The Evolution Of ‘Permitted Music’ In Iran and Afghanistan (Islamic Republic of Iran 1979-2019; Afghanistan under the Taliban 1996-2001)

Author: Justin William Houston Wiggins

In the 20th and 21st centuries, music has had an important and complex relationship to power in the countries of Iran and Afghanistan. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s censorship of music and music production is a relatively well-known phenomenon. The arrest of six Iranians in 2014 for releasing a video of them dancing to Pharrell Williams’ song, Happy, made international news in many Western countries and made many non-specialist Americans aware 34 of this facet of Iranian politics. Similarly, Afghanistan under the Taliban was known as a place of severe censorship where musical instruments were smashed and cassette tapes were burned publicly .

In this paper I would like to explore the relationship between music, music production, music dissemination and the political power structures in these two countries. To delimit my investigation, I will focus on the Islamic Republic of Iran between the years 1979-2019, Afghanistan under the Taliban from approximately 1994-2001 and the Taliban in Afghanistan from 2001-2019. During these times and in these places, freedom of speech has been strongly restricted . Music and music production have been restricted strongly for both political and religious reasons. Musicians who go against the wishes of those in power risk jail time and even retaliation against them or their families. While in some cases I will be covering almost 50 years of history, I feel this is necessary given how music and music censorship are not written about academically as often as other political events and I want to consider as many sources for case studies as possible.