Taliban Shut Down 12 Recording Studios in Khost Over Sharia Compliance
The Taliban’s morality police in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province have shut down 12 recording studios on the grounds of “observing Sharia principles.”
According to Taliban officials, the studios were producing programmes including devotional chants and religious songs. Mostaghfar Gurbaz, the Taliban governor’s spokesman in Khost, said in a post on the social media platform X that the decision was taken to control cultural activities.
Taliban morality officials did not provide information on how long the studios would remain closed or what would happen to those working there. But the move is part of the Taliban’s wider campaign against media and cultural production, with similar cases previously reported in Kabul and other provinces.
In July this year, the Taliban administration confirmed the arrest of several employees of film production companies in Kabul over dubbing films. In August, it said two people had been arrested for translating and dubbing Western television series, and that the offices of some production companies had been shut for the same reason.
In addition to restricting studio activity, the Taliban has also cracked down on music and the playing of musical instruments. The group has banned music from being broadcast by the media, and has collected and burned musical instruments. The Taliban’s Department of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Logar province also previously said it had destroyed more than 142 music players.
These cultural and media restrictions have had a profound negative impact on freedom of expression and cultural activity in Afghanistan, ultimately leaving society deprived of artistic and media diversity.
