A Soap Opera of a Drama in Afghanistan
There are many fronts to all wars and the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan is no different. NATO forces have supreme firepower to use against the Taliban insurgents, but this alone cannot defeat them and secure a safe and free nation. The Karzai government needs to produce good governance for its peoples and a civil society needs to be able to flourish for real progress. Deirdre Tynan writes in Eurasianet about how a recent battle over the appropriateness of two Indian soap opera style television shows, with some calling them ‘un-Islamic,’ exemplifies many of the different fronts in Afghanistan’s ongoing conflict.
Tynan argues that this television show’s ability to withstand vehement criticism from Taliban and extremist sources is in a way a litmus test for the Karzai’s government ability to truly lead and build a free and stable Afghanistan. The show’s two producers are interviewed and back their show, which is reportedly the most watched program in the country, and their right to show it. The Afghan government’s Ministry of Information and Culture has called for the show’s cancellation, which the producers and even a Freedom House analyst, call a larger attempt to undermine freedom of expression. They argue that Karzai is just trying to placate the more conservative elements in the country.
This challenging episode does provide a glimpse of progress however, besides the fact that under Taliban rule a show like this would never had made it on the air, as two civil society groups, the Afghan National Journalists Union and Nai, an Afghan media development organization, have come to the defense of the Indian soap operas and called on the government to stop their meddling.
The battles in and for Afghanistan are many and this may be just one small skirmish, but when a society/government is weak, disjointed, and young even small things can have large importance. The rights of the Afghan people need to be defended and for this to happen its government, NATO forces and leaders, civil society, and each individual in the nation will need to fight the good fight.