My only sin was my profession, for which the previous rulers made my life miserable," says Gulzar Alam, the heartthrob of scores of Pashto music lovers. In 2003, the 53-year-old vocalist, while performing at a wedding ceremony in Peshawar, was beaten up and detained by the police. At the time, security personnel were instigated by a 'drive against obscenity' campaign being waged by the MMA, the Islamic political coalition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which had been in power in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) since 2002.
Soon after he was released from detention, Alam began to receive anonymous letters warning him of dire consequences if he did not quit singing in public. He heeded the advice, and for a while switched over to selling property in the outskirts of Peshawar. Eventually, he fled the province entirely, and landed up in Karachi. But Alam's fortunes have changed in recent months. With the MMA's ouster during the elections in February, he has now returned to Peshawar and resumed his public singing.
Alam's experience has been similar to that of many performers in the NWFP over the past several years. Between November 2002 and February 2008, performers of all hues faced threats from extremists and state security forces alike in the province. The years that the pro-Taliban MMA spent in power saw growing Talibanisation throughout the province, and one of the most public crackdowns was on shops selling music and movies. According to MMA diktat, these were 'un-Islamic', and shops that continued to sell these items were bombed.
This was only part of a broader attack on what was perceived as 'immoral' culture in general. Music was banned on public transport, for instance, as well as coffee shops, restaurants and other public places. Throughout the NWFP, MMA-ordered burnings of CDs and cassettes became common public spectacles. Baton-armed seminary students, who considered unveiled women 'depraved', forcefully removed mannequins from boutiques in Peshawar markets, and blackened the faces of male and female models on roadside billboard advertisements. Amidst all this, suicide attacks against both civilians and the military created an air of increased insecurity.