It is forbidden, but they do not know their rights,” she asserts. “In the provinces, girls are exchanged like animals.
Mehria Afzal, 25, the head of the political service, expects to be “the voice of Afghan women”. Women are already on the air in Afghanistan and regularly present the news. Zan TV, or “Women’s TV”, will also aim to challenge traditional expectations of the female role in Afghanistan, when it begins broadcasting in the near future.ĪFP visited its studios in a vast house in Kabul last month: there is a candy pink one for news another is blue, the traditional interior for talk shows while political broadcasts are conducted from a red sofa against a green background - echoing the Afghan flag. Though some heads remain unveiled, women’s bare legs and arms are rarely pictured. Gelara, which sells for 100 afghanis (Dh5.40 or $1.30) in the street, is provocative - but only to a point. “If not, the conservatives will bring us back, to a primitive life.” “This is a life and death conflict,” he explained, adding they have no choice but to fight. It’s always risky” in Afghanistan to fight conservatism and extremism, said Sohail, who also runs the country’s most popular newspaper, 8-Subh (8-Hours). Afghan pop star and women’s rights activist Aryana Saeed underwent a similar deluge after a recent concert in Paris. In an interview, the artist discusses criticism she has received for wearing costumes judged too tight. Gelara’s first cover featured singer Mozhdah Jamalzadah, who posed bareheaded, her bold gaze staring directly into the camera. You have to push for women’s rights,” insists the editor-in-chief, 24-year-old Fatana Hassanazada, who heads a team of 14 young women. once they get married they have no rights. Gelara - “the apple of the eyes” in Farsi, a colloquialism for something beautiful and precious - contains culture and celebrities, but aims for pedagogy.īeauty, cooking, health, literature: the magazine succumbs to feminine tropes, but also dives into issues such as family law reform, which has stalled in the Afghan parliament since 2008.
It is also a 100 per cent Afghan project. The glossy monthly run by a team of women in their 20s proclaims itself proudly as “Afghanistan’s first fashion magazine”. “I am sure we’ll get some reaction, some complaints. “ lack of participation of women in life has made this country very violent,” said Sandjar Sohail, head of the Hasht press group behind the launch of Gelara magazine.
The teams behind the two privately-run projects have bold ambitions to use their mass media platforms to change attitudes and inform Afghans of their rights.īut they know full well the dangers of such trailblazing ventures in a war-torn nation where many still believe that a woman does not belong outside the home. Kabul: Afghan women are redrawing the media landscape in the deeply conservative country with the launch of a new magazine and a television channel, risking the anger of extremists by giving their gender a glamorous voice.