Sonoric Reflection w/ Elaha Soroor and Rojin Sharafi

Women’s Resistance in Art and Music
This event is the closing program of the Symposium on Women’s Resistance, Art and Cultural Diplomacy at the CEU in collaboration with AIL.

This edition of Sonoric Reflection celebrates the resilience and creativity of women artists from conflict-affected regions. Through music and performance, the concert highlights artistic journeys shaped by resistance, exile, and the struggle against erasure. It invites audiences to experience art as a form of cultural diplomacy, where voices long silenced are heard, amplified, and carried forward.

The event offers a space of solidarity, honoring women whose artistic expressions challenge oppression, preserve cultural heritage, and reimagine possibilities of peace and transformation.
Elaha Soroor is an Afghan singer and composer, born in 1988 to a family of refugees in Iran, who later returned to Afghanistan. She gained national recognition through the TV talent show Afghan Star and is known for challenging conservative norms and promoting women’s rights through her music. Soroor is a member of the London-based ensemble Kefaya and was included in BBC’s 2024 “100 Women” list for her influence and advocacy, notably writing the anthem “Naan, Kar, Azadi!” to encourage Afghan women facing oppression.

Rojin Sharafi is a Tehran-born, Vienna-based sound artist, composer, and performer working across electroacoustic music, noise, and experimental electronics. Her visceral sonic language blends analog, acoustic, and digital tools, exploring tension, rupture, and transformation. Praised by The Wire for her “thrilling, variegated” sound world, Sharafi’s latest album O.O.Orifice follows critically acclaimed releases including Urns Waiting to be Fed (2019), Zangaar (2020), and Kariz (2021). She also performs with the folk futurist ensemble HUUUM. Her work has been presented internationally, from London to New York, affirming her as a vital voice in experimental music.

The event is curated in cooperation with Seema Sridhar of the Central European University.