KABUL (AFP)
An Afghan TV station said Sunday it had pulled a popular Indian soap opera, branded "un-Islamic" by conservative clerics, on the orders of the government which also wants several others banned.
The show, named "Kumkum" after the central character, is the first victim of a government order giving several stations until Tuesday to stop airing certain programs it says undermine Afghan culture.
The stations had ignored a previous government order against the shows -- all of which touch on love stories and disputes among Hindu families -- by mid-April.
"Under pressure from the Ministry of Information and Culture, we had to stop running one of our famous shows, an Indian drama," said Abdul Qadir Mirzai, chief news editor and spokesman for leading private station, Ariana.
"It was a famous drama and had lots of fans," Norzai said.
"Kumkum" centers on the love story of an Indian Hindu couple. It aired most evenings and was stopped from Sunday, Mirzai said.
Its popularity had attracted advertisers and its loss would cause "significant" cash losses. |
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Moderate solution The culture ministry -- headed by the controversial and conservative Abdul Karim Khurram -- has meanwhile issued a "last" deadline to several other private TV stations to stop similar serials, a spokesman told AFP.
"If they don't stop by Tuesday, they will be referred to judicial authorities," spokesman Hamid Naseery told AFP.
"Tulsi", is the tale of a beautiful Hindu housewife hated by her mother-in-law, was the first soap opera to be aired after the fall of the 1996-2001 Taliban government, which banned television as "un-Islamic."
It hit the television screens in 2006, winning over a legion of fans but angering conservative Islamic circles such as the powerful national Ulema (clerics) Council.
The heads of the country's electronic media met with Afghanistan National Journalists Union Saturday to find a "moderate solution to the problem," the union said in a statement.
They called for a meeting with President Hamid Karzai and religious leaders to find a way to allow the shows to air, it said, adding they may agree to "edit out culturally and religiously sensitive scenes." |
