There are rules against music, but the rules don’t always to the Taliban, whose enforcers are proving keener on shaking down wedding parties than heeding their dogma.
By Marjan Sadat
Staff Reporter
Sun., June 25, 2023
After weeks of preparation, hundreds of guests had gathered for the party in the wedding hotel. Everyone seemed happy, music was echoing in the separate women’s-only hall and young girls were celebrating with joy and dance.
An hour had passed when the young bride and groom entered, both in white, and the DJ played the famous and traditional song “Ahesta Bero” (“Go Slowly”) but moments later, gunfire was heard. Armed, dishevelled, long-haired men working for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice walked in and took the DJ’s music equipment away with them.
It happened a month ago in the province of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, a man we’ll call Jabar (not his real name) told the Star. And Afghans say it’s not unusual.
Jabar, the groom’s cousin, said that he was outside the wedding hotel (one of Afghanistan’s special, luxurious halls dedicated to nuptials) when the Taliban’s men arrived. They grabbed the DJ’s gear, tied it to the back of a Ford Ranger pickup — the vehicles given in the thousands by the U.S. to Afghanistan’s previous police and army, and now in Taliban hands — and drove them away.
“It was a really sad moment. I think we are in a prison where our happiness and sadness depends” on the jailer’s decisions, Jabar said in Persian.
The fear that prevailed after the incident turned the happy gathering into a sad one, he continued, adding that people hate this type of Islam, which hits people in the mouth with a gun butt and buries their dreams. A law school graduate, Jabar, 25, asserted that in fact this behaviour has nothing to do with religion.
“Part of this performance of the Taliban is (for) blackmail and obtaining money. Many of them have now realized the joy of wealth and do everything under the name of Islam to earn money.”
The Taliban have banned playing music, dancing and singing since the day they returned to power on August 2021. Yet enforcement varies. In many videos posted on social media Taliban fighters both dance and sing, albeit without musical instruments, and say it is “spiritual” and permitted. And sometimes the regime’s armed representatives permit music in the women’s hall, for a price.
Ramez (not his real name) is in charge of a Kabul wedding hall. He said that the behaviour of the Taliban is not consistent on the issue. According to him, not long ago, they beat and arrested the owner of a wedding hotel because of music in the women’s hall, but lately taking cash instead “for allowing music to play has become common and everyone knows about it. Islam is an excuse, the goal is money.”
Speaking in Persian, he added that even the Taliban have told the hoteliers that there should not be male waiters and camera persons in women’s wedding halls, but so far men are still filling those jobs. Ramez adds that Taliban fighters have stopped cars at city checkpoints and said “give us money, we haven’t been paid for several months.”
“They have started extortion under the name of Islam and the whole world sees and knows this,” Ramez said. He added that the conditions of average people in Afghanistan have deteriorated immensely since the fall of the republic in 2021, and it has predictably also hurt the hotel business.
Ramez said there was a wedding party every night in his hotel pre-Taliban, but after August 2021, due to the imposition of restrictions and the prevailing poverty, wedding parties come only about two nights a week, most of them Taliban fighters who have married educated girls of the capital. There is, he said, no restriction on playing music in their parties.
“A few days ago, the wedding party of a Taliban official which was attended by most of the Taliban officials was held in our hotel and there were no restrictions on playing music or observing hijab. This was his second marriage after August 2021.”
During the restored rule of the Taliban, many officials of this group have married polygamously, taking on second, third and fourth wives. The Star has obtained videos of a DJ playing music in the women’s hall in the Taliban’s own gathering; in the men’s hall, a man is singing live.
Rauf (not his real name) is in charge of a Kabul flower shop that also rents DJ gear to hotels. He said that on several occasions the Taliban has confiscated music equipment from hotels and then sold it back for cash.
“When we go to the Taliban to get our musical equipment, they say with anger and insults that ‘you make people’s women dance and are infidels.’ And then when we pay, they hand over the equipment and it is as if we are no longer infidels,” Rauf told the Star in Persian.
Rauf said that it usually takes 5,000 to 20,000 Afghanis ($80-$300) to get equipment back from the Taliban; once, he even bought curtains and mattresses for a Taliban official’s office. The businessman said “The Islam of the Taliban is not Islam, it is Islamabad” — the capital of Pakistan. The majority of Taliban officials were students of Pakistani madrassas and for 20 years, they led the war against international forces from there.
Farida, 26, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan, got engaged prior to the Taliban’s return but her wedding took place only recently. She had long held on to her dreams and hopes for the big day, but in the end it was decided only to play music for an hour at the women’s hall, lest the regime’s gunmen show up.
Jabar said that these sorts of acts by the Taliban have alienated the people from Islam and destroyed the sense of hope and desire in people’s minds. Farida said that people’s living conditions and outlook have changed a lot from the era of the republic — now everything is associated with fear and terror, even weddings.
“I had many wishes for my wedding party, but it was not fulfilled,” Farida said to Star in Persian.
“I don’t feel good at all in life … The second name of our life is fear and hopelessness.”
