France-based Begum TV channel offers a lifeline to Afghan women
In a tiny television studio in the French capital, two unveiled Afghan women face the camera on a mission to provide a lifeline to their fellow countrywomen back home. Issued on: 20/03/2024 – 07:25Modified: 20/03/2024 – 07:53 4 min “Tonight we’ll be discussing the different forms of violence against women in Afghanistan,” says 25-year-old Diba Akbari, speaking in front of a green screen. A new France-based satellite television channel called Begum TV is beaming educational programmes and a little light relief to women stuck at home in Afghanistan. “They wed a woman and put her in a corner. She’s reduced to household chores and her only aim in life is to breed children,” says Akbari. “But preventing her from continuing her studies and training, that’s violence.” Taliban authorities have tightly restricted women’s access to education since they seized power in 2021, imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law that means all women must be veiled and largely excluding women from public life. Teenage girls and women are barred from schools and universities, and thousands of …