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Losing the battle to keep female flesh off Afghan TV
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Losing the battle to keep female flesh off Afghan TV
Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL
Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:24pm EDT
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KABUL (Reuters) - Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, who banned television and barred women from appearing in public without an all-enveloping burqa, the Afghan government is fighting a losing battle to keep female flesh off TV.
Entertainment | World | Television | Lifestyle | Media
In a country that remains deeply conservative and male-dominated, the government has the power to impose fines or shut down broadcasters for showing images of women deemed racy. Yet the guidelines seem to be observed largely in the breach.
Urban Afghans are now spoiled for choice with a remarkably vibrant array of TV stations. At any given moment, viewers can flip between news, cooking shows, cartoons, Turkish soap operas, Iranian dramas and hugely popular Indian films, with their gyrating sari-clad heroines.
To get around government restrictions on showing female flesh, TV stations employ full-time pixilators, charged with adding blurry blotches over bare arms, legs, necklines and midriffs. But if you watch long enough, you can easily spot a swaying elbow, a naked ankle or even an exposed strip of waist.
The new information and culture minister, Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, summoned the heads of some 20 private broadcasters and cable operators last month, demanding they revise their programs and follow government restrictions.
"I told them that in addition to your personal interests ... you should not forget your social and Islamic obligations and act responsibly with regard to the morals of the new generation," Raheen told Reuters in an interview.
"There were lots of complaints from the public, especially among families, that some of the TV stations were not observing Islamic cultural traditions, which they called harmful for the young generation.
"It is a serious matter for us. The ministry believes in raising and discussing the issue through understanding, and if that does not succeed, then steps will be taken under the law."
IGNORING RESTRICTIONS
Some TV stations appear to have abided by such restrictions only for a few days. Cable operators, which reach a small share of households, seem to pay the guidelines little heed at all.
Female lawmaker Fawzia Kufi caused a hush followed by laughter among a group of parliamentarians last month when she interrupted a debate on banning female dancing on TV with the suggestion that authorities also ban racy images of men.
Still, the work of the pixilators goes on. Saad Mohseni, Director of Tolo TV, Afghanistan's biggest private TV network which mixes original programing and popular imported fare, said his station has an entire pixilation department.
"They pixilate many things, including 'too much flesh' and any thing (that) may contravene our religious, cultural and social norms," he said in an e-mailed response to questions.
"It naturally makes things a bit more complicated, but we accept that we need to have this procedure in place for Afghanistan."
(Editing by Peter Graff and Sanjeev Miglani)
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See All Comments (5) | Post Comment
Mar 19, 2010 8:10am EDT
Islam is such a loser religion. The idea that a religion could bar naked women from appearing on tv is just plain backwards, that’s one reason al Qaeda is failing, everyone (including all muslims) want to see women naked. Mark Montgomery NYC, NY
boboberg
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Mar 19, 2010 12:18pm EDT
To the above comment: Very tolerant of you and open minded to different opinions and thoughts. Way to go on judging and generalizing over 1.5 billion people.
It’s not suitable for naked women (or men) to appear in shows watched by families. Although, I think pixelating necks and arms and things like that is taking it too far. Predictably, it’ll take quite some time for Afghanistan to come out of the deeply oppressive and patriarchal previous regime. Such things never change overnight.
WKaraki
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Mar 19, 2010 12:19pm EDT
Lets hope they don’t get their satellite feeds crossed with any TV Stations from Mexico. Those pixilators would be on overload!
Treehugger62
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Mar 19, 2010 1:41pm EDT
The word of God in all religions calls for modesty. It is a preventative to keep people from falling into all kinds of sexual sins and being molested. The women in Islam are honored as mothers and sisters and loved for as people of God.
The Ten Commandments of God in Exodus 20 command not to make any image. Now we can see why. With images we are controlled to sexual exploiting each other and to use people to buy and sell to make each other rich. They glorify war and violence. We are to be a free people, holy and acceptable to God. We are not; and we try to push it on other nations. We are destroying the world, naturally and spiritually. We cannot escape.
MarieDevine
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Mar 19, 2010 4:26pm EDT
Afgan methods may seem controlling or even silly to Americans. However, I can see why Muslims would abhor Western morality.
In Western countries it is no longer unusual for young men & woman to associate physical intimacy with dating rather than marriage. It is not unusual for men & women in the West to have had a dozen or more sexual partners before marriage.
This has only been common in our culture for the last 50-60 years. There are benefits to these freedoms but many negatives.
The connection between sex and marriage has been pretty much lost here. You can see effects of this in our divorce and infidelity statistics.
And, our young people lack the wonder and innocence that many of their forbears brought to marriage. Maybe what has happened to us is inevitable but, if it is, it is also sad and diminishes us in many ways.
I can understand why Muslims love their children too much to wish the Brave New World of our Western present for their son’s and daughter’s future.
PatientType
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