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Through all the time of the dark upheaval in Afghanistan a very large majority of the Afghan population fled to refugee camps in the neighboring country of Iran.
At this time music making which is an activity that is so strongly tied to the feeling of celebration, fell to the state of a near non-existence. John Baily still did continue to devotedly document remnant survival of the Afghan songs most vividly in his well-received ethnographic film called "Amir: The Life of an Afghan Refugee Musician".
This Afghan film was set in Peshawar, Pakistan. This film recounts the event of his reconnection with a musician-friend who was from the faraway city of Heart of Afghanistan.
In this movie Baily very subtly and saliently summarized the act of the crushing of the Afghan songs under the heel and the force of the Taliban during the period of 1996-2001.
At the end of the year 2002, Baily visited Kabul in order to help with the activity of the reconstruction of the Afghan songs and the other aspects of Afghan musical life under the rule of the Karzai government.
In Afghanistan, there is a wide distribution of the Afghan musical instruments. There is also a strong diffusion of a large number of tune-types. There also exist strong ethnic preferences in the Afghan songs.
There is also a strong set of overlaps and differences among the many ethnic groups which sing these Afghan songs and also which park camels and rub shoulders along the various places in Afghanistan like the main streets, the back bazaars, the truck stops, and the teahouses of the towns.
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