Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello seeking help to get female guitar students out of Afghanistan

By Marianne Garvey, CNN

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is pleading for help to bring a group of young female guitarists in hiding in Afghanistan to safety.

Morello wrote an open letter after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, which was sent to Billboard by former House of Lords band member and guitar teacher Lanny Cordola, who runs a program he started in Kabul in 2015 called Girl With a Guitar.

“I’m writing on behalf of some very special girls in Afghanistan who are in grave danger,” Morello wrote. “[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. I’ve had the honor 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.”

Hundreds of students have recorded remotely with Brian Wilson, Sammy Hagar, Nick Cave and Blake Shelton and other musicians through the program.

The school has closed and the girls are now in hiding, according to Billboard.

Cordola is in Pakistan, the report states, trying to bring 12 Afghan students, their families and his driver to safety.

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