Qaqnas – Holland Festival

What does freedom mean for women today? Qaqnas is a powerful, musical ode to that question. In this new opera, voice, electronics and resistance take centre stage. Inspired by the slogan ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ (‘woman, life, freedom’) – originating in the Kurdish women’s movement and now known worldwide as a rallying cry against oppression, patriarchy and state violence – Qaqnas reveals just how fragile freedom can be.

The opera is sung in Sorani-Kurdish: a language that was long forbidden and now resounds loudly, proudly and uninhibited. Composer Huba de Graaff, known for her largely experimental operas, explores in Qaqnas the relationship between speech and music: every language generates its own music. The Dutch-Kurdish singer-songwriter Naaz Mohammad, known simply as Naaz, performs the opera. The production is based on a poem by Kurdish poet Tarza Jaff and tells the story of women who dare to choose for themselves – and pay a price for doing so.

The opera is set in a music studio, where an all-female cast operates all the equipment. Qaqnas (Kurdish for ‘phoenix’) brings together do-it-yourself electronics, opera, poetry, rebellious women and extravagant costumes. The result is an energetic, all-female Kurdish opera about freedom – a searing performance about strength and claiming space.

Click 'read more' to find the poem by Tarza Jaff.

Read the article Women who break barriers written by Evelien Lindeboom about female voices in Holland Festival 2026 here.

Friday Night with DJ Katayoun

On June 12, after the performance, DJ Katayoun will take the audience into the evening with a set that builds on the themes of the performance. DJ Katayoun is a DJ, selector, cultural researcher, and curator based in Amsterdam. She is known for her warm, layered sets in which she connects the 20th-century sonic history of Iran and the region with music from around the world.

Through her acclaimed radio shows Female Vocalists from Iran and Beyond (2018–present) and Sonic Imaginaries (2024–present), she reframes Iranian music within broader global contexts, linking it to genres such as Latin, jazz fusion, funk, and rare groove. As a DJ, she is known for genre-blending, border-crossing sets that move between cultures and dance floors with a warm, hypnotic energy.

Poem by Tarza Jaff

“When Women Go, They Grow wings, God Inflicts Wrath On Them!'

Women leave men only once

some tip on their toes, leaving the doors ajar

treading lightly

so that their cracked from thousand sides spirits

doesn't obliterate into pieces

Some suffer a deathly pain

some simply roll the hems of their floral dresses,

So it doesn’t drench in tears

Some cover their ears while holding on to their hearts, clutching it like a broken pearl necklace

falling apart by their feet, pearl by pearl

Some lose their minds

muttering lost dreams to themselves

bursting into laughter as they cry

Some thin down so much that they could wither with a flick

some tear out their own hair

Some rest their hands on their hearts

others rest their hands on their eyes

whilst others use their hands to cover their fresh wounds

Women, not at the beginning of their stories

No, neither in the middle

but at the end of their stories

as they bundle their love, let themselves fall and flow into the current

Women open doors with difficulty

their keys, rusty and stuck in their hands

their throats blocked with wails

their lips, just like their heels, cracked and bleeding

their mouths so foul

as they curse all that is sacred

but once they have left

they no longer look back

Once they're gone

they are deemed lost

as they go ahead and grow their wings

God inflicts wrath upon them

They disturb the peaceful sky

cutting off their relationships as they cut off their hair

biting their nails until the tips of their fingers bleed

and once their nails have grown back

their lovers will have been forgotten

Some burn their memories

some burn themselves

some keep eating but will never be satiated

their pants will become too tight until their stilettos can't bear the weight

some linger on the doorsteps of God

some leave the prayers behind

some sing and dance as they cry

some can no longer listen to songs

No woman is one and the same

They are not alike at all

Except for once they burn like a phoenix,

and rise out of their own ashes

Read less

Credits

vocals Naaz composition Huba de Graaff electronics Huba de Graaff music performed by Nora Mulder (cimbalom, selfmade-electronics), Katharina Gross (elektronic cello/cello-installations), Mei-Yi Lee (percussion and (kitchen) electronics), Huba de Graaff (el. violin + vintage electronics) operation electronics Nora Mulder, Katharina Gross, Mei-Yi Lee, Huba de Graaff direction Ria Marks lighting design Varja Klosse sound design Ruben Kieftenbelt costumes Leila el Alaoui, Anouk van Kampen Wieling poem Tarza Jaff translator French Bakhcha Mohammed English translation live-performance Naaz pre-recorded voice Bakhcha Mohammed executive management Jasper Hupkens campaign image Bowie Verschuuren with support from Performing Arts Fund NL, Norma Fonds, het Cultuurfonds, BNG Cultuurfonds

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Credits

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