Clandestino
04-11-2005, 01:52 PM
Racy Afghan TV show hits a raw nerve
Mon Apr 11, 9:40 AM ET Top Stories - Chicago Tribune
By Kim Barker Tribune foreign correspondent
The two men spend several minutes debating which came first, the chicken or the egg. They argue over whether people dream in color.
This hardly seems like the most controversial TV show in Afghanistan. But in between the polite chitchat, these men--the Afghan version of MTV veejays--play music videos, which sometimes feature heaving bosoms, dancing women and sexually suggestive lyrics.
Such videos have turned the show "Hop" into one of the most popular programs on the Afghan capital's most popular new television station, Tolo TV. They also have drawn the ire of the country's clerics and the scrutiny of the government.
"Watching a woman with half-naked breasts and a man and a woman sucking each other's lips on TV, like on Tolo, is not acceptable," said Abdul Malik Kamawi, spokesman for the country's Supreme Court.
The debate over programming on the five private TV stations in Kabul highlights a major difficulty facing the new Afghanistan: trying to balance democratic freedoms and a largely conservative Islamic society. The constitution protects freedom of expression and prohibits anything that is against Islam. That inevitably leads to conflict, because what is against Islam often depends on who is watching.
Several new stations are pushing the limits in the land where the Taliban once banned TV sets and forced women to be hidden. They are playing Indian movies, which mostly focus on love and sexy couples dancing and singing. Some have shown movies from the United States, such as "Conan the Barbarian," with sex scenes.
Tolo TV, which premiered in October, features women as veejays on "Hop" and as commentators on other programs. At some point, the women will take off their head scarves--shocking in a country where women still cover their hair with scarves or wear burqas, which cover everything, even a woman's eyes.
Even moderate government officials question the speed at which TV is moving.
"Our advice is, we need to be careful," presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said. "Some media tend to take the radical route. It always pays to take it a step at a time."
On Tolo, people Rollerblade and fly kites at a New Year's celebration. Men and women talk to each other, even laugh together. Jennifer Lopez videos are shown frequently, and commercials tout the benefits of chicken bullion and dandruff shampoo. In many ways the station shows a vision of Kabul not as it necessarily is, but as many young people would like it to be.
A short makeover feature takes ordinary Afghans off the street and turns them into fashionable young people who would blend into any Western city. Think of it as "Hip Eye for the Traditional Afghan Guy." On one recent show, a young Afghan man with a beard, an uneven haircut and the typical Afghan knee-length shirt and matching pants got a shave, a haircut and a shower and was dressed in jeans and a modern shirt.
`Sense of hope' for young
Station director Saad Mohseni said Tolo TV--"tolo" means "dawn" in the Dari language of Afghanistan--offers something for everyone. He said Afghans, tired after 23 years of war, want change.
"It's important for us to provide young people with some sense of hope," said Mohseni, an Afghan-Australian. "At least, deceive them that things are going to get better."
But the mullahs are demanding change of a different kind. They want the TV stations to stop showing cleavage, women singing and dancing, and anything resembling sex.
The national Ulema Council, a government agency of religious scholars, recently issued a statement accusing Tolo TV and private station Afghan TV of "broadcasting music, naked dance and foreign films, which are against Islam and other national values of Afghanistan." The council asked the government to stop what it called immoral and un-Islamic broadcasts.
Mullahs also complained about "Hop" to the ministry responsible for licensing TV stations, said S.A.H. Sancharaky, deputy minister of information and culture.
"It has put a lot of pressure on us," he said. "But we have not censored or banned that program yet."
Instead the government is asking Tolo to "improve" the show. Sancharaky said the videos are too racy and the veejays talk too casually. In one episode, he said, a male veejay complimented a female veejay's shoes.
"He says, `Your shoes are very good. Can you hold up your legs so everybody can see how good your shoes are?'" Sancharaky recalled. "`Hold up your legs' has a very bad meaning in our language."
