Afghan's religiously insane men ban soap operas from India - much turmoil

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JD30Df01.html


A fresh deadline seeking compliance with a ban on the five Indian TV serials being broadcast by private Afghan TV channels was due to end on Tuesday. The ban, ordered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has caused public controversy and a strident clash between conservatives and liberals. The truth is more multi-layered: not all those who oppose the serials are doing so out of conservative values, nor are the reasons for their defense uniformly liberal.

The serials are considered by critics to have content considered "too modern" for Afghan audiences. Meanwhile, the so-called values the shows portray are viewed as regressive, even backward, in India. By positing this case as a simple test of media freedom, there is a danger of losing sight of the complexities that need to be addressed to strengthen the independence of the Afghan media.

The debate over the ban has been described in private national media and the international press as "the latest battle of the long-simmering war between cultural conservatives and liberals", as one reputed newspaper called it. The reality is somewhat more complex. While conservatives, including some of the religious ulema, have been consistently pressuring the government and TV channels to curtail any content that goes beyond their interpretation of Afghanistan's conservative social mores, in this instance the demand for curtailing the soap operas has more widespread support. The reasons for this are two-fold.

The story lines of some of the serials go beyond traditional family scenarios to include complex relationships that are anathema to Afghan families. Children born out of wedlock and extramarital relationships are just two salient examples. The second reason for the criticism is that the serials have allegedly become addictive to viewers, especially young children.

"My daughter is worshipping her dolls, setting then out in a row as she sees people worshipping in the serials," a liberal female member of parliament (MP)told a diplomat when asked for her views. A senior political figure - who has little sympathy for conservatives - said his children were emulating scenes from the popular Indian soap opera Tulsi. Meanwhile, a senior government official said social customs viewed in the serials were being emulated in middle-class Afghani homes.
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wishing everyone well, change can be stressful