Across the North two instruments are the principal available sound producers for women. These are the tambourine (doira) and the jew's harp (chang). As far as I know, among none of the ethnic groups in the region is it customary for women to play any of the numerous varieties of plucked and bowed lutes (fiddles). On the other hand, men are widely allowed to play both the tambourine and jew's harp. The jew's harp is also played by children; most northerners are likely to respond "women and children" when asked, "Who plays the chang?" It is only when pressed that they will admit that men can also perform on the jew's harp. This attitude was documented early in the 19505 by J. C. Lubtschansky. In his recordings of that period he includes a fine specimen of Uzbek jew's harp play, performed by a man, and he notes: "The man playing it on our request felt very much ashamed, for, said he, 'Only women and children play the chang' " (1969: 2) .Nevertheless, Lubtschansky's Uzbek displayed a high degree of skill on the chang, indicating that men do indeed practice the instrument. The nominal restriction of the jew's harp to women and youths is found in Soviet Central Asia among Tajiks, Kazakhs, and Kirghiz (Vertkov 1963: 129, 131, 133) .

The doira is less a matter of special northern development than is the chang, since tambourines of varying size and description are played by women all across the Near East, often under the name doira or daf (the latter is a term also found in Afghanistan, principally in Badakhshan) . A particular local feature uniting the North's use of the doira, however , is the manufacture of the instrument by Gypsy artisans. Tambourines are made by Gypsies in locales as far apart as Aqcha ( Turkestan ) , Khanabad ( Kataghan ) , and the Koh-i Daman (just north of Kabul) .

The lesson learned from separate examination of the two women's instruments- tambourine and jew's harp- is that one of two major factors can be at work in determining the place of any shared cultural or musical trait within the general matrix of the North: either the trait emerges as a result of local ethnic accommodation, sometimes on a microgeographic scale, as in the case of the adoption of the jew's harp by groups surrounding the Tajiks, or the trait may be part of an extensive Near Eastern-Islamic network in which northern Afghanistan figures only as a peripheral zone.

The women's repertoire is far less of a shared item than the instrumentarium. Although data for women of various ethnic groups is extremely limited at present, it seems that by and large each group commands its own repertoire of women's songs, with certain exceptions to be discussed presently. This is bound to be the case, because of the high degree of women's isolation within the household walls among the sedentary population. For example, Sakata's writing on Hazaras of Central Afghanistan (1968:35) contrasts men's familiarity with standard Afghan Persian (Dari) with women's reliance on the Hazara dialect (Hazaragi): "In most cases, Hazara men know and use Dari as well as Hazaragi, thus many of their songs are in Dari. ...The women's songs, on the other hand, are more strictly in Hazaragi, since they are less exposed to other peoples and cultures." It seems likely that research in the North would reveal a similar pattern. The principal exceptions to the pattern are professional women singers, who must cater to more than one ethnic group. Thus Zulaikha and Gulandam of Andkhoi sing wedding songs with quatrains in both Uzbek and Persian; they also sings songs that are purely in Uzbek ( their native language) and related to Transoxanian Uzbek repertoires ( Lyrichord LIST 7231) .

However, despite the differences preserved through women's isolation, common features mark women's songs across the North. One factor influencing commonality is, once again, the radio. The women's wedding song Asta bero, probably stemming originally from a Kabul Pashtun-Tajik milieu, has been popularized by the radio in many different versions -even in an arrangement by male amateurs with Western instruments. The radio has played only a minor role in promoting a joint musical storehouse for women, however. More potent as a unifier is the traditiQnal assignment of two basic musical roles to women: singing lullabies and singing songs at domestic festivities, principally weddings. Unfortunately, scarcely any lullabies have been recorded in the North, so assessment of the nature and scope of the repertoire must await further research. Sakata's (1968) findings among the Hazaras of Central Afghanistan indicates that lullabies form an interesting and extensive body of women's songs. As noted earlier, celebrations such as weddings serve as important outlets for women and may be prolonged for their enjoyment; thus wedding songs form a large part of women's total musical activity. According to Surkhi, Turkmen women sing only at weddings. The Uzbek repertoire seems particularly rich in wedding songs, and Tajiks and sedentary Pashtuns sing a series of songs for different segments of the wedding ceremony. Beyond the basic unity of lullabies and wedding songs, the ethnic groups once again break into separate traditions for women.