|
KABUL - INDIAN soap operas with their tales of family drama and trysts among the rich and beautiful have transfixed Afghans brought up on turgid state broadcasts and under a Taleban ban on television.
But not everyone is a fan.
Conservative Muslim clerics and some politicians are outraged by the soap operas aired hour-after-hour by more than a dozen private television stations that have sprung up since the Taleban were ousted in 2001.
Branding the programmes immoral and against Islamic culture, the critics have launched a campaign to press the private channels to pull the plug on the soaps.
At Friday prayers at Kabul's largest mosque, Enayatullah Balegh, an influential cleric and university teacher, told reporters he and his followers were adamant.
'We are 6,000 people in this mosque, our intention ... is to go and blow up all the TV antennas if they do not stop it,' Balegh said in front of his congregation.
The clerics' campaign gained traction this month when some members of parliament, supported by the Ministry of Information and Culture, issued a declaration to private TV channels to stop broadcasting five Indian soaps.
But the television stations appear defiant.
'It is against the media law,' said Masoud Qiam, a seniorpresenter for Tolo TV, referring to the declaration.
'We will not stop the airing of the soap operas,' he said.
Tolo is Afghanistan's most popular TV channel, broadcasting a mix of news and entertainment. It has had several brushes with conservatives over its fare.
'We don't consider any of the programmes against our culture. These are the most watched programmes that people like,' Mr Qiam said.
| 
