Where hits once blared on the streets of Afghanistan, a stripped-back style of music now dominates. A cappella songs known as taranas, long used as Taliban propaganda, are broadcast on the airwaves and relayed via loudspeakers in public.
The Taliban have been trying to project an image of safety and normalcy since retaking power. But as WSJ’s Sune Rasmussen reports from Kabul, harsh punishments, violence, and a crackdown on basic freedoms are becoming the reality. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Imageson Aug. 15, Kabul restaurants used to blare out Afghan and foreign hits to attract customers. Itinerant ice cream vendors, too, played loud mechanical tunes to announce their arrival.
All of that is gone now, as Afghanistan’s capital and other big cities—bowing to Taliban beliefs that most music is un-Islamic—have gone largely quiet.
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