New Delhi: Taliban authorities created a bonfire of confiscated musical instruments and equipment in Afghanistan's Herat province at the weekend, deeming music immoral, reported news agency AFP.
"Promoting music causes moral corruption and playing it will cause the youth to go astray," said Aziz al-Rahman al-Muhajir, head of the Herat department of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
Since gaining power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have slowly established rules and regulations reflecting their austere interpretation of Islam, including a prohibition on public music performances.
Saturday's bonfire saw hundreds of dollars worth of musical gear go up in smoke -- much of it collected from wedding halls in the city.
It included a guitar, two other stringed instruments, a harmonium, and a tabla as well as amplifiers and speakers.
Women have borne the brunt of the new government regulations, and are not allowed in public unless wearing a hijab.
Teenage girls and women have been barred from schools and universities, and they are also prohibited from entering parks, playgrounds, and gyms.
Last week, thousands of beauty salons were shuttered across the country after authorities deemed certain makeovers to be too costly, or un-Islamic.
The Taliban Ministry of Vice and Virtue ordered the Kabul municipality to bring the new decree of the Taliban leader into effect and cancel the licenses of women's beauty salons.
"The men are jobless. When men cannot take care of their families, the women are forced to work in a beauty salon to find a loaf of bread. If they are banned there, what can we do?" said Raihan Mubariz, a makeup artist, as per TOLO News, an Afghan news channel broadcasting from Kabul.
Earlier, the Islamic Emirate banned girls and women from going to schools, universities and working at NGOs as well as going to public areas such as parks, cinemas, and other recreation areas.