While driving in the car yesterday, I heard a fascinating interview with Shakeb Issar, Shaima Rezayee's VJ co-host on Tolo TV, who now in hiding in Sweden--after the British embassy refused to grant asylum for diplomatic reasons--on BBC World News. Issar said he lived in the TV studio after Shaima Rezayee, 24, was killed by a single shot to the head on May 18th, 2005 following a denunciation of her music television program as un-Islamic.Her appearance on television shocked many Afghans with her western-style of dressing and the barest of headscarves, as the only female presenter on the daily TV music show ‘Hop’. Conservative clerics hated her. Young women admired her. 24-year-old Shaima Rezayee stood out, and she had to pay a heavy price for this. First she was fired from her job. Now she has been killed.
This quote about the killing, from the US-government-funded NGO Internews on Jaghury.com makes me want to throw up:
But Aunohita Mojumdar, a media analyst at Internews, says the wrath Tolo incurs needs to be viewed in the context of Afghanistan's recent history. "In a country where all images were banned until the collapse of the Taliban, any TV station in existence would have drawn fire."Your US tax dollars at work...
UPDATE: Here's a link to the BBC Outlook program interview by Heather Payton, and the BBC summary:
TOLO TVSo far, I have not seen this story reported in the American media--even on MTV news.
An Afghan TV host has left his home country and moved to Sweden because he is in fear of his life. 22 year old Shakeb Issar is 22 and he used to host a music show called Hop on Afghan television; he's now living in one room, on state benefits, in Sweden. A year ago he was riding high, wearing trendy western clothes and introducing music videos from all over the world on independent Tolo TV, many of them featuring scantily clad women. Then his co-host, Shaima Rezayee was found dead, beaten up and with a bullet through her head. Shakeb too was getting death threats and he decided it was time to flee the country. He tells Outlook presenter Heather Payton the reasons for his decision.
UPDATE: Wikipedia entry here.
