A popular Afghan singer has been missing for more than a month in Kabul, where she shot to fame with her performance on a popular television talent show nearly a decade ago.
Zulala Hashimi’s husband says she left home on June 4 to go shopping for the upcoming Eid celebrations, telling him she would return in “a couple of hours.” She hasn't been heard from or seen since.
“Zulala was supposed to go with her aunt, who lives nearby, but failed to show up at her aunt’s house,” her husband, Sayed Mohsen Sadat, told RFE/RL.
“Zulala didn’t take her mobile phone with her because our 4-year-old son was playing games on it, and she didn’t want him to cry when she left,” Sadat said.
In a country where music is banned and where at least two singers were shot dead in recent years, Zulala’s disappearance has sparked fears for her life and welfare.
The Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto government, considers music to be against the teachings of Islam and has outlawed it in all public places, weddings and other social gatherings, and on television and radio.
Sadat said he has sought help from the Taliban-led government and accused the Taliban police of inaction and a “lack of cooperation.”
But in a rare comment on July 7, the Taliban’s Interior Ministry claimed that Zulala, 25, left home due to marital issues and domestic violence, an allegation her husband vehemently denies.
“Our probes indicate that this woman has had longstanding domestic issues and disagreements with her husband, and that -- due to the increasing domestic violence in recent days -- she was forced to leave her home and go somewhere else,” Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told RFE/RL.
Oani said, the police are trying to find out Zulala’s whereabouts.
“She might contact us or the police to seek divorce,” Qani said, without providing further details.
‘Love Marriage’
Sadat angrily rejected the allegation of domestic violence and said the couple had a happy marriage, which unlike the majority of unions in ultraconservative Afghanistan, wasn’t an arranged marriage. He called it a love marriage.
The couple met and fell in love nearly a decade ago at the Tolo television studio where he worked as a stage technician and she was a participant in the then-immensely popular Afghan Star music competition, an Afghan version of the American Idol contest.
Zulala, a native of the conservative Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, became an instant household name in her debut, singing a Pashto song in the show’s 12th season in 2016.
She was the runner-up in the competition, making her the first female singer to finish in Afghan Star’s top two.
Millions of Afghans tuned in to watch and vote for the contestants of Afghan Star, which aired 15 seasons before it ended when the Taliban took power in Kabul in 2021 and outlawed music.
The return of the Taliban forced hundreds of Afghan singers, dancers, and musicians to flee Afghanistan. Those who were unable to leave have gone silent, fearing for their lives and well aware of the violence that has cut down other performers.
Folk singer Fawad Andarabi was dragged out of his home and shot in the head in his home village of Kishnabad in the northern Baghlan Province in 2021. Andarabi’s family said the killing was carried out by a Taliban fighter.
Another musician, Muslim Niristani, was shot dead in the Nuristan Province in 2023.
In 2024, the Taliban’s Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced that it burned more than 21,000 musical instruments seized over the previous year.
The morality police shared images of a bonfire of what it called illegal equipment and claimed that music leads to “moral corruption.”
During its first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned all forms of music from television broadcasts and radio and from weddings and other social gatherings.
‘Zulala Wanted To Resume Her Career As Singer Outside Afghanistan’
Zulala had largely been living a quiet life away from the limelight following her performance in Afghan Star. Speaking to RFE/RL, Sadat denied rumors that he didn’t allow his wife to perform in public.
“I fell in love with a girl when she was singing. Why would I silence her?” Sadat said. “It was her own decision not to perform, especially after [the fall of the former] government. Zulala loves singing. She recorded several songs on her mobile phone, but she hasn’t been keen on performing at weddings or sharing her music on social media.”
The couple planned to leave Afghanistan and resettle in Germany, where Zulala wanted to resume her career as a singer, according to Sadat. He said their immigration case was being processed. RFE/RL cannot verify the claim.
“Zulala was excited to leave. It was her idea, and she was very happy,” said Sadat.
Zulala’s mother and siblings did not respond to RFE/RL’s requests for comment.
