Comedians and Afghan weddings

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they introduced many controversial measures, including a ban on music. How do people celebrate special occasions, like weddings? BBC Pashto’s Payenda Sargand recently attended a wedding in the southern city of Kandahar and tells us about the other forms of entertainment that were on display, including poetry, singers performing without music and stand-up comedians.

The tradition of ‘money spraying' is a major part of Nigerian wedding celebrations, but now you could face a hefty fine or even a prison sentence if you’re caught doing it. Make-up artist Abdullahi Musa Huseini, also known as Amuscap on social media, was recently sentenced by a high court in the northern city of Kano for throwing cash at his own wedding, and he’s currently serving a six-month jail sentence. Mansur Abubakar from BBC Africa has been reporting on this story.

Tuareg communities in North Africa traditionally celebrate weddings with a 7-day party. The BBC Arabic's Xtra TV producers were invited to a wedding in Gath, in the south of Libya, and got to know the groom, Jamal, a young man who said he had to save for years to be able to afford such a feast in the current cost-of-living crisis. Saif Rebai reports.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. This is an EcoAudio certified production.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:07.9	This is the fifth floor.
0:12.0	The fifth floor, you knowsons.
0:16.0	This is the fifth floor at Farnak Amidi Sobath. This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.
0:29.0	I'm your host, Faranak Amidi.
0:35.8	Weddings in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan used to be majestic celebrations.
0:42.8	Women would wear traditional, colorful clothes and lots of jewelry.
0:47.6	There would be rose petals spread on the floors, the most elaborate banquets.
0:53.2	And most importantly, the sound of the Rabab and
0:56.2	tapla drums would be everywhere. But in 2021, the Taliban took control of the country and
1:07.1	band music. These days, wedding parties across the country tend to be much quieter affairs.
1:14.6	But people have refused to let the music band dampen the celebrations, and in some cases,
1:21.2	music has given way to a variety of other art forms. BBC Pashto's Payaanda Sargand has recently attended a Kandahari wedding and joins me
1:31.2	right now in the studio. Payanda, welcome to the fifth floor. Thank you. How did you end up in a Kandahari
1:38.2	wedding? Yeah, I was on deployment in Kandahar and one of my friends he told me that there is a wedding.
1:45.0	Would you like to go? I said, well, there is no music, nothing. What's the point? He said, no,
1:48.9	there is a lot of entertainment and stuff that you would love. So I was going to work on a story
1:57.0	about cultural shift anyway. So I said, well, this is the best opportunity to go to this
2:02.4	wedding and see this cultural shift, which really amazed me. When you want to go to a wedding in
2:09.2	Afghanistan, do you need official invitation or is more of a community affair? Like you hear there
2:15.2	is a wedding down the road and everybody goes.
2:18.2	Kind of. Yeah, you will be invited. Nowadays people send a card in WhatsApp. But most of the
	...

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