the Kite runner was banned: it tell us a lot about afghan government

Ministry of information and culture has banned the import and exhibition of The Kite Runner on the fear of social consequences. The film is based on the novel by Khalid Husseini about the troubled friendship of two Afghan boys. The kite runner offers an image of Afghanistan before the wars and has a personal touch of the friendship between Amir, the son of a wealthy Pashtun, and Hassan, the Hazara son of Amir’s father’s servant. although, the kite runner is not much different than most other stories about Afghanistan. It’s about hardship and difficulties, it builds on the foundation that any afghan story could only be told by pain and disaster. But kite runner is different than most other popular stories about Afghanistan, it has a personal touch and it tells the story of fun and joy.

Apparently, ministry is concerned about a couple of controversial scenes in the film: first, Hassan is raped in an alley by a bunch of Pashtun bullies. Second, Hassan’s son, Sohrab, is later forced to perform an erotic dance by a Talib. Let’s break this down and try to analyse, I have heard from friends who remember the seventies that a rape case surfaced into the local papers around the same time that the story of the film is taking place. The rape became popular among Kabulis in late 1970s, after the government failed to respond. The raped boy decided to ravage and killed all the three attackers. Apparently the story had no ethnic profile. If the story is proven true then Khalid, the author, has not taken into consideration the events which were taking place around the same time as his story, or he has deliberately distorted the truth to make his story more exciting. I think both are fine. He never claims it’s the truth. It’s a fiction and artistic imagination of a writer. I am wondering, why is it so hard for minister of information and culture to understand that imagination and fiction is the basis of artistic recreation.

The other point I would like to make is about the erotic dance and the rape scene. Erotic dance is not something new for Afghanistan. It’s a part of afghan culture. If the minister of information and culture doesn’t know that then he shouldn’t be the minister of culture. Dear minister, here is a little cultural tutorial for you, walk out of your ministry and go to the DVD shop just across the street and ask for a ‘Raqsi Qataghani’. You’ll get a long range of choice. Which won’t be much different than what is portrait in the film, if not more erotic. The other controversial scene is the rape, the ministry could have provided copies with omitted rape scene; if concerned about family screening. Why is the ministry so scared of sex and sexual issues? You can’t avoid it, its part of human nature. Every Music and film shop in Afghanistan has a collection of pornographic movies. It’s a business and it won’t be stopped by ignoring the issue. The minister should become more cultural and try to address the issue of sex and pornography. If there is a need for something in a society, it’s better to regulate it instead of ignoring it. there is always the Taliban way of dealing with it, public execution or some other brutal punishment to convicts which possess or seek pornography. Minister Khuram and the Karzai government have the same attitude as Taliban but they can’t use the same method because their foreign backers won’t approve that.

Last but not least is the storyline, the ministry didn’t like it because it talks about friendship in the frame of ethnicity. Pashtoon rich and Hazara poor. This has been the truth and everybody know it. this is not the whole truth and all hazaras were not servants for pashtuns but some were. The story makes a generalisation. This is called the freedom to express your view. People see things differently and all should be told. minister Khuram your job is not to make sure everybody see the same thing. Its not going to happen. Taliban tried, I truly think their method was much effective. You won’t achieve it with your inefficient methods.

Kite runner offered many westerners a more settled way to look into Afghanistan. Its different than what they hear from media on daily basis. A lot of people I know in the UK showed more interest to Afghanistan and keen to learn more, keen to learn about personal stories of diasporas. But people like Khuram and Karzai and his Mullah allies are there to make sure that Afghanistan only reflect a fanatic face. If films and books like kite runner are banned, creative thinking is banned.

my latest comment on afghan radio and journalistm

my latest interview with BBC about audience participation in local afghan radio station and journalist security in the light of Perviz case.

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بازداشت یک شهروند بریتانوی به اتهام فریبکاری

یک شهروند بریتانوی،رئیس شرکت تبلیغاتی" گروپ "،امروز به اتهام فریبکاری وعدم  پرداخت پول های مردم، بازداشت گردید .

