RASC News Agency: The Taliban has imposed a ban on music broadcasts across media outlets in Kabul, including both state-run and private television channels. The group has instructed media organizations to cease airing music and instead replace it with religious content, specifically Naat (praises of the Prophet Muhammad) and Quranic recitations. On Thursday, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced that its inspectors, during meetings with media representatives in Kabul, urged them to refrain from broadcasting music. This follows similar restrictions imposed on music broadcasts in other provinces under the Taliban’s rule.
The Taliban has declared music haram (Forbidden) and is pushing for its total exclusion from the media landscape. This directive comes just one day after the Taliban compelled media outlets to refer to the recently assassinated Taliban Minister for Refugees, Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, as a “martyr.” The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a statement on Thursday, December 13, stating: “Inspectors from the Kabul City Department held corrective meetings with officials from print and broadcast media outlets and requested that they refrain from airing music or any content that contradicts Islamic principles and Afghanistan culture.”
The Taliban views music as incompatible with Afghanistan culture and has ordered a comprehensive ban on its airing by media outlets. This latest action follows the group’s previous prohibition of broadcasting images of living beings on television programs. Since seizing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban has consistently imposed stringent restrictions on media freedom, issuing a series of decrees that have dramatically limited press independence.
On December 6, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice closed Kabul’s “Arezo” television channel, citing the protection of “Islamic values.” The Taliban continues to place severe restrictions on Afghanistani citizens, the media, and women, consolidating its authority and imposing its interpretation of cultural and religious norms across the country.
