In Post 9/11 Afghanistan, debates about women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam are part of the fabric of local and international development efforts to "nation-build". The medium at the heart of the most public and politically charged of these debates, instigating often violent cultural contestations and clashes between "Islamists", "moderates", and others, is television. My dissertation examines the production and consumption of three of the most popular and controversial genres on Afghan television: imported dramatic serials, political satire, and reality television. Together they represent the key frameworks for the tele-visual worlds that are shaping the political landscape of Afghanistan in their negotiations for power: the state, the private sector, and foreign national and transnational interests.
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