“I am Baktash Kamran, son of the Afghan artist Haji Mohammad Kamran. I want to speak about the music censorship which happens in Afghanistan.

In the Taliban's period (1996-2001), I started singing, and I have been beaten up four times - badly beaten up! In the Taliban's period, no one could have access to music, and no one was allowed to sing – or even to listen to music. Since I was very interested in music, I was singing at that time.

The first time I was arrested (by the Taliban) happened in 3rd Macrorian Crossroad. They caught me carrying a keyboard. They beat me, and forced me to break the keyboard into pieces.

The second time I was caught, was in 3rd Section of Khair Khana. I borrowed a keyboard from a friend's house. When I came out from his house, the Taliban spotted that I had something, and when they found out it was a keyboard, the beat me again. They beat me... I escaped... But they caught me again, and beat me more. As I was running, they threw a stone, and it hit me on the shoulder. Then, I got on to a car. The car was a 'women's car'... At that time there was different cars for men and for women. Then they tore me out from the 'woman's car' and beat me again. I really got badly beaten! They took me to the house where I had borrowed the keyboard and asked: 'What more is here? Bring them all out!' I swore that there was nothing else except that keyboard in the house. They beat me again, and finally, since they couldn't find anything else, they released me.

The third time I was arrested was in Torkham when I was transferring a harmonium to Pakistan. In Torkham they caught me... I had opened the harmonium and made it look like a box. They took the harmonium, broke it, beat me again, and I left for Pakistan.”