Popular culture begins returning to Kandahar

Still wearing the long tunics and black and white turbans of the Taliban era, Kandaharis - the people of Kandahar - are returning en masse to frequent music shops, play video games and fly kites. Such activities would have been unthinkable six months ago when the much-feared police of the now defunct Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were still operating in this former Taliban stronghold. Muhammad Rafi, like so many other Kandaharis, was a refugee in Pakistan for more than 10 years. A music lover, he fled the civil war in Kandahar in 1992 and opened a CD and video shop in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. "Many times in the past three years I wanted to return, but the Taliban were very harsh on music," he told IRIN. "Now I am earning my bread with this business and I am satisfied," he said, smiling and pointing towards the racks in his shop, which caters for tastes ranging from traditional Afghan music to Indian and American films. Indeed, change is in the air in Afghanistan's second-largest city. Local musicians have returned to ply their trade at weddings and other gatherings, though most are still keeping their families in the relative safety of Quetta. The city is awash with music shops blaring out their wares, in sharp contrast to the Taliban era when such behavior was punishable by beating or imprisonment. During that time, the same harsh rules applied to dancing, kite flying and other popular pastimes. Although some sports such as football, cricket and volleyball were allowed, they were strictly controlled. Today, in the evenings, children can again be seen flying kites and playing football in the dusty grounds around the ancient city. Asked whether any exiled Afghan artistes had returned, Rafi replied that conditions in the city were not yet sufficiently conducive, though some had come briefly for the Islamic religious Eid celebrations in February. "Unfortunately, artistes were targeted most by the Taliban's religious frenzy," he said. However, life in the former de facto capital of the Taliban regime was now returning back to normal, he added. Kandahar is the only major Afghan city without a night curfew. The revival of music has clearly lifted the city's spirits; even taxi drivers are whistling in tune with their radios. "We are free now. It was impossible to imagine listening to music when the Taliban were in power," Muhammad Arif Khan told IRIN, driving merrily past the former religious police office, now in ruins following US bombing. He was delighted that people like Rafi were back in the city to supply him with his favourite music. The source of the tunes he was listening to was the local radio station - the Voice of Kandahar. Broadcasting from a bullet-pitted and crumbling five-storey building, it manages to make itself heard for two hours a day in spite of equipment and staff problems. Seated in a small room fitted with old machines serving as a studio, a bearded announcer does his job meticulously. Under the Taliban there was Radio Shari'ah - broadcasting a monotonous diet of religious chants and verses from the Koran. Sweeping the dust off an old record sleeve, Abdul Ali, the head of Kandahar radio and television, said the city's residents were happy with the change, and hungry for entertainment. "We get a large number of requests for more entertainment programmes such as music," he told IRIN. At present, they broadcast a short selection of news, music and informative features on health, education and agriculture. Radio is back, but television is another matter altogether. The television studio's antiquated Soviet Russian equipment is defunct. "We tried to launch television transmissions, but the equipment doesn't work and there are no spares available," Ali said. At the moment there is only one engineer to look after both the TV and radio studios. "Apart from a US $350 private donation from a visiting western journalist, nobody has helped us," he said regretfully. Ali was optimistic about the future, however. "Kandahar used to be a leading cultural centre and we want to restore that honour," he said. "Apart from being the largest city in the southern region, Kandahar has a rich artistic tradition. As a bastion of the Durrani rulers in the 18th century, it attracted artists, artisans and holy men - all finding benevolent patronage in the royal court." Unlike Rafi, Muhammad Nazim, a 29-year-old shopkeeper never closed his audio-cassette business throughout the long years of the civil war and Taliban rule. Today, his shop - resounding with loud Afghan music - is filled with a rich array of music. "It was not easy with the Taliban, because they only allowed religious chants and Koranic verse recordings," he told IRIN. "Business is better now.". Asked how ordinary citizens were reacting to the changes around them, Nazim said that, after such harsh experiences under the Taliban, he expected greater tolerance towards entertainment in the country. "We have seen terrible times. I hope our future will be more tolerant," he added.