| ID | 090559 |
| Title Proper | Creating an audience from the void |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Mojumdar, Aunohita |
| Publication | 2009. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Contrary to the oft-repeated mantra that equates all censorship with the Taliban, the advent of cultural restrictions in Afghanistan goes back much farther. While the Soviet-sponsored regimes saw a chance for propaganda in art and music, the subsequent mujahideen government had senior leaders whose conservative interpretation of Islam did not encourage music and the arts. What space remained was squeezed in the last years of the Taliban, when its leaders turned more brutal and censorious, systematically destroying the art and culture that they had earlier permitted to exist. The purge culminated in the infamous destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, an act that turned the Taliban into pariahs. But Bamiyan residents still talk of how, in earlier years, the mujahideen soldiers would amuse themselves by taking pot shots at the Buddha statues. |
| `In' analytical Note | Himal Vol. 22, No. 9; Sep 2009: p39-41 |
| Journal Source | Himal Vol. 22, No. 9; Sep 2009: p39-41 |
| Key Words | Afghanistan ; Sensorship ; Music |