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Taliban relaxes rules on music as insurgents rule rural Helmand almost unopposed
The Taliban have toned down some of their more unpopular edicts, but still enforce strict red lines on morality and religion
24 January 2021 • 4:31pm
Helmandi farmers taking a taxi from Laskhkar Gah bus station in Afghanistan s Helmand province
Credit: Majid Saeedi for the Telegraph
In the Taliban controlled-fields and villages of central Helmand, residents report a sound that would once never have been allowed – music blaring from mobile phones.
The playing of music would once have earned a swift beating or humiliating punishment from the militant movement s austere local enforcers. Now they turn a blind eye.