Taliban male poets sing praises of new Afghan order, as female poets are silenced and women denied an education

In Afghanistan, where music and cinema are banned, poetry is officially encouraged, as long as it toes the government line and praises the Taliban

All poets and attendees at a recent government-organised poetry reading were male – women were banned; female poets can only work anonymously

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Samiullah Hamas recites poetry at the Purple Flower Poetry Festival, in Charikar district, Parwan Province, Afghanistan. The event featured a male-only line-up reading pro-Taliban verses to a male-only audience. Women poets, like other women, have been silenced. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:15pm, 25 May 2024Updated: 10:40pm, 27 May 2024

Taliban poets, long fuelled by fervour for jihad against foreign forces, have focused their efforts on flattering the men who now rule Afghanistan.

Overlooking the deserted Bagram airfield, the US military’s former centre of operations in Afghanistan, a government-organised poetry reading attracts Taliban bards who eulogise their power.

“It is a pure system, this is our victory,” proclaimed Samiullah Hamas in front of an avid crowd in Parwan province.

“We all must be united, live under the same roof of the Islamic system and extend the hand of brotherhood to each other,” the 22-year-old says later. “These are the messages we convey through our poetry.”

Afghan men listen to a poet during the Purple Flower Poetry Festival at Tap-e-Gul Ghundi recreational park in Charikar district of Parwan province. Photo: AFP

As the Taliban government nears the end of its third year in power, it is working to impose its vision for the nation of more than 40 million people.

Taliban male poets sing praises of new Afghan order, as female poets are silenced and women denied an education

In Afghanistan, where music and cinema are banned, poetry is officially encouraged, as long as it toes the government line and praises the Taliban All poets and attendees at a recent government-organised poetry reading were male – women were banned; female poets can only work anonymously

In Afghanistan, where music and cinema are banned, poetry is officially encouraged, as long as it toes the government line and praises the Taliban

All poets and attendees at a recent government-organised poetry reading were male – women were banned; female poets can only work anonymously