To say Negin Khpalwak is breaking down boundaries would be a gross understatement. The recently turned 20-year-old has faced death threats and heavy amounts of discrimination for the work she has done in her community. She is the conductor of Zohra, Afghanistan's first female orchestra featuring musicians with ages ranging from thirteen to twenty. Their music combines traditional elements and western technique learned at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, where many of their members attend.

Dr. Ahmad Sarmast is the founder of both the Zohra Orchestra and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). He truly believes that Zohra's existence as a female orchestra is the type of progress needed for the country, entering year sixteen of its recovery from the Taliban's conservative and repressive regime.

All thirty-five members of Zohra disregard social expectations in the most extreme, obvious, and passionate way they know how: Playing music. Negin Khpalwak, whose primary instrument is the Sarod, experienced performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City as a member of the Afghanistan Youth Orchestra in 2013. Even then, Negin Khpalwak's own grandmother disowned her father for allowing her to attend ANIM. Many of the girls have felt enormous amounts of community and family pressure to quit the orchestra, but they are just getting started. Zohra recently performed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for an audience of over 3,000. International exposure creates vulnerability back home but also opens up the possibility for opportunities such as the one Khpalwak dreams of, to win a scholarship to study music abroad and return to Afghanistan with her knowledge to become the conductor of Afghanistan's National Orchestra.

As the founder of Zohra, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, said to German news outlet Das Erste, "Negin stands for the new generation, who is fighting for their rights despite all the problems."