Marjan Sadat is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter for the Star. Reach her via email: msadat@thestar.ca
Sun., June 25, 2023
After weeks of preparation, hundreds of guests had gathered for the party in the wedding hotel. Everyone seemed happy, music was echoing in the separate women’s-only hall and young girls were celebrating with joy and dance.
An hour had passed when the young bride and groom entered, both in white, and the DJ played the famous and traditional song “Ahesta Bero” (“Go Slowly”) but moments later, gunfire was heard. Armed, dishevelled, long-haired men working for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice walked in and took the DJ’s music equipment away with them.
It happened a month ago in the province of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, a man we’ll call Jabar (not his real name) told the Star. And Afghans say it’s not unusual.
Jabar, the groom’s cousin, said that he was outside the wedding hotel (one of Afghanistan’s special, luxurious halls dedicated to nuptials) when the Taliban’s men arrived. They grabbed the DJ’s gear, tied it to the back of a Ford Ranger pickup — the vehicles given in the thousands by the U.S. to Afghanistan’s previous police and army, and now in Taliban hands — and drove them away.
“It was a really sad moment. I think we are in a prison where our happiness and sadness depends” on the jailer’s decisions, Jabar said in Persian.
The fear that prevailed after the incident turned the happy gathering into a sad one, he continued, adding that people hate this type of Islam, which hits people in the mouth with a gun butt and buries their dreams. A law school graduate, Jabar, 25, asserted that in fact this behaviour has nothing to do with religion.
“Part of this performance of the Taliban is (for) blackmail and obtaining money. Many of them have now realized the joy of wealth and do everything under the name of Islam to earn money.”
The Taliban have banned playing music, dancing and singing since the day they returned to power on August 2021. Yet enforcement varies. In many videos posted on social media Taliban fighters both dance and sing, albeit without musical instruments, and say it is “spiritual” and permitted. And sometimes the regime’s armed representatives permit music in the women’s hall, for a price.
Ramez (not his real name) is in charge of a Kabul wedding hall. He said that the behaviour of the Taliban is not consistent on the issue. According to him, not long ago, they beat and arrested the owner of a wedding hotel because of music in the women’s hall, but lately taking cash instead “for allowing music to play has become common and everyone knows about it. Islam is an excuse, the goal is money.”
Speaking in Persian, he added that even the Taliban have told the hoteliers that there should not be male waiters and camera persons in women’s wedding halls, but so far men are still filling those jobs. Ramez adds that Taliban fighters have stopped cars at city checkpoints and said “give us money, we haven’t been paid for several months.”
“They have started extortion under the name of Islam and the whole world sees and knows this,” Ramez said. He added that the conditions of average people in Afghanistan have deteriorated immensely since the fall of the republic in 2021, and it has predictably also hurt the hotel business.
Ramez said there was a wedding party every night in his hotel pre-Taliban, but after August 2021, due to the imposition of restrictions and the prevailing poverty, wedding parties come only about two nights a week, most of them Taliban fighters who have married educated girls of the capital. There is, he said, no restriction on playing music in their parties.
“A few days ago, the wedding party of a Taliban official which was attended by most of the Taliban officials was held in our hotel and there were no restrictions on playing music or observing hijab. This was his second marriage after August 2021.”
During the restored rule of the Taliban, many officials of this group have married polygamously, taking on second, third and fourth wives. The Star has obtained videos of a DJ playing music in the women’s hall in the Taliban’s own gathering; in the men’s hall, a man is singing live.
Rauf (not his real name) is in charge of a Kabul flower shop that also rents DJ gear to hotels. He said that on several occasions the Taliban has confiscated music equipment from hotels and then sold it back for cash.
“When we go to the Taliban to get our musical equipment, they say with anger and insults that ‘you make people’s women dance and are infidels.’ And then when we pay, they hand over the equipment and it is as if we are no longer infidels,” Rauf told the Star in Persian.
Rauf said that it usually takes 5,000 to 20,000 Afghanis ($80-$300) to get equipment back from the Taliban; once, he even bought curtains and mattresses for a Taliban official’s office. The businessman said “The Islam of the Taliban is not Islam, it is Islamabad” — the capital of Pakistan. The majority of Taliban officials were students of Pakistani madrassas and for 20 years, they led the war against international forces from there.
Farida, 26, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan, got engaged prior to the Taliban’s return but her wedding took place only recently. She had long held on to her dreams and hopes for the big day, but in the end it was decided only to play music for an hour at the women’s hall, lest the regime’s gunmen show up.
Jabar said that these sorts of acts by the Taliban have alienated the people from Islam and destroyed the sense of hope and desire in people’s minds. Farida said that people’s living conditions and outlook have changed a lot from the era of the republic — now everything is associated with fear and terror, even weddings.
“I had many wishes for my wedding party, but it was not fulfilled,” Farida said to Star in Persian.
“I don’t feel good at all in life … The second name of our life is fear and hopelessness.”
Marjan Sadat is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter for the Star. Reach her via email: msadat@thestar.ca
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