Chapter 8: The Cost of Business – Gender Dynamics of Media Labor in Afghanistan
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On September 11, 2001, Afghanistan’s media sphere was one of the sparsest in the world. Few newspapers had survived the previous half-decade of Taliban rule, during which the nation devolved into a “country without news or pictures,” according to Reporters Without Borders.¹ A single radio station, Radio Sharia, was in operation—the lone remnant of a bygone Soviet era marked by relatively sophisticated, if centrally controlled, broadcasting practices. According to the architects of the American-led invasion that would ultimately overthrow the Taliban regime, this lack of media was not only a symptom of totalitarianism but also a cause.
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8.1: Introduction
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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.
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8.2: Rightful Suspicions
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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.
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8.3: Case by Case – Women in For-Profit TV
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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.
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8.4: The Noncommercial Sector
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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.
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8.5: Conclusion
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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.
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8.6: Notes
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