Folk singer Fawad Andarabi dragged from home and shot after Taliban outlaw music

From The Times (of London) and the Hindustan Times

Taliban fighters have shot dead an Afghan folk singer after it outlawed music and women’s voices on television and radio in the bellwether province of Kandahar, laying the ground for a nationwide ban in an echo of the brutal Islamist regime of 20 years ago.

Fawad Andarabi’s son Jawad Andarabi told the Associated Press that this was not the first time that the Taliban came to their house. The Taliban previously came out to Andarabi’s home and searched it, even drinking tea with the musician, his son Jawad Andarabi told The Associated Press. The singer was shot in the head on the farm.

Fawad Andarabi was a folk singer who used to sing praises of Afghanistan and most of his songs were about Afghanistan and its people. As disclosed by Andarabi’s son, the Taliban apparently did not have much ‘ill-feeling’ about Andarabi as some leaders of the group had visited the singer’s house earlier. Andarabi was famed for playing the ghichak, a bowed lute, to accompany folk songs about the mountains that surrounded his home, which lies near the Panjshir Valley, the last bastion of resistance to the Taliban takeover.

Masoud Andarabi, the former interior minister, condemned the singer’s murder. “Taliban’s brutality continues in Andarab. Today they brutally killed folk singer, Fawad Andarabi who simply was bringing joy to this valley and its people,” he wrote on Twitter. “As he sang here ‘our beautiful valley . . . land of our forefathers’ will not submit to Taliban brutality.”

There is  video of him singing and playing attached to Masoud Anderabi’s tweet. This is a screen shot, against the background of the beautiful hills of the valley.  Maybe Bob Dylan could write a song about him, or Stormzy a rap? The peaceful folk singer shot on his own farm for singing about his home. 

The order from Kandahar also confirms fears that women will be forced out of the media and off the airwaves, crushing a vital opportunity for educated, professional women that has flowered in the 20 years since the first Taliban regime was overthrown.

The ban on music was trailed last week by Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman who is now touted as the information minister for the new administration. He said that “music is not allowed in Islam,” though he claimed a decision on a ban would be delayed until the government was officially formed.

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One Response

  1. “music is not allowed in Islam.” Soon the Taliban will forbid singing while one’s being tortured. And what is the reply of the united musicians and singers and hummers of the world? Deafening shameful silence — ‘Ever Again!’

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