RASC News Agency: In a deeply troubling development reflective of the Taliban’s ongoing repression of women and artists, the family of Zalala Hashimi, a celebrated young singer and rising icon of Afghanistani music, has reported her disappearance under mysterious circumstances in Kabul more than two weeks ago. As of today, no trace of her whereabouts or confirmation of her safety has emerged, prompting growing fear for her life and escalating demands for international intervention. Zalala’s husband, Sayed Mohsen Hashimi, released a video statement to the media on Thursday, June 19, in which he described the harrowing silence surrounding his wife’s fate. “That day, Zalala left home to meet some friends. Since then, not a single message. Her phone has been switched off, and no leads have surfaced not from hospitals, not from security agencies, not even from local detention facilities,” he said.
“I’ve searched every possible institution, pleaded with local officials, and asked every contact I know,” he continued. “No one is giving us answers. We’re not just worried now we are terrified. I don’t even know if she’s still alive.” Zalala Hashimi had become a symbol of female artistic defiance in an Afghanistan where women have been pushed to the margins of public life. She first gained national recognition when she competed in a televised singing contest aired by TOLO TV, where she stood out among dozens of male contestants and advanced to the early finals. Her bold participation in a space long dominated by men elevated her to the status of a role model for Afghanistani girls aspiring to express themselves through music and art.
She is also the mother of a four-year-old son, who, according to her husband, has suffered both physically and emotionally since her disappearance. “My son constantly asks for his mother,” Mohsen explained. “He’s sick, he won’t eat, and every night he cries himself to sleep. No child should be forced to endure this kind of grief. No mother should vanish without a trace.” The disappearance of Zalala comes against the backdrop of a broader Taliban assault on women’s rights and cultural expression. Since seizing power in 2021, the group has imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s participation in public life banning female education beyond sixth grade, forbidding women from performing or appearing in media, and enforcing an environment of fear that has driven countless female professionals and artists into exile or silence.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for Zalala’s abduction, the pattern fits the Taliban’s established record of arbitrary detentions, censorship, and gender-based persecution. Women who defy the regime’s ideological boundaries especially in the arts, media, and civil society are routinely harassed, intimidated, or disappeared. The regime continues to operate with complete opacity and impunity, erasing not just individuals but the very idea of women’s visibility in Afghanistani society. Her family has now appealed to the international community, human rights organizations, foreign media, and United Nations agencies to take immediate action and pressure the Taliban for information about her fate. “We are desperate,” Mohsen said. “We need the world to raise its voice before it’s too late. Zalala is not just my wife she represents every Afghanistani woman who has been silenced, erased, or forgotten under this regime.”
To date, no official in Kabul has made any comment about her disappearance, continuing a pattern of indifference and complicity that has allowed such incidents to multiply unchecked. The silence of authorities only deepens the family’s anguish and strengthens the fear that Zalala may have been taken precisely because she dared to sing. The disappearance of Zalala Hashimi is not merely an isolated case it is emblematic of the Taliban’s systematic dismantling of women’s rights and cultural identity. In a country once filled with the voices of female poets, journalists, and performers, a dangerous silence is taking hold. Unless the world acts now, that silence may become permanent.
