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Tom Morello calls for support to evacuate young female guitarists from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan

“They are at extreme risk because they are widely known to have performed Western music and have been educated by a male American teacher.”

Girl With A Guitar Program

Image: Lanny Cordola via YouTube

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Tom Morello has penned an open letter imploring for help in evacuating a group of young female musicians from Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

The 12 girls are students of the Girl With A Guitar programme, run by guitarist Lanny Cordola through his non-profit Miraculous Love Kids organisation. The programme teaches guitar to children in war-torn areas.

In the Rage Against The Machine man’s letter, he described the girls as “in grave danger”.

“[Girl With A Guitar] takes in street orphans and other girls that have endured significant trauma and uses music as a rehabilitation tool and means of working through their problems, their histories, and their hopes,” Morello wrote.

“I’ve had the honour of collaborating with these wonderful kids. Since the Taliban takeover their school has been destroyed and the girls are in hiding.

“They are at extreme risk because they are widely known to have performed Western music and have been educated by a male American teacher. Anything you could do to help save their lives would be much appreciated.”

Billboard reports that Cordola is currently in Pakistan working on evacuating his students, their families and his driver from Afghanistan. He is said to be in daily contact with his students.

“We’re trying to investigate if getting them to the Pakistan border is a possibility,” Cordola told Billboard. “We’ve been talking to a lot of different people, rescue organisations. We need to get them out of Afghanistan to start a new life somewhere.”

You can donate to the Miraculous Love Kids organisation here.

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