Listen to ‘Paimona Bitte,’ with lyrics and translation, by Zeb & Haniya, a rare, all-female Pakistani group and the Great Pathan Hope. It’s mournful and vaguely reminds me of Sting and the score for Moscow on the Hudson. A little too pop, but that’s the desh for ya.

Both Zeb and Haniya are ethnic Pashtuns, and their families hail from the town of Kohat in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.vThat region has, of late, become synonymous with the Taleban and al-Qaeda. “We’ve never lived there, but we do keep going back for family functions…

“It all started five years ago when we were in college in the US and starting writing songs”… The girls were then undergraduate students at Smith and Wesleyan college… That might have been that… if not for the decision to upload the songs on to the internet. “When we got back to Pakistan, we found out that some of the local FM radio stations had actually been playing them”… local musicians have also helped them out a lot in the making of the album… “It was gratifying as our music is not typical Pakistani pop.” [BBC]

Also check out ‘Chal Diye‘ and ‘Aitebar,’ both in Urdu, a concert clip, and an interview on Geo TV.

(thanks, reader)