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Talibanned: Music's another unsung casualty of Afghanistan's brutal regime Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Imagine a land without music. A place where you are not allowed to listen to CDs, to sing at weddings, to play an instrument in your own home. A place where the authorities hunt down and destroy whatever instruments they can find. Welcome to Afghanistan. Before Sept. 11, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers were best known for doing away with women's rights and destroying the country's ancient Buddhist statues. But the Taliban's extremist interpretation of Islam also calls for the eradication of music, in addition to activities as innocent as flying a kite. The government's Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue enforces regulations that ban all music except for the unaccompanied singing of Koranic verses and Taliban chants. ``It is a raping of a culture,'' says Farhad Azad, an Afghan living in San Francisco where he runs the afghanmagazine.com Web site. ``Music has deep roots in Afghanistan. There are so many different types of traditional music because there are so many different ethnic and tribal groups. There was pop music, too, which we enjoyed in the '60s and '70s in the major cities. And then we had Radio Kabul, which had its own orchestra.'' Music was always an integral part of Afghan society, the same as in other Islamic countries. But cultural life, as well as daily life, took a sharp downturn after the Mujahedeen (holy warriors), including Saudi Arabian visitor Osama bin Laden, succeeded - with the backing of the United States - in driving out Soviet forces in 1989, ending 12 years of occupation. A government controlled by the same forces behind today's Northern Alliance came to power in 1992. Ethnic and tribal rivalries, heightened under the Soviets, led to continued fighting. Afghanistan became more dangerous than ever. Most of the educated people remaining in the country - and most musicians - fled elsewhere. When the Taliban took over in 1996, a battered population at first welcomed them as saviors. ``The Taliban pacified the nation,'' Azad says. ``They collected weapons. They bought off or killed off warlords. ``Maybe having the Taliban was better than having anarchy,'' he says. ``I was not there, so I cannot judge. But from a cultural perspective, what was the price? I denounce everything they've done. My god, they burned 60 years of musical archives at Radio Kabul. I don't know if there was anything left in the basement, but we saw U.S. planes blow up Radio Kabul on CNN a few days ago. There's definitely nothing left now.'' The Taliban also eliminated music from Afghan life. Rubabs, the short-necked, three-string lutes that are the Afghan national instrument, have been smashed and hung in public places as warnings against musical activities. Women, already restricted from educational and employment opportunities, are forbidden from the traditional pastime of singing and playing a tambourinelike frame drum among themselves. Singing at weddings, another tradition, is prohibited. Not surprisingly, TV, videos and movies are also banned. Fans at sporting events are not allowed to clap or cheer, though games seldom take place anymore: Kabul's largest stadium is primarily used for public executions, well-attended by a populace starved for any type of entertainment. While the Taliban have been working to destroy culture in their country, expatriates are keeping it alive in cyberspace. ``At first I was getting death threats and hate mail through the Web site,'' Azad says. ``Now people are sending thanks for exposing the cultural jewel that is Afghanistan and its plight. I believe that through the humanities we can find humanity.'' Walid Sharif runs his Afghan-network.net Web site, a source of information about all things Afghan, from his home in Toronto. He says music acted as a unifying force that promoted a sense of national identity among Afghans in the past, and that it can do it again in a post-Taliban future. ``The second the Taliban are weakened,'' Sharif says, ``music will start right away. Musicians, as much as anyone, want a more moderate government so they can perform on the soil they were born on and follow their dreams. The problem is that there are very few musicians left in Afghanistan.'' After the devastation wrought by war and the Taliban, the survival of Afghan music might depend on musicians outside Afghanistan, such as 27-year old Afghan-American Tameem Afzali. ``Keeping this music alive is my mission in life now,'' the Wyoming-born Afzali says from his home in San Francisco. ``I've never been to Afghanistan, but I grew up listening to the music. My father and uncles played it. I became really involved and started performing with Afghan singers here and in Europe. ``At first I played keyboards,'' he says. ``But I found the music was becoming very Westernized. I felt it was dying. Now I play harmonium and accordion. Knowing this music is banned in our country and that the authentic music is not being kept alive has given me motivation.'' Afzali has two bands. Hunaarmandon (Artist, in English) plays authentic Afghan music on traditional instruments. The other, without a formal name, plays a modern fusion of Afghan and world beat sounds. Aside from Afzali, the members of both bands are non-Afghans. ``It's amazing, but they are learning the Afghan style,'' he says. ``You can hear many styles of music from around the world these days, but Afghan music hasn't had a chance to be heard. It hasn't even been heard in its own country for a long time.'' Does he hope to perform in Afghanistan one day? ``That's been my dream,'' Afzali says. ``Unfortunately, after all that's happened, I won't see what my parents have seen, the beauties of Afghanistan. But at least I'd like to put my feet in the country and try to rebuild it. At this point, I just hope the Taliban can be removed and Afghans can have some freedom.''
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