TWO days after the Taliban seized Kabul last month, 26-year-old artist Sara took the terracotta plates she'd painted with images praising inspirational Afghan women and hurled them to the ground.
"Art, for me, was to be able to express everything I couldn't say with words," she said from the capital. "It dealt mainly with violence against women."
The last Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001 saw women brutally suppressed, as well as music banned and the destruction of artworks and heritage, including dynamiting ancient statues of the Buddha.
The hardline movement have insisted their new regime will be different, but like many other artists who have destroyed their work, or musicians who have broken their instruments, Sara is terrified.
"Art is my life," said Sara, who asked for her real name not to be used. "I no longer have a future."
- Guerilla graffiti -
Kabul has changed dramatically since the Taliban were last in power, and Sara is part of a social media-savvy youth who grew up in a capital where arts and culture were flourishing.
Now, with others, she plans to use art to protest against the Taliban, hoping to work with a collective of guerilla graffiti painters to spread their message.
"I want to go out at night and paint anti-Taliban stencil art," she said.
Another artist, 19-year-old Maryam, whose name AFP has also changed for this story, plans to post digital anti-Taliban creations on Instagram.
One example; a little girl unzips the top of a burqa, from which doves escape.
"Art is dying in Afghanistan," she said. "I will fight against the Taliban, not with weapons but with my work."
- 'Dark and uncertain' -
Ramin Mazhar was still a child when the Taliban were last in power in Kabul.
Two decades later, and now living in France, he has become one of Afghanistan's most recognised poets.
"You are not afraid of love, of hope, of tomorrow," he recites in Dari, verses that have become an anthem for Afghan youth. "I kiss you amid the Taliban, you are not afraid!"
His poetry, turned into songs, has been watched hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube. But when Mazhar recently tried to search for it, it had already been erased.
People are destroying work and deleting their social media posts in artistic "suicide", Mazhar said.
"Many have been forced to self-censor to protect their lives in fear. This makes the future of art dark and uncertain in Afghanistan. We don't know where we are headed."
But Mazhar does not want to give up.
"Art exists wherever a human exists," he said. "Maybe art will continue secretly, underground, or illegally."
In Paris, artist Rada Akbar is planning an exhibition of miniature paintings to illustrate that "the Taliban are not the real Afghanistan, and that they do not represent the history and culture of the country".
Actress Yasamin Yarmal fled to France last month with her family, like dozens of her peers.
In 1997 the Taliban searched her house and beat her disabled son to death, she said. "I didn't want to go through that again."
"Art can open people's minds, so of course the Taliban are afraid of artists," she added.
Many of those who remain in Afghanistan are holed up at home, fearful of going out, and worried about how to earn a living.
Sodaba, an actress, said she has received threatening phone calls claims AFP was not able to verify and lives in a "nightmare" of fear.
"We have a WhatsApp group with other artists," she said. "People say the Taliban have established a list of people to find, and I'm afraid to be part of it."
- 'A click away' -
But Farshad, one of the founders of ArtLords, an Afghan collective that previously covered the walls of Kabul with hundreds of murals promoting peace and women's rights, still has hope.
He said unlike during the Taliban's previous rule, people can now access art, music and films through the internet.
"The world is a click away from them," he said. "So it will be very hard for the Taliban to impose or sanction art."
Many ArtLords murals have already been replaced by drab propaganda slogans as the Taliban reimpose their austere vision.
Farshad is now in Paris, but asked to speak under a pseudonym, because he wants to return to Kabul to help other artists escape.
He pulls out one of the ArtLords' most famous works a Taliban fighter with a rocket launcher packed with pencils instead of ammunition.
"I don't think art will die in Afghanistan," he said. "I am sure one day the Taliban movement will die, but art will be there."
ETX Studio
Wed Sep 22 2021
Many artists who remain in Afghanistan are holed up at home, fearful of going out, and worried about how to earn a living. - ETX Studio
Mesyuarat Khas WEF, Perdana Menteri dan Pemimpin Dunia
Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim akan menyampaikan ucapan dalam Sidang Plenari Pembukaan Mesyuarat Khas World Economic Forum (WEF) di Arab Saudi. Ikuti analisis menyeluruh bersama Penganalisis Ekonomi, Fithra Faisal Hastiadi; Ketua Pengarang Astro AWANI, @AshwadIsmail; dan Pengarang Niaga AWANI, @NajibAroff #BuletinAWANIKhas
Hubungan bilateral ASEAN tetap kukuh walaupun mungkin ada perbezaan- Anwar Ibrahim
Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkata negara tiada masalah menjalin hubungan dengan anggota ASEAN sebagai satu kumpulan walaupun mungkin terdapat perbezaan. Beliau berkata demikian ketika bercakap di World Economic Forum pada Ahad.
