Afghans Beyond Taliban

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A bearded man from the bazaar is whisked into a barber shop, where he's given a shave and a slick haircut. After a facial, he visits fashion boutiques. In a few tightly edited minutes of television, the humble bricklayer is transformed into an Afghan metrosexual, complete with jeans, sweater, suede jacket, and sunglasses. It may sound like standard reality TV fare in the West...

Human right groups are expressing concern over the killing of an Afghan woman accused of committing adultery. The 29-year-old was reportedly sentenced to death by local religious leaders after she was found in the house of a man other than her husband. As contradictory reports emerge as to the specific cause of death, many observers say the Afghan government must do more to protect women from...

Reporters Without Borders today called on President Hamid Karzai to take a clear and definitive public stance in support of cable television and diversity in the broadcast media in response to a new wave of pressure from conservatives, especially the Ulema Council led by supreme court president Fazl Hadi Shinwari, for a ban on "anti-Islamic" TV stations. The press freedom organization said it...

The world witnessed a series of democratic milestones in postwar Afghanistan in 2004, from a newly ratified constitution in January to the first direct presidential election in October. Conditions for the blossoming Afghan press improved in many areas, with a significant expansion of news media outlets and fortified constitutional protections for freedom of expression and the press. Yet...

A woman who founded an Afghan weekly focusing on women’s issues has been named "International Editor of the Year" by the US based publication Worldpress.org. Shukria Barekzai received the award, given to one editor outside of the US each year, as the editor-in-chief of Aina-e Zan, or "Women’s Mirror." Barekzai was honored for her courage, dedication to press freedon, and efforts to improve women’s...

Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has ordered the release of two journalists accused of defaming Islam, but says they must stand trial for blasphemy. The men, who write for the weekly newspaper Aftab, were arrested last week after the publication of an article headlined Holy Fascism, which attacked what it described as "crimes committed in Islam's name." It also criticised some members of the...

International pressure is mounting on the Afghan authorities over the arrest of two journalists accused of defaming Islam in the country. Both the United Nations and Reporters Without Borders have voiced concerns about the Kabul supreme court's order to close the weekly Afghan newspaper Aftab and arrest its editor, Sayeed Mirhassan Mahdawi, and his Iranian deputy on counts of blasphemy. A column...

A journalist with Arab news channel al-Jazeera said he and an Afghan colleague were ill-treated by international peacekeepers in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Sayed Cameraman Hashmatolla Moslih - an Australian citizen - and an Afghan reporter were detained while trying to film the scene of a grenade attack on Thursday outside the main base for soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force...

One year after the flight of the Taliban from Kabul, 150 publications are being sold on the streets of the city. Electronic media projects are springing up and dozens of journalists are taking advantage of the various forms of training established by international organisations. The change is radical. After five years of Taliban domination, which had turned Afghanistan into "a country without news...

A new law guaranteeing freedom of the press in Afghanistan has been formally inaugurated. At a brief ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul, the Minister of Information and Culture, Said Makhtoum Rahim, handed over the new press freedom bill which was signed into law by the head of the interim government, Hamid Karzai. The new law gives written guarantees for a free press, and Mr Karzai said...