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Radio Afghanistan, also known as Radio Kabul or Voice of Sharia, is the public radio station of Afghanistan, owned by Radio Television Afghanistan. The frequencies are 1107 kHz (AM) and 105.2 MHz (FM) for the Kabul area. The name Radio Kabul has been given to many different incarnations of the state-run radio station since the first radio transmitters were installed in Kabul in the 1920s.
In 1925, a 200 watt Russian transmitter operating at AM 833 kHz was installed in Kabul Palace by King Amanullah Khan. This transmitter was destroyed in the 1929 uprising against the King. [1] The transmitter was replaced in 1931 by the new king Mohammed Nadir Shah, and was upgraded in 1940 when a new 20 kilowatt transmitter was installed in its place, operating at 600 kHz. This is generally considered the official birth of Radio Kabul. Programs were broadcast in Pashto, Dari Persian, Urdu, English and French.
As King Mohammed Zahir Shah tried to reinforce his goal of pan-Afghan unity, the station's name was changed in 1953 to the Afghan Broadcasting System, and again in 1960 to Radio Afghanistan. During times of relative peace in the 1960s and 70s, Radio Afghanistan hosted a whole generation of traditional and modern Afghan artists such as Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang, Ustad Farida Mahwash, and Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti. These master musicians were revered not only in Afghanistan but also in India and other countries.
Throughout the modern history of Afghanistan, the radio has been controlled by (and renamed by) the currently ruling party or organization. The various changes of governments during the 1970s were all announced by the new leaders over the radio station. After the Soviet Union installed a puppet government in 1979, Radio Afghanistan was controlled by the Soviet-backed government and was used to rebroadcast pro-Soviet propaganda directly from the Soviet Union.
During the 1990s civil war, the radio station was damaged several times during the fighting, changing hands as different factions gained control of Kabul. In 1996, when the Taliban gained control of Kabul, the station's name was changed to the Voice of Sharia (Pashto : د شریعت غږ, romanized: Da Shariat Ghagh; Dari : صدای شریعت, romanized: Sadâ-e Shariat). As the Taliban consolidated their power throughout the country, the radio station was used to rally Taliban supporters and to broadcast new edicts by the ruling mullahs. The Taliban banned music on the new station and ordered the destruction of the radio archives, which contained irreplaceable tapes of Radio Afghanistan music and political programs going back over forty years. The tapes were presumed to have been permanently lost, but in 2002, the BBC reported that, miraculously, the archives survived not only the Taliban but the utter destruction of the Radio Afghanistan building by American bombs during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. The tapes were hidden by Mohammad Siddiq or "Mr. Computer", the person in charge of the archives, from the Taliban who destroyed what they thought were the archives but were instead actually Indian and Iranian music tapes. Siddiq claimed there were 50,000 radio tapes. [2]
After the Taliban were driven from power, Radio Afghanistan resumed its music and political programs. It has been claimed that the first song broadcast by Radio Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban was the famous patriotic song "Watan" (Homeland) by Abdul Wahab Madadi. [3]
In 2021, following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, the Voice of Sharia branding was again reinstated, with the station signing in with the aforementioned name on 16 August 2021, the day following the takeover. [4] Music broadcasts were again outlawed, being replaced by religious, patriotic and jihadist chants. [5]
The music of Afghanistan comprises many varieties of classical music, folk music, and modern popular music. Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage and features a mix of Persian melodies, Indian compositional principles, and sounds from ethnic groups such as the Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras. Instruments used range from Indian tablas to long-necked lutes. Afghanistan's classical music is closely related to Hindustani classical music while sourcing much of its lyrics directly from classical Persian poetry such as Mawlana Balkhi (Rumi) and the Iranian tradition indigenous to central Asia. Lyrics throughout most of Afghanistan are typically in Dari (Persian) and Pashto. The multi-ethnic city of Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the city of Herat, which is home to traditions more closely related to Iranian music than in the rest of the country.
Kabul University is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd District of the capital Kabul, near the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded in 1931 by King Mohammed Nadir Shah, whose prime minister at the time was his younger brother, Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan.
