Performers Face the Music

The fall of the Taleban should have been music to the ears of local musicians who risked being punished for playing anything other than religious music.

But while they face no such official restrictions these days, performers continue to be harassed in many parts of the country.

Threats and violence are increasingly commonplace, and, two months ago, a singer was killed when a grenade was thrown into a celebratory gathering in Paghman, west Kabul.

Masood, who has been drumming at festive occasions for two decades, told IWPR that he has been attacked twice for playing his music since he returned from Pakistan, “My instrument was taken from me in Shakar Dara [a north-eastern district in Kabul]. Not long after, time in the De Sabz district [also in the northeast of Kabul], my new drum was pierced with a dagger.”

Now Masood will not venture far from the centre of the capital to perform, “even if somebody pays me in dollars”.

Singer Din Mohammed Ghamkhor agrees that the risk is considerable, “Outside Kabul people do not like music a lot, and we know that we will be humiliated there. We musicians only feel comfortable playing wedding parties which are held at hotels - because we know we will be safe there.”

Qand Agha, who sings and drums at celebrations, told IWPR he had been beaten up at a recent party in the Bagrami district by six masked gunmen who then destroyed his instruments. “They also stole 5000 afghanis (around 100 US dollars) from me,” he said.

The host of the gathering, who did not want to give his name, described the men as “hooligans” and questioned whether the attack was related to religious intolerance. “These people were not ulemas [religious scholars], they walk the streets late at night and smoke hashish. They use the name of Islam for their own ends, to fill their pockets with other people’s money,” he said.

Despite a well-known Afghan saying that “music is the food of the soul”, a long history of folk music and a rich Sufi tradition in some areas of the country - in which music is played as a form of worship - musicians have not had an easy time in recent years.

Under the Taleban, only the singing of religious and nationalist songs accompanied by small drums was allowed at celebrations. And during the mujahedin era, tough restrictions on the playing of music forced nearly all the of country’s most famous singers into exile – although they retained loyal followings back home thanks to the smuggling of cassettes into Afghanistan via the bazaars of Peshawar, Pakistan.

Since the fall of the Islamic radicals, the limited reforms of the transitional administration and the continued security problems have done little to reassure the exiles that it’s safe to return.

So, the recent arrival of Farhad Daria, who is best known for his singing of Ghazals (love poetry), after 13 years exile in the United States, caused a flurry of excitement in the capital.

The singer held an emotional press conference in the capital, during which he described Afghan music as “a torn shirt with its parts everywhere - one part in the country and another abroad” and pledged to help to make Ghazal singing stronger than before. “I want to make Kabul a music town,” he said.

However, with conservative religious scholars arguing that music is a slippery slope to all kinds of vice, Daria may be facing an uphill struggle.

Mowlai Khwahar Zad, an imam at Akhund Sahib mosque, in Tara Khel village, in the De Sabz district, where Masood’s drum was destroyed, told IWPR that noisy celebrations were simply not acceptable for Muslims.

Some community leaders are even calling for curbs on marriage celebrations, insisting that they should only be held during the day. “If we have wedding parties where the young smoke hashish, drink and other bad things, our next generation will be led astray,” said Tara Khel elder Haji Mohammed Akber.

Rahimullah Samander is an IWPR editor/reporter and Shahabuddin Tarakhel is an independent journalist in Kabul.