Ahmad Sarmast

Aug 30, 2024 | wsj.com | Ahmad Sarmast |Jessica Lustig |Lesley Rosenthal

In Afghanistan, music is being silenced—not by the gentle passing of time, but by deliberate destruction. Photos recently appeared in the media showing piles of musical instruments reduced to ashes: guitars, sitars, tanburs and rubabs—the rubab, a national symbol of Afghan identity—among them. First, we wept; then we got angry. We call upon the global community to reverse this fundamental attack on Afghan society.