Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists (The Geopolitics of Information)

Portrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. Wazhmah Osman places television at the heart of these public and politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential to bring about justice, national integration, and peace. Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of many Afghan media producers and people. Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of themselves, and the role of international interventions. Osman analyzes the impact of transnational media and foreign funding while keeping the focus on local cultural contestations, productions, and social movements. As a result, she redirects the global dialogue about Afghanistan to Afghans and challenges top-down narratives of humanitarian development. |Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Legitimizing Modernity: Indigenous Modernities, Foreign Incursions, and Their Backlashes Chapter 2. Imperialism, Globalization, and Development: Overlaps and Disjunctures Chapter 3. Afghan Television Production: A Distinctive Political Economy Chapter 4. Producers and Production: The Development Gaze and the Imperial Gaze Chapter 5. Reaching Vulnerable and Dangerous Populations: Women and the Pashtuns Chapter 6. Reception and Audiences: The Demands and Desires of Afghan People Conclusion: The Future of Media, the Future of Afghanistan Appendix A: Ethnic Groups Table Appendix B: Media Funding Sources and Recipients Table Appendix C: TV Stations and Affiliations Table Notes References Index| ICA ACJS Outstanding Book Award, 2021 — ICA ACJS Outstanding Book Award | Wazhmah Osman is a filmmaker and assistant professor in the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. She is the codirector of the critically acclaimed documentary Postcards from Tora Bora and the coauthor of Afghanistan: A Very Short Introduction . Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Saving “Afghan Women”: Gender and the Global World Order Beyond Critique: Constituting Subjectivity and Locating Agency Race, Ethnicity, and Tribe within the Framework of the Nation-State Why TV? Media Forms in a Cross-Regional Context Method Synopsis of Chapters Chapter 1. Legitimizing Modernization: Indigenous Modernities, Foreign Incursions, and Their Backlashes Social Movements, Indigenous Modernities, and Transcultural Hybridity Early Culture Wars: Key Historical Moments Amanullah and Soraya, the Modernizers The Public Works Programs of the 1960s and 1970s The Soviet Invasion and Occupation of the 1980s In the Wake of the Soviet-Afghan War and the Cold War Conclusion Chapter 2. Imperialism, Globalization, and Development: Overlaps and Disjunctures Imperial Ambitions: Foreign Projects, Occupations, and Invasions Media and Global Flows: From Dallas to Development TV From Cultural Imperialism to Globalization and Back Again International Development Projects: The Good, the Bad, and the Imperialist Conclusion Chapter 3. Afghan Television Production: A Distinctive Political Economy Introduction The Contradictions and Obfuscations of Foreign Aid Ethnography in the Televisual Village: Television Stations, Owners, Sectarian Politics, and Funding Genres and Their Discontents The PSA/PIC, Political Satire and Talk Shows, and News Reality TV Dramatic Serials Chapter 4. Producers and Production: The Development Gaze and the Imperial Gaze Television: The Ideology Machine Decolonizing Television Studies: Managing Incendiary Relations Non-Western TV Case Studies: Managing Minorities and the Disenfranchised Motivations of Afghan TV Producers: The Development Gaze and the Imperial Gaze Reframing Violence: The PIC, Political Satire, and News Dramatizing Democracy and Diversity Chapter 5. Reaching Vulnerable and Dangerous Populations: Women and the Pashtuns The Language of Ethno-national Subjects: The Taliban, Terrorism, and Pashtuns The Rhetoric of Saving Afghan Women “Our Women”: Gender and Sexuality The Cover Story: The Honor Killings Narrative and the Costs of Going Public The Right to Dance and Sing: State Sponsorship of Artists and Culture Gender Violence: Why Now? Women as Projects: The Deadly Intersection of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Class The Possibilities of a Counter-Hegemonic Public Sphere Chapter 6. Reception and Audiences: The Demands and Desires of Afghan People How Audiences Are Imagined Audience Feedback, Technologies of Measurement, and the Ratings Industry Afghan Audiences Demand Justice Retribution for Warlords on TV Support for the News and Journalists: The People’s Heroes Stirring the Ghosts of the Past: New Afghan Genres Afghan versus Foreign Programming: The Contradictions in Tastes and Identification “Trashy Tastes” and Permeable Borders Love Them or Hate Them: The Alternative Lives of Soap Operas Far from Mere Entertainment: Will Television Save or Destroy Afghanistan? Endogenous Cultural Imperialism Performances of Non-performativity and Practices of Unlooking Liberatory or Regressive? Weak Heroines and Strong Villainesses What Afghan Women Want Turkish and Iranian Secular Muslim Productions: A Realm of Redemption and Peace Conclusion Conclusion: The Future of Afghan Media, the Future of Afghanistan Media Diversity versus Media Imperialism The Future of Afghan Media, the Future of Afghanistan Appendix A. Ethnic Groups in Afghanistan according to Source Appendix B. Television Stations and Affiliations in Afghanistan Appendix C. Media Funders Notes References Index Back Cover "Portrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. Wazhmah Osman places television at the heart of these public and politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential to bring about justice, national integration, and peace. Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of many Afghan media producers and people. Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of themselves, and the role of international interventions. Osman analyzes the impact of transnational media and foreign funding while keeping the focus on local cultural contestations, productions, and social movements. As a result, she redirects the global dialogue about Afghanistan to Afghans and challenges top-down narratives of humanitarian development"-- Provided by publisher