Mozhdah Jamalzadah
" Mozhdah Jamalzadah is a young Afghan female artist with a goal. Her family fled Afghanistan when she was only 5 years of age, but she says she left her heart behind. While growing up in Vancouver, Canada, she was constantly reminded by her parents how lucky she was to be living in an environment where she was free to speak her mind, and given the opportunity to become anything she wanted to be. She was also reminded never to forget where she came from and to take the opportunities that her second home had given her to help her fellow Afghans. While growing up, she witnessed all that was going on in her homeland and was very determined to do anything she could to help. After graduating secondary school, Mozhdah thought of ways to contribute in her homeland. She thought the best way to try and make a difference and get her message across would be through music. “Everyone listens to music, so why not get my message across with meaningful lyrics,” she thought, so she started taking vocal lessons beside her other studies.
At the same time shemajored in Philosophy and Political Science at the University of British Columbia, and went on to study Broadcast Journalism at The British Columbia Institute of Technology. After five years of studying music, she released her very first music video on Afghan television stations in North America. It immediately became a hit. She was after all the first girl to step into the Afghan music scene after many years. “Trying to make it into the male dominated Afghan music business was the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to face. It became so difficult sometimes that I just wanted to quit. I couldn’t have done it without my family.” she says.
Now Mozhdah feels that her hard work paid off. Her studies in Journalism and her musical success landed her a spot to host her own talk show on 1TV, the very new, and successful Afghan TV station. “This is exactly what I wanted, a chance to simply send a message to my people, but had no idea I’d have this amazing opportunity in such a short time.” She explains. The Mozhdah show focuses mainly on family issues. It also includes music and games. Mozhdah believes by helping to secure families, the show is helping secure a nation…one episode at a time.
Before she began her career as a talk show host, Mozhdah released a song that became a major hit among fellow Afghans, and eventually got the attention of President Barack Obama and the First Lady. The meaningful lyrics written by her father, and the composition made by her was dedicated to the acid victims of Kandahar city (which took place sometime in 2008). The song is called Afghan Girl (Dukhtar e Afghan) and mentions the names of Afghan female heroes, a reminder to Afghan men that women too can achieve great things. Mozhdah was invited to perform this song at the Whitehouse on March 8, 2010 for President Obama, the First lady and their guests in celebration of Int’l Women’s Day.
The success of her show and music career have already landed her on the cover of the Vancouver Sun, a spot on Global National (Canada), CNN, Time Magazine, Panorama Magazine (Italy), and she has just recently been contacted by the producers of the Oprah Show. Mozhdah also works with an Orphanage with the help of Azizi Foundation. She spends one day a week taking the orphans on field trips, and makes sure they have new clothes, and school supplies."[1]