"This is the moment that we have to continue (to) revive the art and culture in Afghanistan," vows art activist Omaid Sharifi after he was forced to flee Kabul following the Taliban takeover. Sharifi's art collective ArtLords spent seven years transforming Kabul's labyrinthine concrete blast walls with colorful murals. Within weeks of the Islamists taking the capital, many of the street art pieces were painted over. "It's like an extension of us is dying," he says from the United States. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES