Born in Tehran to an Afghan refugee family, Soraya Hossaini has spent her life navigating the spaces between countries, cultures, and the freedom to make art at all. A singer, Rubab player, and fashion designer, she has turned a life shaped by displacement and systemic discrimination into a practice of resilience that moves fluidly across music, design, and activism.
Based in Germany, Soraya came to music through Western instruments first before searching for something that could reconnect her with Afghan culture. She found it in the Rubab, the instrument that now defines her sound. Her path has never followed a straight line: in 2017, she returned to Afghanistan for the first time as a member of Arikayn, the pioneering Hazara rock band formed by Afghan refugees in Iran. The band’s performances in Kabul and Bamiyan were captured in the acclaimed documentary “The Forbidden Strings”, a record of young musicians reclaiming a stage in a country where their music was anything but guaranteed.
Soraya’s creativity has never been confined to a single form. Alongside her music, she founded Surryhouse, a fashion label celebrating Afghan craftsmanship and textiles. The medium changes, but the purpose holds: to keep a culture visible, and its women heard.
A concert built across borders
This summer, that purpose reached a stage in Belfast.
Soraya performed at Northern Ireland’s Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the largest celebration of Irish music and culture in the world. As part of the Persian Kurdish Celtic Connection concert, she took the stage at the Duncairn Arts Centre alongside musicians from Ireland, Iran, and Syria, weaving together their traditional instruments and cultural sounds. For her, it was about more than performance. It was an opportunity to stand for the women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran, who face severe restrictions on their education, work, and public life, at a time when music itself has been suppressed under Taliban rule.
The road to the stage
Soraya’s journey to Belfast was the result of months of work between AFI-ILA and our partners, Beyond Skin.
Together, we championed Soraya for the festival and carried her participation through, from artistic selection to the immigration process. That final step proved the most difficult: after the UK Home Office refused her visa, overturning the decision took a sustained effort, backed by a wave of public support: people sharing on social media, writing letters, and lobbying politicians until the refusal was turned around.
The outcome was a success on every front: artistic, media, and political. For AFI-ILA and Beyond Skin, it was a first joint effort, and proof of what focused, cross-organisational advocacy can achieve for a single artist at risk.
A Voice for the Silenced
Soraya’s story is a reminder of what artistic freedom means, and why it must be defended. Across the world, artists continue to create in the face of censorship and repression, and defending their freedom to do so has never been more urgent.
Soraya’s journey is far from over. From 24 August to 4 September, it continues at the European Forum Alpbach 2026, one of Europe’s leading gatherings on the future of the continent, where she joins as Artist in Residence. Just weeks after Belfast, her presence there reflects the continuity of our work: accompanying artists at risk, from one stage to the next.
