Chapter 8: The Cost of Business – Gender Dynamics of Media Labor in Afghanistan
- Page ID
- 175219
\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)
- 8.1: Introduction
- Overview of the chapter's aims: to understand the specific gender dynamics that have emerged in Western-funded Afghan media production, comparing the nonprofit and commercial sectors, and to identify the instability affecting workers in both sectors, especially women workers.
- 8.2: Rightful Suspicions
- The Western emphasis on media assistance as a form of women's liberation in Afghanistan post-9/11; the "top-down" nature of that gender rights discourse that assumes Afghan women lack the agency to empower themselves and asserts a neoliberal, individualist ideal of women's empowerment.
- 8.3: Case by Case – Women in For-Profit TV
- The youth-dominated Afghan for-profit mediasphere, and some of the factors that bring women to producerial positions in this sphere but keep them from retaining stable positions there.
- 8.4: The Noncommercial Sector
- Examining the role of and the challenges faced by women in Afghanistan's noncommercial, Western-funded media sector, focusing on the case studies of Zakia Zaki and Farida Nekzad.
- 8.5: Conclusion
- Considering the ways in which the American-funded media system in Afghanistan has created new opportunities for women, while at the same time creating additional precarity for women working in media.