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Culture of Peshawar


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urbanites, whereas the majority of Pakhtuns came from rural backgrounds, and differences can therefore be found in customs such as marriage ceremonies and style of living.

With the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan, Peshawar became home for many Afghan musicians and artists. The city has also become the centre for Pashto music and cinema, as well as Dari music for the Tajiks, and a thriving Persian language book-publishing sector is now established in Peshawar; Islamic Shia literature is the primary output of the Peshawar publishing industry and it is located in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar).

Following the election of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic coalition in 2002, restrictions on public musical performances was introduced, as well as a ban prohibiting the playing of recorded music on public transport; however, a thriving underground scene has developed in Peshawar. In 2008, the secular political party, the Awami National Party (ANP), swept elections and won power from the Islamic coalition. Since the ANP assumed power in Peshawar, a greater focus has shifted towards the areas of culture and the arts, but the party has been hindered by a well-established conservatism among the population and the Taliban militancy. In June 2012, a Pashto singer, Ghazala Javed, and her father were killed in the city, with the subsequent investigation revealing that the pair were murdered. Javed's career was very successful and her death occurred close to three years after the death of another promising Pashto musical artist, Aiyman Udas, who was also murdered in a fringe area of the city. Such incidents have been associated with Peshawar's conservative culture and the influence of the Taliban, the latter being the reason for Javed's relocation to Peshawar, as the Taliban had strengthened its presence in the Peshawar Valley in 2007.

Historically, the old city of Peshawar was

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