Afghani women

KABUL, January 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Strong protests from the Afghan Supreme Court, Kabul TV has decided to stop showing female singers for the time being, an executive said Friday, January 16.

After breaking a decade-long ban and airing images of a woman singing on Afghanistan's state-run television earlier in the week, the Afghan Supreme Court -which favors the imposition of Islamic Sharia laws in the war-torn country – stepped in, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

But the Court’s interference has also prompted criticism from women leaders who say the court has no right to intervene.

"No official decision has been taken, however, we feel the current circumstances are not suitable to air women singing," said Azizullah Aryanfar, programming chief of Kabul TV.

He told AFP the television station had not received a letter from the court preventing it from airing such programs but confirmed that Kabul TV has decided to stop showing females singing "at least for the time being."

The court is dominated by the conservative former Mujahadeen or anti-Soviet fighters.

"We knew this kind of move might be too early, and is not acceptable in the many conservative circles which have strong influence in the country," Aryanfar said, referring to the former Mujahadeen leaders which form the backbone of President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government.

On Monday night, Kabul TV featured old footage of Salma, a star from the 1970s, singing a ballad about being a refugee. Instead of being totally covered up, she wore a simple head scarf.

Her five-minute appearance on the small screen came just days after Afghanistan's loya jirga or grand assembly approved a new constitution which states that men and women have equal rights and duties under law.

Deputy Chief Justice Fazal Ahamd Manawi told AFP Thursday that the Supreme Court had sent a letter to the Ministry of Information and Kabul TV asking them to stop broadcasting women singing and dancing.

On Friday the Minister of Information and Culture Sayed Makhdoom Raheen said "there is no discrimination and there will be no discrimination" in the arts.

However, he refused to say whether there would be more images of women singing on television.

"You can find out for yourself by watching TV," he told AFP.

Women's Affairs Minister Habiba Surabi said she condemned the Supreme Court's action.

"The Supreme Court interferes in issues which are not their business, they want to impose their views on people," Surabi told AFP.

"I didn't see any thing un-Islamic in Ms. Salma's footage; she was just sitting politely and singing.

"Considering our traditions, we don't want women to sing the same way as they do in western countries but the way Ms. Salma did was not against our Afghan culture."

The ban on women singing and dancing had been imposed for more than a decade after the Mujahadeen took power in Kabul following the toppling of a communist government in 1992.

The Taliban regime, toppled by the U.S. late 2001, banned all television broadcasting after taking power in 1996 as part of its strict imposition of Islamic Sharia law.

Women's rights activist Soraya Parlika said any decision to ban women singing on television violated Afghanistan's new constitution.

"It's obvious, I condemn the Supreme Court decision," she said. "We just approved a constitution that gives women equal rights with men. This is against human rights and against the constitution."

Another women's activist, who was a delegate to the loya jirga, also expressed her anguish at the developments.

"Don't ask me what these mullahs are doing, I would be very cruel," she said, asking not to be named.