Silence replaces old folk tunes in historic quarter of Kabul

By SAMYA KULLAB
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The songs are silent in the traditional musicians’ quarter of Kabul’s Old City, ever since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan six months ago. Shop owners have taken down the instruments that once filled windows all down its allies. Many musicians are leaving the country.  The Taliban government has not formally banned music. But many are being driven out because work has dried up and, they say, because they have been targeted by individual Taliban fighters who halted their performances, broke their instruments and told them music was “haram,” or proscribed by Islamic law.