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A massive phenomenon in Afghanistan: Television
SEVEN years ago, in a very different time in a very different Afghanistan, a medical student named Daoud Sediqi was bicycling from campus when he was stopped by the Talibans whip-wielding religious police. The young man immediately felt an avalanche of regret, for he was in violation of at least two laws.One obvious offence was the length of his hair. While the ruling Taliban insisted that men sprout untrimmed beards, they were otherwise opposed to scruffiness and the student had allowed his locks to grow shaggy. His other transgression was more serious. If his captors searched his things, they would find a CD with an X-rated movie. Fortunately, they didnt look, he recalled. My only punishment was to have my head shaved because of my long hair. Now, at 26, he is one of this nations best-known men, someone sprung from a new wellspring of fame - not a warlord or a mullah, but a television celebrity, the host of Afghan Star, this nations American Idol. Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, Afghanistan has been developing in fits and starts. Among the unchanging circumstances that still give people fits: continuing war, inept leaders, corrupt police and woeful living conditions. Posted by: Fred 2007-08-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=195080 |