KABUL: Music was anathema to the Taliban, but now a programme of music charts broadcast by a private radio station every Friday has become a "must listen" for Afghans.
Until the US-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the regime led by Mullah Omar, anyone found listening to music faced a brutal beating and incarceration.
These days Arman FM, the country's only private radio station, broadcasts its "Top 40" on Friday to a large and devoted audience.
There are no useful national statistics, and so gauging the most popular songs demands considerable improvisation.
Arman - which means roughly "Request" - sends out its staff to the music shops of Kabul to conduct a weekly survey on which cassettes are most in demand.
Once the most popular singer is found, Arman's musical editors decide which of the songs to choose for the hit parade.
'The Afghan Elvis Presley' still at the top
This ensures variety, as since the station began broadcasting the charts a year ago, the top singer has remained the same - Ahmed Zahir - and no one at Arman FM believes this is likely to change soon.
Zahir's lyrics have lines like: "If you come to me tonight, I will make it rain flowers." He has been dead these past 26 years, but this has no effect on his popularity here among young and old alike.
Arman executive Massood Sanjer Ghayoor calls Zahir "the Afghan Elvis Presley". There is no Afghan that does not know the bard and his soulful love songs, sung to the backing of guitar and accordion.
Western sounds have no chance in the competition with Zahir and other Afghan singers. This week only Jennifer Lopez made it to the charts - sneaking in at number 39.
When it comes to foreigners, Afghans are more likely to listen to artistes from Iran, Turkey or India.
Arman is popular not only for the charts. Listeners can phone in and talk on air. There are also music request programmes, and when games with prizes are broadcast, the entire mobile phone network occasionally goes down under the overload.
The station receives around 2,500 calls and letters every day, some of the missives running to pages and decorated with hearts carefully pasted on.
News is also an important part of the station's broadcasting. When there is news of major national or international significance, the music programme is interrupted for a news flash.
Three brothers of Afghan origin from Australia established the broadcaster, which went on air for the first time in April 2003 with a total staff complement of just nine.
Today there are 170 people working for the station, many of them crammed into just four rooms in a house in the centre of Kabul which is now much too small.
The venture has been a commercial success, the station earning a profit from its advertising.
"Arman has found its place in Afghan society," Ghayoor says. Even the criticism heard initially from conservative religious elements has fallen silent.
Ghayoor recalls the time when there was not only no private radio but also no music in Afghanistan.
In the old days under the Taleban the 26-year-old worked reading English news bulletins on Radio Taleban and still has a photograph in his wallet showing an earnest young man with a beard and wearing a turban.
He is now seen only in a smart Western suit. "You couldn't imagine what a change it has been," he says with a smile. | 
Health
