Dr Ahmad Sarmast knows first-hand the brutality of the Taliban.
He narrowly escaped with his life during a suicide bomb attack at a concert in 2014, an incident that left him with permanent hearing loss and a number of scars.
The Melbourne-based head of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music tells SBS Pashto the news feeding through this week on Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban has come as a complete shock.
He says currently, it's a "very sensitive time" in the country as the militant group has not yet unveiled its plan for a future Afghanistan.
"The situation is developing very fast in Afghanistan. The artistic community of Afghanistan [is] very fearful about the future.
"And we all have concern that the same time will be repeated, or we will be witnessing the repeat of history. But I hope the Taliban do not go down the same path again."
The path Dr Sarmast is referring to was the Taliban's harsh crackdown on Afghanistan's artistic community and the banning of music during the group's first period of rule from 1996 to 2001.
Meena Karimi, a fourteen year old performer with the Zohra Ensemble, with Dr Ahmad Sarmast. Source: SBS News
It was a time he says the Taliban committed a "genocide of culture" in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, during the first time, was interfering and were trying to control the lives of all people. People were practically put in prison, their homes became prisons.
"The entire country was silenced. People did not have the right to demonstrate. Women were not allowed to work. Women were not allowed to study. Music was [turned off] for the people of Afghanistan, TV stations were banned, it was considered un-Islamic.
"Cinemas were banned during that time. So when I'm talking about a 'real cultural genocide' that was taking place during that time, I'm not overstating."
Despite his fears, he's hopeful that the times have changed, and believes the people in modern-day Afghanistan "are different than in 1996".
"They are very well aware of their rights. And even today as we're speaking, the Taliban [has still] not announced their policies.
"Even some activities of the Taliban are meeting strong resistance inside Afghanistan."
He's eager to employ a "wait and see" attitude to what the Taliban does next.
"There is speculation that the Taliban has changed, but we wait to see whether they have really changed and whether they will be implementing a different policy in Afghanistan than what they did last time.
But, the artistic community of Afghanistan is fearful about their future.
'Something that never existed in Afghanistan'
Mr Sarmast was the driving force behind the all-female Zohra Orchestra which performed in Australia in 2019 to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the countries.
Founded in 2015, the ensemble played in a number of cities across the world and was featured at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2017.
He says the group was formed out of a desire to showcase the beauty of Afghanistan's rich musical history, and to provide a platform for female musicians.
"As soon as this ensemble came into existence, many other girls tried to join. And then the music faculty was assigned to assist with arranging music and [expert] supervision," he says, noting that he never thought the group would go onto become a "symbol of freedom and emancipation" of Afghan women.
As more girls expressed a desire to join, he saw the opportunity to establish "something that never existed in Afghanistan".
"We've been very committed to this idea and we did everything to promote gender equality and to contribute to the empowerment of girls and women."
'Ready to go back'
Dr Sarmast fled to Australia as a refugee in 1994 and achieved his PhD in music at Monash University in 2005.
He returned to his homeland in 2010 and founded the institute with the approval of the government, and today it allocates 50 per cent of its enrolment to disadvantaged and homeless students.
Amid the current crisis, Dr Sarmast says he's working from his home in Melbourne to assist a number of his artists onto evacuation flights out of Kabul and hopes that some of them will be welcomed by Australia.
"I'm worried about my students, my faculty and the rest of the music community in Afghanistan. Yes, [the Taliban] came after me in 2014. They tried to silence the institution.
"All these incidents make us cautious about our future, about the future of the school, about the life of our students and the lives of our faculty."
Despite the threats on his life, he says he's "ready to go back" to Afghanistan if he gets assurances that his school will be able to operate as freely as it has done for the past 10 years.
"I would be going to Afghanistan not [only] because of the school, but if I can help to ensure the musical rights of Afghan people," he says.
If I feel that I can stand for the musical rights of Afghan musicians inside Afghanistan, I would be going there.
"Music is important for many reasons. It's not just important for Afghanistan, it's important for every man and woman around the world. People are enjoying the beauty of music outside Afghanistan, why [should] the people of Afghanistan be deprived of the beauty of music?"
