• Local clerics have banned music and dance at weddings.
• Cleric refused to solemnize nikkah of those performing the act.
• They also banned aerial firing and dancing by trans genders.

LANDI KOTAL: Clerics have banned music at weddings along with dancing of the transgender persons in Khyber tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A group of 26 clerics from Zaka Khel held a meeting and unanimously announced the decision in the town of Landi Kotal, imposing a ban on music and dance at wedding ceremonies.

They said that local clerics would not solemnize the nikkah at weddings where music and dancing will be performed. The clerics said they will not perform funeral prayers for those the entire family of those who refuse to obey the order.

“If anyone refuses to obey this order or go against it, then the last rites of the entire family will not be performed by clerics,” says a written letter signed by the cleric.

The said local residents would also be asked to boycott such families and clerics will not attend their marriages too. They also announced banning celebratory aerial firing at weddings. Local political leaders and local government representatives attended the meeting.

This is not the first time that local hardline clerics have banned music and dances by transgender persons in tribal districts.

In September 2017, a group of local clerics torched television sets and musical instruments in Landi Kotal. These instruments had been collected during raids by clerics on music parties and homes.

In July 2021, an organization of local clerics and elders banned the visit of women to shopping centers and bazaars in Parachinar in Kurram district without a male companion.

In July 2022, a jirga of local elders of Salarzai in Bajaur tribal district, banned the entry of women or couples in the picnic spots, terming it against the local traditions.

In February 2021, local elders in Bajaur banned the visit of womenfolk to the Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC) as well as their phone calls to local FM Radio stations. They also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 for any violations.