After pressure from reformists in Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s party, the ban on women performers on television and radio that was imposed last Friday was lifted. Female entertainers had been declared un-Islamic in the Southeastern province by the deputy provincial governor of Nangarhar. The provincial government ordered state-run television in Jalalabad to stop broadcasting Afghan women singer’s performances.
Earlier this year, for the first time in over a decade, a video with footage of a famous Afghan female singer was broadcast on public television. The footage of the female performer came just a few weeks after the approval of Afghanistan’s new constitution that endorses equal rights for women and men. However, Afghanistan’s Supreme Court protested the video, stating that they were opposed to women singing.
From 1992-1996, during Afghanistan’s civil war, the Islamic mujahadeen did not allow images of women to be broa
