Young Girl in Herat Challenges Taliban Ban on Music and Dance.
In Herat, a young girl protested Taliban policies on human rights and restrictions on women by performing a Sama dance inside a mosque. By playing music and dancing in this religious setting, she openly challenged the Taliban’s ban on music and dance.
The Taliban consider music and dance “against Sharia law” and have completely prohibited them. The group also allows girls to study only up to the sixth grade and has barred many women from working in government and non-government institutions, a policy that has drawn repeated domestic and international criticism.
More than four years after the Taliban’s return to power, restrictions, pressures, and an atmosphere of repression have increased in Afghanistan. Activists and human rights organizations warn that personal freedoms, especially the rights of women and girls, continue to deteriorate.
