Erstellt am: 4. 4. 2014 - 22:01 Uhr

The Dawn of Democracy in Afghanistan?

Less burkas, more headscarves, less warlords, more the will of the people?

It's kind of a no-brainer. If you want to gage the mood of the youth of any given country, listen to the music it is listening to and creating.

Go to the ballot boxes without any fear,
Go and exercise your voting right once again.
We saw suicide attacks, explosions, and bombings,
We saw the leaves of the trees turn yellow.
The screaming of that innocent, sick child,
It's the sacrifice of that old man's wound.
The teenagers, youngsters, and widows are voting for their county.

Those are the opening lyrics to the song featured in the above video. They were written by the rap duo Sami and Shaheed and they resonated so well with music judges and Afghan election officials that the duo received a US$1,000 prize (about €730) for their effort.

Sami and Shaheed won the Male Category of a competition for young people to create a theme song for the Presidential/Provincial Council Elections set to take place Saturday the 5th of April.

Eighteen-year-old Sonita took the top prize in the Female Category.

Is this kind of life really comfortable for you?
Where there is bloody war for 24 hours, just like breathing that comes and goes....
O countrymen, stand up on your feet for the sake of your country,
Show me the path in this election.

Sonita Alizadeh is originally from Herat in western Afghanistan. She moved to Iran with her family when she was 8 and decided to stay in Iran when her parents moved back to Herat. She raps about Afghan politics, discrimination against Afghan refugees in Iran, and the challenges Afghan women and child laborers face.

An unbelievable 7 in 10 Afghans are under the age of 25.
Just let that sink in for a second.
The young people of Afghanistan, if united in whichever cause, could totally and easily rule.
It'll be interesting to see how many of those 7 in 10 Afghans turn up to vote (voting age is 16 in Afghanistan) in elections being hailed as a benchmark for democratic progress since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

APA

Afghan workers of the Independent Election Commission transport electoral materials to a polling station at Blue Mosque, on the eve of Presidential elections, in Herat, Afghanistan, 04 April 2014

For the first time since 2004 (the date of the first post-Taliban general election), there is political excitement building up but, at times, violent intimidation and uncertainty are acting as spoilers.

Still, could these first-ever modern elections (social media influence and first-ever televised candidate debates) really mark “The Dawn of Democracy in Afghanistan?”