Banned at home, Afghan music is thriving in the diaspora

THE LAST time Ahmad Fanoos performed in Afghanistan was at a lavish wedding in August 2021, days before America pulled out of its 20-year-long war against the Taliban. A well-known singer and former judge of “Afghan Star”—the equivalent of “American Idol”—Mr Fanoos asked for song requests. Instead he received a note calling him an infidel. He was no stranger to threats; they had accompanied him on his rise to prominence, prompting him to send his wife and three of his children abroad. Mr Fanoos decided to leave one week after the Taliban overran Kabul.