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<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Dear Colleagues,<br>
Today Narges Bajoghli interviews Wazmah Osman about her new book,
Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to you by
Foreigners, Warlords and Activists.<br>
<br>
See it on the CaMP anthropology blog: <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://campanthropology.org">https://campanthropology.org</a><br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Ilana<br>
<br>
Press blurb: </font><br>
<p class="jacket_copy" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align:
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normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width:
0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Portrayed in Western
discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact
intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam
as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. Wazhmah
Osman places television at the heart of these public and
politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also
provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and
healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she
argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential
to bring about justice, national integration, and peace.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align:
start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space:
normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width:
0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Fieldwork from across
Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of Afghan media
producers and people from all sectors of society. In this moving
work, Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's
cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of
themselves, and the role of international interventions. Osman
looks at the national and transnational impact of media companies
like Tolo TV, Radio Television Afghanistan, and foreign media
giants and funders like the British Broadcasting Corporation and
USAID. By focusing on local cultural contestations, productions,
and social movements,<span> </span><i>Television and the Afghan
Culture Wars</i><span> </span>redirects the global dialogue
about Afghanistan to Afghans and thereby challenges top-down
narratives of humanitarian development.</p>
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