When the music stops: Afghan 'happy place' falls silent

An Afghan girl practises playing the sitar in a class at the Afghan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: AP

A few years after the Taliban were ousted in 2001, and with Afghanistan still in ruins, Ahmad Sarmast left his home in Melbourne, Australia, on a mission: to revive music in the country of his birth.

The school he founded was a unique experiment in inclusiveness for the war-ravaged nation - with orphans and street kids in the student body, it sought to bring a measure of joy back to Kabul. The Taliban had notoriously banned music.