Afghanistan’s got talent

The cheering fans, the dramatic Hollywood-style drum rolls, the excitable host all sound just like The X Factor or The Voice. It’s hard to believe that beyond the lights and cameras there’s a huge security operation keeping the singers, TV staff and audience safe. But the Afghan version of the talent show is still under attack from the Taleban. In The Art of Now: Afghan Stars on Radio 4 (produced by Roger Short) we heard from Massood Sanjar, who set up the TV company that produces the programme, and Zahra Elham, this year’s winner, voted to the top spot by the audience, the first woman to win the show in its 14-year history.

Two generations have grown up in the 40 years that Afghanistan has been torn to shreds by war, fearing death while out buying bread or going to school. Even indoors listening to the radio, their lives were constantly under threat when the Taleban, at the height of their control from 1996 until 2001, decreed that all music was banned on penalty of death. Music is still regarded by some of the mullahs as sinful, promoting ‘sexual excitement’, and especially if it’s performed by women, whose voices are said to be ‘provocative and tempting for men’.

Of the 700 employees of the TV company, one third are security guards. Just three years ago a minibus shuttling staff to work was blown up, killing seven set-builders, cameramen and administrative staff and injuring more than 20 others. Inside the studio, though, all that is forgotten as music takes precedence. For the female contestants, singing in public could mean death, even though they always have their hair covered and barely move for fear of being accused of dancing.