After Taliban music ban, songbook teaches Afghan children to sing again

By Magdalena Mis LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Louise Pascale, an American music teacher, pulled a three-decade-old Afghan children’s songbook from her bookcase, she realized she was likely holding a treasure lost to Afghan children following a music ban imposed by the Taliban. Playing instruments was banned during the period of Taliban rule in late-1990s Afghanistan, and even today, many conservative Muslims frown on most forms of music. “Musicians were practically losing their minds trying to hide their instruments under wood piles, thinking they were going to go crazy without any music and trying to practise in their heads at night,” Pascale told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.