was even born and travels to the second rule of the Taliban in the ancient country. At that time women were not only free but also masters of lives. Girls could learn songs, music, dance, and follow modern fashion in colleges and universities. This was the time when Afghanistan was simmering with activities of opposing political ideologies.

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However, even amid this, Afghanistan was a land where women were happy and free.

Roya Sadat's film 'A Letter to the President' was Afghanistan's official entry for the Oscars in 2018. She is a refugee in America. She may face a death sentence if she comes to her native country. One of the actors of the film said at the ongoing Red Sea International Film Festival, Jeddah that women have much freedom in Saudi Arabia where Islam was born and they have no freedom under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

The caste of Sima's Song at the Red Sea International Film Festival at Jeddah

“Education is the right of women. The Taliban can occupy our country but cannot take away people’s voices. Millions of women are suffering every day. Our fight will continue,” most of them said.

Sima and Suraiya are two close friends. Sima learns music at the university and sings well. Suraiya comes from an influential political family and turns into a campaigner for women's freedom. She becomes the head of the women's department of the most powerful communist party.

Sima has nothing to do with politics. She is happy in her romantic world of traditional art and music. Suraiya and Sima's friendship is very deep although both have different political views. Their economic and social status never comes in the way of their friendship.

Poster of the film

Sima falls in love with a classmate from the university and marries him. Her life begins to change from this point. Her husband is in touch with Mujahideen fighters. Both of them start attending their secret meetings. They feel that they are working to protect Islamic values.

On the contrary, Suraiya is a communist and is working for women's equality and freedom. Despite this, their friendship remains intact.

After the coup by the Afghan army, the situation is changing. The army is aware of Sima and her husband's activities. One day, the army raids her house and kills Sima's father. Many years ago, the army had also killed Suraiya's father on false charges. Suraiya puts Sima and her husband in her car and leaves them with the Mujahideen in the mountains outside Kabul.

Sima is no longer holding a musical instrument but a gun handed over to her by the Mujahideen. In a touching scene, Suma gives her favourite musical instrument to Suraiya and says that she does not need it anymore.

A scene from Sima's Song

Suddenly the Army swoops in and arrests everyone. Sima and Suraiya are now in jail. Sima is accused of being a traitor and faces torture in the jail. It is heartbreaking to see an innocent girl who loved music getting trapped and dying.

A few days later, Afghanistan is occupied by the Russian army and Suraiya is freed because she is the leader of the Communist Party. Sima is dead and Suraiya keeps her daughter. Politics changes but the questions of women's equality and freedom don’t.

The film 'Sima's Song' begins with a protest by women led by Suraiya in Kabul under the Taliban rule of today. Police and army personnel shoot at unarmed women and many women are killed. Suraiya returns home, plays Sima's song on the tape recorder, and opens the album of photographs to go through the moments in the last 50 years of life. Most of the persons in pictures are now dead - killed in the civil war in Afghanistan.

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In the last scene, we see a huge procession of women carrying banners and posters on the streets of Kabul. Women are chanting slogans - Roti, Kaam, Azadi.