'Music may lead youth to go astray': Taliban burns musical instruments in Afghanistan

livemint.com:

BBC, After taking control in 2021, the Taliban has imposed several restrictions, one of which includes a prohibition on public music performances. Ahmad Sarmast, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music's founder, condemned these measures, comparing them to acts of "cultural genocide and musical vandalism." Ahmad Sarmast, Afghanistan National Institute of Music founder, said to BBC that the actions are "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 that is taking place in Afghanistan under the leadership of the Taliban," Dr Sarmast, who is now based in Portugal, told the BBC.

Various items, including a guitar, a harmonium, a tabla (a type of drum), as well as amplifiers and speakers, were set on fire in Herat. These items had been confiscated from wedding venues in the city, as depicted in images available online. The report noted that an official at the Taliban's Vice and Virtue Ministry expressed playing music would "cause the youth to go astray".

On 19 July, the Taliban organized a comparable bonfire of musical instruments, and images of the event were shared on their government's Twitter account. However, the specific location of the incident was not disclosed in the posts. During their previous rule in Afghanistan from the mid-90s to 2001, the Taliban enforced a complete ban on all forms of music at social gatherings, on television, and radio.