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Since coming to power in 2021, the Taliban have been passing strict laws and regulations. The last such law was to close hair and beauty salons. This time, they introduced a ban on playing music in public. The last time they banned music was when they ruled the country in the late nineties
The Afghan Ministry of Morality has ordered the Taliban's religious police to first confiscate and then burn musical instruments deemed "immoral", writes the BBC.
Some of the items, which were set on fire in Herat province, are guitars, accordions, drums, as well as loudspeakers and public address equipment. Many of them were seized in wedding halls and were worth thousands of dollars.
"Promoting music leads to moral corruption, and playing music misleads young people," said Aziz al-Rahman al-Muhajir, an official at the province's Ministry of Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vices.
Read more Afghanistan: Taliban close hair and beauty salons
Ahmad Sarmast, founder of Afghanistan's National Institute of Music, compared the Taliban's actions to "cultural genocide" and "musical vandalism."
"The people of Afghanistan have been denied artistic freedom. The burning of musical instruments in Herat is just a small example of the cultural genocide taking place under the leadership of the Taliban."
Afghanistan has a strong musical tradition influenced by Iranian and Indian classical music, and had a thriving pop music scene that flourished over the past 20 years, before the Taliban took over in August 2021.
All forms of music were banned while the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan from the mid-2001s to XNUMX.
AE/BBC/DW
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The spokesman for the Ministry of Prevention of Vices and Propaganda of Virtues, Muhammed Sadiq Akif, said that salons have one month to comply with the decision.
