Zahir Howaida

Zahir Howaida was a musician from Afghanistan. February 28, 1946 to March 5, 2012. He had been an active music player since the 1970s and the popularity of the music reached the highest height with the single hit that he performed, ‘Kamar Bareek-e-Man’, the renditions of the music was exhibited by the musicians of Iran and Tajikistan till the present day, or his music ‘Pari Cheri’ that was remixed by so many young musicians in the country, like Obaid and Timor Jalali. In his later years, the musician lived an isolated life in Germany and played his music at will. Zahir was from the Chjendawol region of Klabul in Afghanistan. His son Arash Wowaida has taken to his footsteps as the young many chose music as a career.

source of picture: www.afghanland.com

Zahir was born in the year 1946 in Daikundi, after the birth of this music player, the father moved his family to Kabul and after then he moved the family to the city of Mazar I Sharif in the Balkh region of the northern part of the country.

At the age of 13, the family of the musician relocated to the Bookseller region of Kabuil and after then he was enrolled to study in Isteqlal High School, earning the best ranking in his class. The young man did not find the activities of the school so interesting and regularly he was discovered to be absent from the class to walk across the school just to borrow books from the public library to read.

Zahir spent somde years at home with a big kettle of tea, scissor print Cigar and books that are about the social issues as well as political issues. His favorite writer was Maxim Gorkyan his favorite school subject was socialism and Social democratic ideas.

After his graduation from the high school, Zahir went to the Institute of Theatre Arts of Kabul and there he joined the Armatuer Orchestra of Kabul that was led by Fazel Ahmed Zekria Neynawaz together with his brother Kabir Howida, Rahim Jahani, Rahim Mehryar and some others.

Zahir was a player of the mandolin and a backup musician fpr Akbar Ramish at the Isteqlal High School shows, when they were celebrating the independence day of the country. He was advised and encouraged to sing solo by Naynawaz, but he find singing solo suitable for his own career during the live show to sing at short a short notice. Hamid Estemadi who is blessed with a great voice and did not sing publicly since he became a member of the royal family encouraged Zahir to take his place at the Show Day of the country. Zahir was dragged on the stage by Hamid and he sang his first music, but was faced with the discontentment of the audience. Moments later, Zahir showed up again in the costume during the play and he sang another music that made the crowd so happy and he got an enduring applause from the audience.at this particular orchestra, Zahir exhibited a total talent as music player anjd gained a scholarship to study operatic and eastern classical music at the Tchaikovsky Institute, located in Moscow.

At his return to Kabul, Zahir started his music profession that gained him overnight success. He wrote all his music with just four music exempted, which he attributed to their unique composers Ahmad Zahir and Mas'hoor Jamal.

He travelled to Iran, USSR, Americas, Tajikistan and Europe. His music, Kamar Bareek, turned out to be an instant hit in the Iranian music world, where for many years the musicians of the country covered the music in the concert and the National Television of the country.

Most of his music are political in nature and some of them are anti-establishment. Constantly, he spoke out against the monarchy and the first president of the country, Afghanistan, Daud Khan. While almost all the artist that desire to sing in the National Television were given the right to both sing in the Pashtu and Dari, Zahir decided not to sing in Pashto, as he claimed that anytime Ustad Awalmeer sings in Dari, he will shadow up with a music in Pashto.

After the fall of the Republic of Afghanistan into the hand of the Marxist Communist period, Zahir discovered several opportunities to appear on the National Television of the country as well as the Nation Radio. It was during this regime that Zahir recorded many of his music, and he hosted several show on the Radio and on the Television.

At the fall of the communist regime, the musician together with his family relocated to Germany. He travelled all over the world with stops on the Northern America, Australia and Europe for his farewell concert where he broke his promise and sang in Pashto. He followed the concert with the dropping of his last album, which he named, ‘Ay Kash’.