Amang seksual: Inspektor polis akan ditahan kerja
Pegawai polis berpangkat inspektor yang ditahan selepas disyaki melakukan amang seksual fizikal terhadap seorang remaja dikenakan tindakan tahan kerja.
Pelaburan dari negara luar, negara harus menyahut cabaran baharu-Anwar Ibrahim
Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yang bercakap di World Economic Forum pada Ahad mengakui bahawa dengan pelaburan daripada negara-negara luar, pelbagai cabaran yang baharu Kerajaan Malaysia harus sahut.
Sultan Terengganu kurnia darjah kebesaran kepada 104 individu
Sultan Terengganu berkenan mengurniakan Bintang-bintang Darjah Kebesaran Negeri Terengganu Darul Iman kepada 104 individu di Istana Syarqiyyah, hari ini.
WEF: Piawaian ekonomi mampan harus adil, saksama kepada negara membangun - Tengku Zafrul
Transisi ke arah ekonomi yang mampan harus dilaksanakna secara saksama dan adil, kata Menteri Perdagangam Pelaburan dan Industri Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
Nahas helikopter Lumut: Raja Permaisuri Agong santuni keluarga Mohammad Amirulfaris
Raja Permaisuri Agong berkenan menyantuni keluarga Allahyarham Mohammad Amirulfaris yang terkorban dalam tragedi dua helikopter terhempas di Lumut.
Polis rampas dadah lebih RM2.3 juta, lelaki tempatan ditahan
Polis Johor merampas dadah bernilai lebih RM2.3 juta dalam dua serbuan berasingan di sekitar kawasan Johor Bahru Selatan pada Rabu lalu.
Jalani tempoh perkenalan singkat, warga emas 78 tahun teruja bertemu jodoh semula
"Kami diperkenalkan oleh kawan anak. Pertemuan pertama kami, dia pandang saya dia dah berkenan."
Waspada ejen nikah Siam
Konsulat Malaysia di Songkhla, Ahmad Fahmi Ahmad Sarkawi menasihat rakyat Malaysia yang ingin berkahwin di Selatan Thailand supaya waspada dalam pemilihan ejen.
Pilihan raya Pakistan: Perkhidmatan rangkaian mudah alih digantung, sempadan ditutup
Pihak berkuasa Pakistan menggantung perkhidmatan mudah alih dan menutup sempadan dengan negara jiran Afghanistan dan Iran selepas insiden pengeboman.
150,000 wanita dan sektor kesihatan, hak tidak diabaikan - Menteri Kesihatan Awam Afghanistan
Seramai 150,000 wanita berkhidmat dalam sektor kesihatan Afghanistan ketika ini dengan pelbagai cabang kepakaran.
Afghanistan ketika ini 100 peratus aman - Menteri Kesihatan Awam Afghanistan
Situasi di Afghanistan jauh lebih baik berbanding 20 tahun lalu yang menyaksikan ratusan orang maut akibat peperangan.
Afghanistan perlu raih semula penghormatan untuk membangun - Penganalisis
Afghanistan perlu memecahkan persepsi negatif terhadap negaranya dan meraih semula penghormatan komuniti antarabangsa untuk membangun.
Genosid di Gaza hancurkan 'kredibiliti' pertubuhan dunia - Afghanistan
Afghanistan mengutuk sekeras-kerasnya rejim Israel itu kerana meneruskan pengeboman yang membunuh ratusan rakyat Palestin sejak jeda kemanusiaan tamat pada Jumaat.
Gempa bumi landa barat laut Afghanistan, 100 cedera
Sekurang-kurangnya 100 orang cedera selepas satu lagi gempa bumi kuat berukuran 6.3 pada skala Richter menggegarkan barat laut Afghanistan pada Ahad.
80 cedera dalam gempa bumi kuat di Afghanistan
Menurut penduduk tempatan, kebanyakan mangsa yang cedera telah dibawa ke hospital.
Angka kematian gempa bumi Afghanistan meningkat lebih 2,000 orang
Lebih 2,000 orang maut selepas beberapa gempa bumi kuat menggegarkan barat Afghanistan pada Sabtu.
Gempa 5.6 magnitud landa barat laut Afghanistan
Menurut Pusat Penyelidikan Geosains Jerman (GFZ), bacaan gempa yang dikesan di kedalaman 10 km itu diturunkan daripada catatan awal 6.2 magnitud.
Kedutaan Afghanistan di New Delhi ditutup
Misi yang terletak di kawasan diplomatik Chanakyapuri itu bakal menamatkan operasi mulai 1 Oktober.