A 44-year-old Afghan, who carved wooden sculptures in Kabul for 15 years before the establishment of the Taliban regime, is no longer able to do so.
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban consider his work ‘idolatry’. He says he was tortured and now his workshop has been closed. He said that due to the fear of Taliban, he has destroyed most of his works of art and also removed some pictures of his art from social media.
Sohail (pseudonym) returned from Iran fifteen years ago after training in sculpture and woodcarving and set up a workshop in Kabul. Some people turned to him to learn the art from him. The number of his disciples gradually increased and his work developed in artistic quality and delicacy.
“I had clients ranging from the presidential palace to ministries and international organizations and I used to design and manufacture logos, medals and statues for them,” Sohail told Independent Farsi. According to him, the Kabul-based embassy, its contractors and the offices of several other countries and international coalition forces (NATO) were included in his client list.
He says: ‘A large number of consumers were those who had entry cards to foreign military camps in Afghanistan and held a handicraft fair once a week in the bazaar inside the camp. Foreign soldiers ordered me to make jewelery boxes, engraved with the name of the person to whom they were giving the gift.’
Afghan sculptor Sohail further says that he encountered the Taliban for the first time at a checkpoint in Kabul after they came to power. During the search, Taliban soldiers seized his cell phone, which led them to find statues and artworks, as well as pictures of him with foreign soldiers.
Sohail says: ‘The Taliban told me that you made idols for the infidels. And then many beat me.’ “The Taliban hit me with an electric wire in the middle of the road, saying he was a millennial infidel,” he added.
Taliban soldiers left Sohail on the road after badly beating him. Later they were rescued by local people.
Soon the Taliban reach their workshop. Sohail said, ‘On September 16, 2021, two members of the Taliban (intelligence service) came to the workshop and took me away. There I was interrogated and after being beaten I was handcuffed and locked in a room.’
According to Sohail, he was kept in a Taliban detention center for a day. The Taliban commander who arrested him accused him of ‘betrayal’. Sohail was eventually released on bail through the mediation of his elderly father and a friend who had relatively good relations with the local Taliban. But the Taliban forced him to close his workshop.
The position of the Taliban was not available.
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Wood carving and engraving with particular artistic delicacy do not have a very long history in Afghanistan. There are not many artists in this field. However, some of the best types of wood suitable for this art are found in abundance in the forests of Afghanistan, but so far there has been no serious investment in the field of artistic use of this natural product in the country.
Only in Nuristan, Kannada, and some other densely forested provinces of southeastern Afghanistan have some carpenters and woodworkers carved wood in simple, primitive ways for a long time. The work of such people has also suffered a recession in recent years due to lack of investment and marketing.
A Face Made of Wood by Sohail (Independent Urdu)
Sohail, with his artistic skills in wood carving and sculpture, was able to use his marketing skills and make his art well known at least to those interested in Kabul and the surrounding cities. But now they have abandoned it due to the fear of further retaliation by the Taliban.
He regretfully considers his artistic life wasted and says that he is no longer able to feed his family. Sohail says, ‘The market is usually empty and quiet. I go to carpentry shops from time to time, and if I can get a job, I work for a small salary.’
Note: This article was previously published on Independent Farsi.
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