tajikistanweb.com

The owner of Afghanistan’s Tolo TV has called on Hamid Karzai’s administration and the international community to resist religious conservatives in the country, saying they "cannot allow a very small minority within Afghan society to call the shots."

Saad Mohseni warned about a possible "re-Talibanization of Afghan society" following the parliament’s decision to bar TV programs from showing dancing and other ‘un-Islamic practices." The resolution is not yet legally binding and has to go before the upper house of parliament and only after the president’s approval could be enforced.

Members of the lower house demanded to ban women from dancing on TV after Tolo broadcast some unveiled Afghan women gyrating alongside Afghan men on stage at a film award ceremony on March 28.

Reporters Without Borders expressed the shock by a campaign waged by the ministry of information and culture, the lower house of parliament and the Council of Ulemas against private TV stations, especially Tolo TV.

Reporters Without Borders added: "We urge information and culture minister Abdulkarim Khorram to take back what he has said and to stop interfering in Afghan television content. We express our full support for Tolo TV, to which we gave an award in 2005 for its commitment to free expression."

The Pashtun Minister of Information and Culture Khorram condemned the scene on March 29, saying "dancing by men and women together was completely against the culture of the Afghan Muslim society."

In the ethnically charged environment of Afghanistan Tajik Saad Mohseni’s TV station was verbally attacked by a Pashtun former warlord Abdul Rab-Rasul Sayyaf. He called for the station to be banned and stated that Tolo conspired on behalf of foreigners.

However, parliamentarians were not unanimous in their decision. Fawzia Kufi, a Tajik MP from Badakhshan province, condemned the resolution as a violation of press freedom.

A Pashtun MP Shukria Barakzai sounded more furious with the lower house’s decision when she said: ""The government should do something to stop people in power from raping girls and boys, and commanders from keeping little boys, before banning these programmes on television."

The religious colour of the dispute shone brighter when a group of Muslim zealots in mainly Tajik (Persian)-populated Herat threatened to burn down Tolo TV offices in retaliation for airing ‘obscene footages’.

Nevertheless, Saad Mohseni believes that the dancing on the awards show was "very tame by any standard" and women’s dresses could not be described as obscene.

Reporters Without Borders inform about an assassination attempt against a prominent writer (Rahnaward Zaryab) who produces and presents programs for Tolo TV. According to RWB’s statement, an armed man approached his home in Kabul on March 29 before being chased away by neighbours.

The female presenter of Tolo TV’s ‘Hop’ entertainment program, Shaima Rezayee, was shot dead in 2005. She had been criticized by clerics for her ‘anti-Islamic’ shows. In the same year, just before her tragic death, a self-confident Rezayee told RFE/RL about the shock she inflicted on some people by her appearance on television and on the streets of Kabul in Western-style clothing. She had said: "Whenever I go out, some people say some bad things. But there are more who praise it. Especially my family – and a lot of young people in this country encourage me."

After Shaima’s death Tolo’s female presenters have been more careful with their clothing.

Last year unknown gunmen murdered the female owner of a radio station (Zakia Zaki) in front of her 8-year-old son. It has been said that Zaki had criticized Afghan warlords who wanted her to change the content of her programs.
But Tolo TV as the pioneer of Western-style programming in Afghanistan has been under constant attacks by conservatives. Last January the Council of Ulemas asked President Karzai to cancel its licence due to an ‘anti-Islamic’ character of its programs.

And in November 2007 Tolo TV challenged conservative mindset with a hip-shaking performance by the Colombian singer Shakira. Despite the fact that Shakira’s chest was covered by computer pixallation, the show caused an enormous uproar and a pro-government newspaper called her a "naked US pop singer and dancer."

The lower house of Afghan parliament also intends to ban TV stations from inviting foreign performers. Tolo TV is among main institutions that have invited foreign singers, including Manija Dowlat from Tajikistan, to perform in Afghanistan. In her recent interview to Radio Zamaneh, Manija Dowlat has expressed her willingness to meet her Afghanistani fans again. With the latest developments in Afghanistan Manija’s plans could be postponed indefinitely.

However, according to reports from Afghanistan, Tolo is still the most popular TV channel throughout the country. Reportedly, the final part of its national music contest "Afghan Star" held among both male and female young singers was watched by more than 10 million viewers. Ordinary people in Kabul have described the lower house’s resolution as conservative minority’s point of view. At the end of the day, it will be up to Karzai to decide whom to support and to make clear which way Afghanistan is going: re-Talibanization or democratisation?