Afghanistan: Artistic freedom since the fall of the Taliban, specifically content restrictions imposed to visual artists regarding material that was considered "un-Islamic" by the Taliban
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 30 April 2002 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | AFG38726.E |
| Reference | 5 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Afghanistan: Artistic freedom since the fall of the Taliban, specifically content restrictions imposed to visual artists regarding material that was considered "un-Islamic" by the Taliban, 30 April 2002, AFG38726.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4bdf54.html [accessed 28 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The Research Directorate was unable to find sources detailing the degree of artistic freedom in Afghanistan or content policies introduced by the interim, post-Taliban administration within the time constraints of this response.
However, several reports document how, since the fall of the Taliban, artwork has been returned to public display. In a National Public Radio story on culture in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, it was reported that:
Now that the Taliban have been overthrown, some of Afghanistan's arts institutions are trying to repair themselves and remind Afghans of what they've lost.
...
[T]he Taliban searched out and destroyed art large and small. They hacked, slashed, [and] gouged 208 pieces from Afghanistan's National Gallery. The gallery has reopened with a new show that looks like a crime scene: pictures of shepherds and their flocks, nomads on camels, women in marketplaces and gambolling goats all torn into almost indecipherable bits and pieces.
...
[Gallery director Fatwehl Adhal said] [t]he reason that we arranged all these destroyed pieces of art here is to show to people that the Taliban were thinking this way.
...
Part of [Afghan] heritage is paintings that were saved because they were disguised. Dr. Mohammed Yosef Asefi (ph), a physician and artist, came into the National Gallery and altered about 50 paintings before the Taliban could find them. He brushed water-colored grass, flowers and mountains over oil paintings of men, women and birds. When the Taliban fled, Dr. Asefi took a sponge to those paintings and restored the living figures that had been veiled by his artifice. ...
[Sayed M. Raheen, Afghanistan's interim Minister of Information and Culture said] I think there was a [Taliban] policy to cut off the ties between this generation and our past and to destroy our national identity and our national pride (18 Feb. 2002).
According to Gregory Lamb, writing for the Christian Science Monitor,
most of the film archive at the Afghan Film Studios was burned by the Taliban. But dedicated workers were able to hide some films. "We had to try to save these films, even though it was dangerous, because this is our life's work," the studio's director, Abdul Jamil Sarwar, told The Washington Post. "It's not brave, it's our job."
Another art-loving Afghan secretly touched up oil paintings at the National Gallery and elsewhere, using watercolors to hide any images that might cause the Taliban to destroy them. The ruse worked, and many paintings were saved.
This week, the Kabul Theater Company gave its first performance since before Taliban rule in the ruins of its bombed-out theater. Chief actor Najibullah Ghanzada told Agence France Presse, that he hopes to write new plays now that it is allowed. "My dream is to have a proper theater, with real seats, a roof, and a stage," he said (11 Jan. 2002).
The reopening of the Kabul's National Theatre was attended by interim Minister of Culture Raheen Makhdoom who "greeted performers and audience members, saying the producers wanted to revive 'what was destroyed by our enemies. ... [W]hat these people wanted to show was that art, music and culture will not die in this country and nobody can kill them'" (AP 8 Jan. 2002).
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
References
Associated Press (AP). 8 January 2002. "Theater (sic) Show a Hit with Afghan Residents Hungry for Culture after Taliban's Harsh Control." (NEXIS).
Christian Science Monitor. 11 January 2002. Gregory M. Lamb. "With Taliban Out, Afghan Arts Emerge."
National Public Radio. 18 February 2002. "Return of Afghan Culture after Fall of the Taliban." (NEXIS)
Additional Sources Consulted
IRB Databases
NEXIS
Unsuccessful attempts to contact oral sources
Internet sites including:
Afghanistan Archive
Afghanistan Online
Afghanistan's Web Site
Amnesty International
Arts Journal
Assistance Afghanistan
Center for Economic and Social Rights
Eurasianet.org
Far Eastern Economic Review
New York Times
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
World News Connection
Yahoo.com
Search engines:
Google.com
Yahoo.com