ظاهرأ، رئیس شرکت تبلیغاتی گروپ که در ساحه وزیراکبرخان دست به فریب  کاری     می زد. کارمندان شرکت گروپ شاکی شده و ادعا کرده اند که انتونی رئیس شرکت صدو یازده هزاردالرامریکایی پول  معاشات آنان نپرداخته است.

انتونی رئیس شرکت گروپ   تعدادی از افغان ها را در بخش های مختلف استخدام نموده بود وطی سه ماه معاشات آنهارا   نیز نپرداخته بود ومی خواست از کشور  فرارنماید که به اثر شکایت کارمندان آن شرکت ،نامبرده     از شاهراه    کابل – جلال آباد  دستگیر    گردید.

  انتونی     شرکت تبلیغاتی   "گروپ "را در یک خانه کرایی واقع وزیر اکبرخان بازنموده بود،که کرایه خانه ، پول   تیل فروشان وپرده دوزان شهر کابل را   نیز نپرداخته   بود.

Afghan Film Festival in Edinburgh

There is going to be an afghan film festival in Edinburgh toward the end of February, the aim is to show a new face of Afghanistan. One which has not been familiar to UK audience, the idea is to bring creativity and fun from Afghanistan. But I don’t see anything creative when I look at the festival program. It’s the same old boring stuff. Taliban, Osama, Kandahar, misery and various stories of a haunted nation. Why should osama or Kandahar always represent Afghanistan. Even if we try to show another face. It’s because the festival organisers didn’t know how to look behind barmak and Rahimi to find new faces of Afghanistan. Let me explain why.

I didn’t dare to call film an industry in Afghanistan, because Afghan film is not an industry, the word industry implicates a distinguished process of production, distribution and screening. It doesn’t exist in Afghanistan, for the obvious reason of economy to support it. but a point to ponder up on is, do we need an established market which has the purchase power and interested in afghan film or a successful industry can create a market. I believe if good business skills are combined with artistic expression then film and video products could be sold. The problem is that we don’t have film makers who could think about the audience, and to be able to think about the ways to make afghans interested in their films. That is a starting point, once audience is interested then you can sell to them.

The film makers are interested in themselves. They are interested about what they think and then they market it internationally. Film in Afghanistan is a notion of arty farty recreation which introduces Afghanistan to clandestine audience, seemingly abroad. Osama won a golden globe award while its merely known to few people in Afghanistan. Whether osama was good enough to win the award than its competitors is a different issue which I will write about in the next post.

I don’t call film an art in Afghanistan because it’s not an art. Art is mass and art is creative. Film industry in Afghanistan is in the hands of few. There is a definite monopoly which I will come back to later.

A few people like seddiq barmak and attiq Rahimi and some others are renowned as film makers. They are happy to be famous and that is the end. There is no notion of bringing up  and supporting a generation of film makers in the hope to invest in creativity. The renown filmmakers think they are the ultimate symbol of creativity. I see this as a bad practice but I wish it was only limited to their lack of vision and misunderstanding of the meaning of Art. They create an entry barrier for the young film makers, by default and merely because they exist. There are dozens of young and energetic film makers around Afghanistan which are struggling with their ideas. Some I know has even produced films. But the reason their films are not getting publicity is because of monopolists like attiq Rahimi and seddiq barmak. I believe that young film makers are equally creative as barmak or Rahimi, if not more. But they will never get the attention. Among them their might be people to change this creative talent into a marketable art which could support them invest in film making and create more films. the situation resembles a bit like the film makers in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Are they talented? Yes of course they are. But do they make any money. NO. Hollywood does, Hollywood producers make the money because they have a good distribution system. But they are not more creative than Edinburgh and Glasgow filmmakers. I give this example because of the festival in Edinburgh.

I think a great fun project would be to network the young film makers and try to market their products. Encourage creativity and enable them to get access to festivals such as Edinburgh.

I don’t think I have been real constructive. I think we should go behind the blame game and look into ways of turning film into a vibrant sector. I know many people who does that but work need to be done at different levels. Creative enough is not good, the film needs to reach out and go to different markets.