Can You Stop the Birds from Singing: The Cultural Impact of Music Censorship in Afghanistan

“Music is not a vaccine. It doesn’t cure disease, feed the hungry or clean up toxic waste. Yet it is vital to human existence, and often goes unnoticed, like breathing. Music expresses a culture’s identity, informed by the past and envisioning the future. It speaks to the people and influences popular belief. It unites polarized sectors. Given this, it is not surprise the Taliban banned music from Afghan society.” (About our preservation project, Social change, n.d., para 3) The Taliban, in the time they were in power – from 1996-2001, among other human rights violations banned all music. And at least 10 years prior to the Taliban’s rule, music censorship was rearing its ugly head. By the time the Taliban took over, stereo systems, video cassette players and TV sets were destroyed in public. Musicians tried to bury their instruments in order to hide them. One Afghan musician tells of hiding his precious sarinda in his woodpile. The innards of cassettes were ripped out and hung in effigy. Musical instruments were burned in the public stadium. The only “music” allowed were religious chants. Another musician, fearing he might lose his mind without hearing or making music, bought doves which he let loose in his house. He was then surrounded with the sound of “music.” By 1996, under the Taliban rule the list of forbidden things grew: music, dance, theatre, film and television, cameras, photography, sculptures, magazines, newspapers, most books, festivities, children’s toys, applause, and even......squeaky shoes. (Broughton, D.) “A woman could be arrested for humming to her child.” (Solomon, A.) I spent two and a half years in Afghanistan from 1966-68 as a Peace Corps volunteer. I was there during what is now remembered as one of the most prosperous and peaceful times in Afghan history, before the Soviets, before the Mujahideen, before the Taliban. Life was good. Although Afghanistan was and continues to be a country of extreme poverty, the Afghans enjoyed life and music and dance and artistic expression flourished. Audio cassettes were commonplace in the bazaar. Radio Afghanistan, Afghanistan’s only radio station at that time, played an important role in not only providing Afghans across the country with a rich variety of ethnic and regional folk music but playing a unifying role by sharing the music of many ethnic and linguistic groups. During that time a number of Afghan women achieved fame. As a Peace Corps volunteer I was first assigned to teach English to 7 and 8 grade boys from the Provinces but after a year offered my services, given I was a newly certified teacher, with a degree in music, to teach music to children in schools around Kabul. I had noticed that there was little to no music in the schools and certainly no music texts. With the help of Afghan poets and musicians, we put together a small music book of sixteen songs. With a harmonium in hand, I tromped around from one school to another, sharing the songs to the delight of the children and their teachers. As an extra bonus, I shared my small supply of crayons and had the children assist me in illustrating the songbook with their delightful drawings. I left Afghanistan in 1968 with a small published book which was to be distributed to elementary schools in Kabul. For almost forty years since my Peace Corps experience, I’ve followed news stories about Afghanistan. I read about the devastation, about the Communist coup, the defeat of the Soviets, the gain of the Mujahideen and finally the oppressive rule of the Taliban. With each new report my heart sank a bit more. I tried to imagine what was happening to the Afghanistan I came to