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Radio

Under the Taliban, Afghan light entertainment accrued unusual weight

8 June 2024

9:00 AM

8 June 2024

9:00 AM

Afghan Star

Apple, Spotify and other platforms

Poetry Please

BBC Radio 4

For a television talent show, Afghan Star had unusually high stakes. When it first hit Afghanistan’s screens in 2005, four years after the fall of the Taliban, it represented the triumph of music over those who had attempted to smother it. Even from the show’s somewhat chaotic inception, it galvanised a nation, sending supporters out on to the streets to canvas for their favourite performers.

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