A 24 year-old Afghan woman who was a presenter on a popular music program on a private television station in Kabul was shot and killed in her home last Wednesday. Shaima Rezayee was fired from her job with Tolo TV in March after pressure from conservative mullahs, who complained about the “un-Islamic values” of the show, according to the Times Online. The program was also criticized by the Ministry of Information and Culture for the pop videos that were shown and for “casual” conversations between male and female presenters.
Saad Mohsenia, who heads Tolo TV, told the Christian Science Monitor that there are no plans to change the programming following Rezayee’s murder, stating, “Éwe do not allow individuals to dictate the terms to us, to act as terrorists.”
The Christian Science Monitor reported that police still investigating Reyazee’s murder have said that her brothers may be involved in her death raising speculation that she was killed for supposedly offending her family’s “honor.” Unlike many Afghan women, who are still wearing the burqa required under the Taliban’s rule, Reyazee wore Western-style clothes.
