[Reader-list] Exit the Taliban, enter James Bond and Iranian soaps

[Harsh Kapoor]

The Christian Science Monitor.
from the November 23, 2001 edition

SALES: A Kabul electronics vendor is back in business.
SCOTT PETERSON/GETTY IMAGES

Exit the Taliban, enter James Bond and Iranian soaps
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Shahgholam Hairat and two of his friends were 
channel surfing between Al Jazeera (the Arab news channel) and 
Iranian soap operas. Suddenly the Taliban cultural police burst into 
their apartment last year.

Arrested for "immoral" acts by the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion 
of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the students spent three months 
in jail.

Yesterday, Mr. Hariat was unrepentantly shopping. "We want to see the 
world's television," he said, flashing a Cheshire cat smile, as he 
bought a new satellite dish from a street vendor. It will replace one 
he has kept hidden on his balcony, behind a stack of cartons.

Afghans such as Hairat are at the cutting edge of a pop-culture 
renaissance here, as the Taliban-built walls of isolation come 
tumbling down.