A government commission is investigating whether TV stations are complying with the country's laws. In February, members singled out "Hop" for criticism but took no action.
In reality, the clerics are trying to dam a river with a pencil. Satellite dishes are allowed in Afghanistan. Cable TV includes stations from India. There are pornographic DVDs and messages sent on mobile phones featuring cartoon couples having sex.
Post-Taliban backlash
After living under the Taliban, many Afghans are tired of being told how to live.
"We should not see Islam through the hole of a needle," said Daulat Khan Abidi, 32, who helps run a perfume shop in Kabul. "Islam is a big religion."
In Kabul, the generation gap is visible in fashion. Older people often wear traditional dress. Many young men wear jeans. A good number of young women wear jeans or black, flared pants, knee-length coats and head scarves. They wear makeup. They even send text messages by mobile phone to Shakeb Isaar, one of the "Hop" veejays, proclaiming, "I love u my dear" and "Will you marry me?"
Isaar, 22, is the closest thing to a celebrity in Kabul. He frequently is mobbed by fans. He believes the mullahs are his enemies and taunts them.
"Why shouldn't we be like this and have all the freedom like other people in other countries?" asked Isaar, sporting spiky hair, a German soccer T-shirt and jeans.
Most people on the street say Tolo TV is their favorite Afghan station. They like the news and the investigative reporting--new to Afghanistan. They like "Moments," a prank program similar to "Candid Camera." But most people, young and old, say their favorite show on Tolo is "Hop," which features videos from India, Iran, Turkey, the U.S. and Afghanistan.
"It's a good program," said Walid Shahbaz, 22, who was out shopping. "Mullahs are usually talking about things that are against Islam. But I don't think `Hop' is against Islam."
The TV station is planning to air a new program, one that station workers are certain will be a hit. It shows just how much the clerics are up against, and how much Afghanistan has changed since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.
That show, modeled on a popular U.S. program, will feature men and women singing their way to fame. "Afghan Idol" will start shooting in a few weeks.
Mon Apr 11, 9:40 AM ET Top Stories - Chicago Tribune
By Kim Barker Tribune foreign correspondent
The two men spend several minutes debating which came first, the chicken or the egg. They argue over whether people dream in color.
This hardly seems like the most controversial TV show in Afghanistan. But in between the polite chitchat, these men--the Afghan version of MTV veejays--play music videos, which sometimes feature heaving bosoms, dancing women and sexually suggestive lyrics.
Such videos have turned the show "Hop" into one of the most popular programs on the Afghan capital's most popular new television station, Tolo TV. They also have drawn the ire of the country's clerics and the scrutiny of the government.
"Watching a woman with half-naked breasts and a man and a woman sucking each other's lips on TV, like on Tolo, is not acceptable," said Abdul Malik Kamawi, spokesman for the country's Supreme Court.
The debate over programming on the five private TV stations in Kabul highlights a major difficulty facing the new Afghanistan: trying to balance democratic freedoms and a largely conservative Islamic society. The constitution protects freedom of expression and prohibits anything that is against Islam. That inevitably leads to conflict, because what is against Islam often depends on who is watching.
Several new stations are pushing the limits in the land where the Taliban once banned TV sets and forced women to be hidden. They are playing Indian movies, which mostly focus on love and sexy couples dancing and singing. Some have shown movies from the United States, such as "Conan the Barbarian," with sex scenes.
Tolo TV, which premiered in October, features women as veejays on "Hop" and as commentators on other programs. At some point, the women will take off their head scarves--shocking in a country where women still cover their hair with scarves or wear burqas, which cover everything, even a woman's eyes.
Even moderate government officials question the speed at which TV is moving.
"Our advice is, we need to be careful," presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said. "Some media tend to take the radical route. It always pays to take it a step at a time."
