Taliban raises banners of tyranny against Afghans again: Music is a permanent enemy of the movement

Nahla Abdel Moneim

The Afghan Taliban movement is again raising the banners of tyranny towards the Afghan people, as it recently published pictures of burning musical instruments on its social media accounts, claiming that music corrupts morals.

Afghan media reported that at the end of July, the western province of Herat witnessed the burning of a group of musical instruments worth thousands of dollars, which included guitars, drums and pianos, as well as loudspeakers, while the Taliban defended their position by claiming that singing and playing music corrupt the values of Afghan society.

The BBC quoted the founder of the Afghan National Institute of Music, Ahmad Sarmast, as saying that the Taliban seeks to exterminate the musical culture of society and that the scenes of burning musical instruments are only evidence of the frightening visions that the movement carries.

Hostility to music

On July 19, the Taliban organized another burning of musical instruments and published pictures of it on its social media accounts, without noting the location where it took place.

In October 2021, gunmen claiming links to the Taliban attacked a wedding party in the Surkh-Rod district of Nangarhar province to stop the music, killing two and wounding others. For its part, the Taliban denied that the gunmen acted in the name of the movement, confirming the arrest of two of them. The movement also banned music during its first period of rule, which ran from 1996 to 2001.

It appears from the sequence of events and the Taliban’s reactions, as well as what the movement has built for years in the minds of its members, did not disappear for long behind the movement’s desire for political appeasement under the weight of its desire for international recognition of its new authority. With the arrival of the Taliban to power in August 2021, it was keen to present media speeches that included a pledge to preserve human rights, especially for women and children, stressing that its current rule would not be similar to its first rule, because it seriously seeks to engage in formal international institutions as well as recognition of its authority.

Taliban returns to its true face

With the passage of a few months, the movement showed a face more compatible with its beliefs towards minorities, women, and all those who oppose its authority.

Regarding these changes, Ahmed Ban, an Egyptian researcher in the affairs of extremist organizations, said that what the Taliban demonstrated immediately after they came to power falls under the item of public relations and improving the movement’s image globally so as not to impose an international blockade on them due to the complexities of their previous positions, and therefore they tried to identify with modern values.

In his statement to the Reference, Ban added that the movement did not obtain what it wanted from the international community and what those discourses were used for, and therefore it returned to its true faith.

Restricting freedoms and multiplying crises

The recent decisions of the Taliban affect the course of daily life and complicate the involvement of the new authority in the international community, which increases the country’s economic crises and makes it difficult for international financial cooperation with the Taliban.

The Taliban had also set July 27 as a date for closing all women’s beauty salons, which will affect the economy of this sector and those who depend on it, especially since the movement requires women not to leave their homes without covering their entire bodies and faces, and working in salons is restricted to women. Meanwhile, in March, the movement prevented men from working in the field of sewing women’s clothing.