At an event led by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on Thursday, the Afghani Taliban representative shocked the audience by remaining seated during the Islamic Republic’s national anthem, while everybody else stood. The scene was caught live on camera, and quickly spread on social media, shining a spotlight on the already shaky relations between the two neighboring hardline Islamic countries, one Shia and one Sunni.
Titled “Islamic Cooperation to Achieve Common Values with an Emphasis on Palestine Issue,” the 38th International Islamic Unity Conference took place at the International Conference Center for three days. According to local reports, more than 150 religious and political leaders participated.
The head of the South Asian department of the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry summoned the acting Afghan embassy member to scold him. He replied that, in his own country, the tradition is to remain seated while the anthem is played, adding “I [only] followed our customs and traditions.”
Many Iranians denounced this behavior, and local newspaper Jomhuri-ye Eslami even slammed the organizers for inviting the Taliban representatives in the first place, rejecting them as a “terrorist” group that does not abide by the unity of the Ummah (Islamic nation), and calling on the Islamic Republic to stop its de facto recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Not for the first time
Notably, a similar event happened late last week as Taliban diplomats remained seated during the playing of Pakistan’s national anthem in a ceremony that took place in that country. The consulate of the Taliban in Peshawar explained their behavior in a different way, claiming that “There was no intention to disrespect or humiliate the national anthem of Pakistan… The consul general does not stand up because of the music of the anthem.”
This claim that Islam prohibits playing instrumental music is indeed noticeable in many musical renditions issued by Islamist Jihadist circles, such as ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra, which feature a capella singing exclusively.
Afghan politician Noor Rahman denounced the Taliban’s “irrationality,” claiming that they “only look at the interests of their own group.”
The current anthem of the Islamic Republic is not a favorite among Iranians in Iran and the diaspora, which is seen by many to symbolize the current hardline, oppressive Islamic regime. The people often opt for the more traditional, national-oriented older anthem-turned-folk song named “Ey Iran” (O, Iran!). Likewise, this is not the first time in which the country’s anthem found itself in the midst of a tempest, as in what happened during the 2022 World Cup, when players on the Iranian soccer team faced threats from their government following their refusal to sing it.