Afghan Idol
How Afghanistan’s version of American Idol is helping to change their culture to a more tolerant one. Like I’ve said before, as inane as shows like American Idol seem, they actually have a positive impact on society by bringing people together.
Nowhere is the revolutionary impact of the show more evident than in the success of Sahar, the first woman to have made it to the final five. That is quite an achievement for an ethnic Pashtun from Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, where women are traditionally kept behind closed doors. Religious leaders have condemned Afghan Star for allowing women to perform in public, and some have demanded it be taken off the air. But the hundreds of thousands of votes that have poured in for Sahar suggest that many Afghans are ready for change. “It is no longer possible for one man to say that we can’t have this music,” says Murtaza Mohammadi, 24, a waiter in one of Kabul’s restaurants. “Our votes prove that it’s part of our culture, and no one can stop it.”
Sahar had never sung before joining some 2,000 aspirants to compete for the title, and her performance, while it has improved over the past four months, remains wooden. What has struck a chord with voters is her raw courage in defying conservative strictures simply to be here. “Her singing skills are not as good as the guys, and the assumption was that she was going to fail fairly quickly,” says Saad Mohseni, a director of the company that owns the show. “But I think people wanted her to win. They all realized how difficult it was for her to pick up from Kandahar, and we all want to root for the underdog. For her to get so much support is quite phenomenal. This season of Afghan Star will do more for women’s rights than all the millions of dollars we have spent on public service announcements for women’s rights on TV.”
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