As work has dried up and Taliban fighters have begun targeting members of the community, musicians have been driven out of the city’s historic Kucha-e-Kharabat neighborhood.
— Nabih Bakhsh’s family has been part of Afghanistan’s musical tradition for generations. His great-grandfather was a musician in the court of the Afghan emperor 150 years ago. His father was a famous maestro and singer. Bakhsh too carried on the family art, performing and running an instrument repair shop.
. Their owners packed them and left, putting a centuries-old Afghan musical heritage at risk of vanishing.Many are being driven out as work has dried up both because of the country’s economic collapse and out of fear of the Taliban. The Taliban government has not formally banned music, but musicians say individual Taliban fighters take matters into their own hands and target them, halting performances and breaking their instruments because they say music is “haram,” or proscribed by Islamic law.
“The Taliban came to this street, told us music is not allowed and should be banned,” he said. Like most of the street’s residents, his income had come from playing at weddings, concerts and parties. Now that is gone. In Kucha-e-Kharabat, classical music traditions have been passed down for generations, dating back to the 1860s when Afghan emperor Sher Ali Khan invited Indian masters to enrapture Kabul’s royal court.
All that remains of the shop’s past life is the empty shell of a harmonium, full of rags. “I don’t know what happened to the guy who commissioned me to repair it, he must have left,” he said. Issa Khan, 38, was an hour into playing at an engagement party in a private residence when a group of Taliban stormed in. The militants also broke his instrument and told him music was forbidden.But folk tunes still ring out from the home of Mobin Wesal. The 35-year-old singer’s voice enlivens the empty salon, bare except for his instruments packed away in the corner.
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