On Tolo, people Rollerblade and fly kites at a New Year's celebration. Men and women talk to each other, even laugh together. Jennifer Lopez videos are shown frequently, and commercials tout the benefits of chicken bullion and dandruff shampoo. In many ways the station shows a vision of Kabul not as it necessarily is, but as many young people would like it to be.
A short makeover feature takes ordinary Afghans off the street and turns them into fashionable young people who would blend into any Western city. Think of it as "Hip Eye for the Traditional Afghan Guy." On one recent show, a young Afghan man with a beard, an uneven haircut and the typical Afghan knee-length shirt and matching pants got a shave, a haircut and a shower and was dressed in jeans and a modern shirt.
`Sense of hope' for young
Station director Saad Mohseni said Tolo TV--"tolo" means "dawn" in the Dari language of Afghanistan--offers something for everyone. He said Afghans, tired after 23 years of war, want change.
"It's important for us to provide young people with some sense of hope," said Mohseni, an Afghan-Australian. "At least, deceive them that things are going to get better."
But the mullahs are demanding change of a different kind. They want the TV stations to stop showing cleavage, women singing and dancing, and anything resembling sex.
The national Ulema Council, a government agency of religious scholars, recently issued a statement accusing Tolo TV and private station Afghan TV of "broadcasting music, naked dance and foreign films, which are against Islam and other national values of Afghanistan." The council asked the government to stop what it called immoral and un-Islamic broadcasts.
Mullahs also complained about "Hop" to the ministry responsible for licensing TV stations, said S.A.H. Sancharaky, deputy minister of information and culture.
"It has put a lot of pressure on us," he said. "But we have not censored or banned that program yet."
Instead the government is asking Tolo to "improve" the show. Sancharaky said the videos are too racy and the veejays talk too casually. In one episode, he said, a male veejay complimented a female veejay's shoes.
"He says, `Your shoes are very good. Can you hold up your legs so everybody can see how good your shoes are?'" Sancharaky recalled. "`Hold up your legs' has a very bad meaning in our language."
A government commission is investigating whether TV stations are complying with the country's laws. In February, members singled out "Hop" for criticism but took no action.
In reality, the clerics are trying to dam a river with a pencil. Satellite dishes are allowed in Afghanistan. Cable TV includes stations from India. There are pornographic DVDs and messages sent on mobile phones featuring cartoon couples having sex.
Post-Taliban backlash
After living under the Taliban, many Afghans are tired of being told how to live.
"We should not see Islam through the hole of a needle," said Daulat Khan Abidi, 32, who helps run a perfume shop in Kabul. "Islam is a big religion."
In Kabul, the generation gap is visible in fashion. Older people often wear traditional dress. Many young men wear jeans. A good number of young women wear jeans or black, flared pants, knee-length coats and head scarves. They wear makeup. They even send text messages by mobile phone to Shakeb Isaar, one of the "Hop" veejays, proclaiming, "I love u my dear" and "Will you marry me?"
Isaar, 22, is the closest thing to a celebrity in Kabul. He frequently is mobbed by fans. He believes the mullahs are his enemies and taunts them.
"Why shouldn't we be like this and have all the freedom like other people in other countries?" asked Isaar, sporting spiky hair, a German soccer T-shirt and jeans.
Most people on the street say Tolo TV is their favorite Afghan station. They like the news and the investigative reporting--new to Afghanistan. They like "Moments," a prank program similar to "Candid Camera." But most people, young and old, say their favorite show on Tolo is "Hop," which features videos from India, Iran, Turkey, the U.S. and Afghanistan.
"It's a good program," said Walid Shahbaz, 22, who was out shopping. "Mullahs are usually talking about things that are against Islam. But I don't think `Hop' is against Islam."
The TV station is planning to air a new program, one that station workers are certain will be a hit. It shows just how much the clerics are up against, and how much Afghanistan has changed since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.
That show, modeled on a popular U.S. program, will feature men and women singing their way to fame. "Afghan Idol" will start shooting in a few weeks.