One such Afghan singer was executed by the Taliban just days after the Islamic fundamentalist group declared that “music is forbidden to Islam,” according to his family.
Fawad Andarabi’s family told the Associated Press that he was shot dead on Friday when security officers returned home after searching him and even drinking tea with him.
“He was shot in the head on the farm,” his son, Jawad, said of the murder in the Andarabi Valley for which he was named.
“He was innocent, a singer who only entertained people,” the grieving son said of his father, who played an inclined lute called ghichak and sang traditional songs about his country.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the insurgents would investigate the incident, but had no other details about the killing in the area about 60 kilometers north of Kabul.
It came just days after Mujahid told the New York Times that music was being banned, as it had been during the group’s brutal rule from 1996 to 2001.
“Music is forbidden in Islam,” Mujahid told the newspaper, insisting, “We hope we can convince people not to do these things instead of pressuring them.”
Former Afghan Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi, who has no relatives, shared images of the singer who acted, saying he was “brutally murdered” simply for “bringing joy to this valley and its people.” “.
“While singing here ‘our beautiful valley … the land of our ancestors’ will not submit to the brutality of the Taliban,” he tweeted.
Karima Bennoune, the UN special rapporteur on cultural rights, said yes “Serious concern” for the assassination of Andarabi.
“We call on governments to demand that the Taliban respect the #human rights of #artists,” he tweeted.
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, also denounced the murder.
“There is growing evidence that the Taliban of 2021 are the same as the intolerant, violent and repressive Taliban of 2001,” he tweeted. “Nothing has changed on this front.”
With publishing cables