A female veejay on a hugely popular music channel in Kabul was found shot to death, two months after her show was cancelled on the eve of its national launch. Mullahs had been highly critical of the station, Tolo TV, “for broadcasting music, naked dance and foreign films, which are against Islam and other national values of Afghanistan,” but were most opposed to Shaima Rezayee’s show Hop. And you thought censorship on American television was resurgent:
The information ministry asked the station to tone down the show, objecting specifically to the raciness of the pop videos and the “casual” chat between male and female presenters. In Afghanistan even conversation between men and women who are not related is regarded as suspect.
S.A.H. Sancharaky, the Deputy Minister for Information and Culture, told a foreign interviewer that the Government prided itself on not censoring the show but was compelled to ask for changes. One particularly offensive incident, he noted, was when a male presenter had complimented Ms Rezayee on her shoes. “He says, ‘Can you hold up your legs so everybody can see how good your shoes are?’� the official recalled. “ ‘Hold up your legs’ has a very bad meaning in our language.�
It was to be Ms Rezayee and not the male presenter who would pay for this exchange.
Full, sad story here.
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