The songs of Haniya: A confident music

Over a decade ago, Haniya Aslam and Zebunissa Bangash, cousins from Kohat in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North West Frontier Province), presented ‘Paimana bitte’ and ‘Bibi sanam janam’ — modernised versions of folk songs in Dari, the dominant language in Afghanistan besides Pashto. As the two performed, it was easy to spot the soul of the tunes — the traditional cross-border links between the peoples of two countries. Sung alongside a rabab, the national instrument of Afghanistan, that merged with Haniya’s acoustic guitar chords, the songs on Coke Studio Pakistan felt like a reminder that songs could reach places, undeterred by borders, and differences. These women were not coy — as Haniya played the guitar, Zeb sang of desire. Theirs was a confident music, and wonderful. On Sunday, Haniya, one half of the duo that smashed barriers by becoming the first all-woman music group from Pakistan, and who is remembered for the duo’s album Chup (2007), died of a sudden cardiac arrest.

Not many knew then that the idea for the album came in an abandoned room in a basement during a winter break in Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts where Zeb was studying. Haniya was downtown in Smith and homesickness brought the two together. Aslam pulled out her guitar, which she’d learned to play online, and began strumming an old tune which the two had heard their grandparents and parents sing. And just like that, ‘Paimana bitte’ came about. Before their songs became popular through Coke Studio Pakistan, they were on the radio, and on YouTube. The songs drew the attention of producer Mekaal Hasan who then produced Chup, which reached across the border riding the internet.