Indian soap ban in Afghanistan

I found this in Toronto Star.

Abdul Waheed
Carlotta Gall
New York Times

KABUL–After four years of watching television programs test the boundaries of decorum and build devoted audiences in the process, conservatives are striking back.

In the latest battle of the long-simmering war between cultural conservatives and liberals, the minister for information and culture ordered television networks to stop broadcasting five soap operas on Tuesday, saying they were not in keeping with "Afghan religion and culture."

The minister, Abdul Karim Khurram, said last week he made the decision in consultation with the Council of Clerics, made up of the country's most influential religious leaders.

The private television companies initially refused to obey the order and said they would plead their case to Afghanistan's president. The shows, all soap operas produced in India, continued to be broadcast every evening and have much of the urban population hooked.

As the deadline approached, however, one network, Ariana TV, buckled and pulled the soap opera Kumkum on Sunday. The network was immediately deluged with calls from viewers, said Abdul Qadir Mirzal, Ariana's chief news editor.

Control of television and its content has been a hotly debated issue here for decades. The strictly conservative Taliban government banned it outright, and the government before that, run by mujahideen leaders, banned female singers and presenters.

But under President Hamid Karzai, who is backed by the West, television has flourished, with 17 private television companies starting in the past six years, 11 of them based in the capital Kabul. Numerous cable TV companies also provide a wide selection of foreign films and other shows.

The Afghan networks present a mix of news, popular-music programs and imported serials and soap operas, and are hugely popular, drawing crowds in tea houses and ice cream parlours. Call-in shows, including an Afghan version of American Idol, also have large followings, as do news programs.

Many viewers are so absorbed by the soap operas that they rush home in the evening to find out what happens next. Will Prina on Life's Test convince her husband she is not having an affair with the tycoon Mr. Bajaj?

Can Tulsi, heroine of Because the Mother-in-Law Was Once the Daughter-in-Law, ward off the schemes of her husband's ex-mistress? Both shows are among the five banned by the culture minister.

The TV companies have also made themselves felt on the political front, not only by broadcasting probing news reports but also by taking sides in ethnic and language debates, which reflect political divisions in Afghanistan.

As Afghanistan prepares for a presidential election next year, some station owners and journalists contend the ban on TV programs is part of a political tussle for control of the airwaves. Party leaders have opened their own TV stations, which are already challenging the Karzai government.

Karzai has signalled that he sides with the conservatives in the controversy over the serials. Although he said that he would ensure the freedom of the media while he was in power, he has said several times that programs that go against Afghan culture should not be allowed.

Despite his liberal leanings, Karzai has been swayed before by conservatives on cultural issues. After complaints in parliament two years ago, Karzai appointed the more conservative Khurram as minister of culture, replacing Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, who oversaw the expansion of free media after the fall of the Taliban.

Khurram ordered the ban of the five shows after strong protests in parliament over a recent televised awards ceremony on a private station, Tolo TV, that showed Afghan men and women dancing together, which is virtually taboo here.

Khurram has defended his action, saying he did less than the Council of Clerics, or Ulema, had asked.

"The Ulema wanted to ban all TV serials," Khurram said. "But I tried hard to ban only those serials that caused the most upset."

Describing one of the soap operas broadcast by Tolo TV, he said: "There are scenes that are difficult for an Afghan family to watch, such as that of a woman with more than one husband."

Ehsanullah Arianzai, director of Ariana TV, the network that acceded to the order to drop Kumkum, said some politicians calling for the ban were motivated less by beliefs than by business concerns. He said they had started rival stations and were having difficulty competing with the established ones.

The TV companies defend the shows largely on the basis of their popularity. They said they had already edited out culturally offensive scenes, like those in which actors exposed too much flesh.

Do you think those shows should be banned?