Taliban authorities detained and humiliated scores of students of Faryab University in northern Faryab province for playing music.
Sources told KabulNow that Taliban’s morality police arrested some 30 students after breaking into the male dormitory of the university on Sunday night, blaming them for playing music, which the group has banned since overtaking power and vowed to punish anyone who listened or played it.
Students said they were celebrating the news of a fellow student’s engagement in the dormitory.
Taliban jailed them overnight in the capital Maimana prison where they were beaten and their heads shaved as a form of “punishment.”
They were released a day later when the Faryab University head mediated with the Taliban.
Following the release of the students, Taliban authorities locked their dormitory gate, leaving them with nowhere to go.
“The students lived in the dormitory and came from other provinces, such as Parwan, Kapisa, Badakhshan, and Takhar,” one student told KabulNow. “They are now left in an uncertain situation and without any money.”
The Taliban authorities in the province have not commented so far.
The Taliban considers music “un-Islamic” and “evil” and has subjected musicians or those who listen to music to beating, detention, and even death.
Fearful of Taliban retaliation, most musicians and singers have fled the country and those remaining have either quit playing music or singing at public events or refuse to show up in such events due to fear.
The group has also confiscated and publicly burned hundreds of musical instruments and barred TV and radio stations from broadcasting music.