All India Radio (AIR) aka Akashvani, is an Indian state-owned public radio broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. It was established in 1936. It is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, an Indian television broadcaster. Headquartered in the Akashvani Bhavan building in New Delhi, it houses the Drama Section, the FM Section, and the National Service, and is also home to the Indian television station Doordarshan Kendra, (Delhi).
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf is an exiled Afghan politician and former mujahideen commander. He took part in the war against the Marxist–Leninist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government in the 1980s, leading the Afghan mujahideen faction Ittehad-al-Islami.
The Pashto media includes Pashto literature, Pashto-language newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations, as well as Pashto films and Pashto internet. Pashto media involves the Pashtuns of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Pashtun diaspora around the world.
TOLO is a commercial television station operated by MOBY Group in Afghanistan. Launched in 2004, it became one of the first commercial stations in the country and laid the foundation for an accessible media outlet by offering a large library of shows. It is one of the most popular television channels in Afghanistan and broadcasts shows in both Dari-Persian and Pashto.
Radio Shariat was the mouthpiece of the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, broadcasting religious programs and official decrees and announcements. The broadcasts were carried over twenty transmitting towers. It was the foreign media's main source of information from the Taliban.
Shamshad Media Network is based in Afghanistan and Dubai. Shamshad Media Network is a private and an independent network based in Afghanistan, which began transmission in 2005.
National Radio Television Afghanistan is the public-broadcasting organization of Afghanistan, based in Kabul. This governmental organ has a national television station and a radio station as well as news media. As of August 16, 2023, Yousef Ahmadi serves as the acting Director General of RTA. His predecessor was Atiqullah Azizi, who held the position since September 2021.
The mass media in Afghanistan is monitored by the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC), and includes broadcasting, digital and printing. It is mainly in Dari and Pashto, the official languages of the nation. It was reported in 2019 that Afghanistan had over 107 TV stations and 284 radio stations, including 100s of print media and over 1,800 online media outlets. After the return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) in 2021, there was a concern that the mass media will significantly decrease in the country. The number of digital media outlets is steadily increasing with the help of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and other such online platforms. IEA's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid suggested that the media should be in line with Sharia and national interests.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is the state agency in charge of implementing Islamic law in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as defined by the Taliban. It was first instituted in 1992 by the Rabbani government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and adopted in 1996 by the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of 1996–2001. The ministry was restored in the reinstated Islamic Emirate in September 2021 after the August fall of Kabul.
Television broadcasts in Afghanistan started in the year 1978. As of 2017, there are around 76 local channels operating in the country; the state television channel is Afghanistan National Television. As with other mass media in Afghanistan, television is regulated by the Ministry of Information and Culture.
Ahmad Wali is an Afghan Ghazal singer. He began his career in the 1970s, becoming popular in his native country before he was forced to flee by political upheaval in Afghanistan. He continued his work after resettling in Germany, performing throughout Europe and North America.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada, is an Afghan Deobandi Islamic scholar, cleric, and jurist who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan. He has led the Taliban since 2016, and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. A highly reclusive figure, he has almost no digital footprint except for an unverified photograph and several audio recordings of speeches.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid is an Afghan commander and cleric who is the second deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting defense minister. He has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2016, and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the Taliban's victory over Western-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. He has been the Taliban's military chief since 2020.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai is a senior member of the Afghan Taliban and the country's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs since 7 September 2021.
Qasem Jo, better known as Ustad Qasim, was an Afghan musician, composer, and singer. He is generally considered by musicologists to be one of the most well-known Afghan musicians of the 20th century.
"This Is the Home of the Brave" is a Pashto-language nasheed and the national anthem of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It is an a cappella song, meaning that it does not contain musical instruments, as instruments are considered haram by the Taliban. This Nasheed is based on the communist era song "Da De Azadi Khawra".
The politics of Afghanistan are based on a totalitarian emirate within the Islamic theocracy in which the Taliban Movement holds a monopoly on power. Dissent is not permitted, and politics are mostly limited to internal Taliban policy debates and power struggles. As the government is provisional, there is no constitution or other basis for the rule of law. The structure is autocratic, with all power concentrated in the hands of the supreme leader and his clerical advisors. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Afghanistan was as of 2023 the 4th least electoral democratic country in the world.
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