Kabul: Authorities from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan have burned thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment, which included a guitar, harmonium and tabla, claiming that music ’causes moral corruption’, a media report said.
According to the BBC report, the incident took place July 29 in Herat province.
Images on social media showed that amplifiers and speakers were also set ablaze in the bonfire.
Many of these had been seized from wedding venues, the report added.
Responding to the incident, an official at the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said playing music would “cause the youth to go astray”.
Ahmad Sarmast, Afghanistan National Institute of Music founder, likened the regime’s actions to “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,” Sarmast, who is now based in Portugal, told the BBC.
Since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions, including playing music in public.
A similar bonfire of instruments was organised by the Taliban July 19.
The regime had government posted photos of the blaze on X (formerly known as Twitter) at the time but did not say which part of the country it had taken place in.
All forms of music were banned from social gatherings, TV, and radio while the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan from the mid-90s until 2001.
IANS
