Afghan TV station falls under government crackdown

The manager of an Afghan television network who refused to censor images of women dancing in short skirts and plunging necklines was arrested in what appeared to be a new sign of the government’s struggle to define the role of Islam in a country once led by extremists.

The government has previously censured television stations and taken others to court, but the arrest of Emrose TV’s Fahim Khodamani on Monday was the first for airing overly salacious content, the Afghan deputy attorney general said Tuesday.
The debate over television in this conservative Muslim country heated up after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.

The militant group, which practices an extreme version of Islam, banned television and other forms of entertainment that it deemed un-Islamic when it ruled the country in the 1990s. It also required women to cover themselves under an all-encompassing burqa.

Since the Taliban fell, television stations have flourished, pitting the issue of freedom of the press against conservative norms in a country where most women wear clothes that cover everything but their face and neck.

The issue has become even more complicated with the resurgence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan in the past few years – gains that President Barack Obama hopes to counter by sending an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to the country this year.

Afghanistan’s culture minister has warned that the Taliban use racy broadcasts like those on Emrose as a tool in their culture war – recruiting villagers who feel that the government is too influenced by Western morals.

Aggressive Afghan government attempts to censor TV programs could be part of a strategy to temper conflict with the Taliban. Or it could be an attempt to siphon support from Afghans drawn to the Taliban’s conservative style of Islam.

Many Afghan TV stations cut or blur scenes with women showing more than their face or neck, taking a conservative stance to avoid violating a vague government law that prohibits media content that is not “within the framework of Islam.”