A VJ in exile
The Observer has a moving piece on the life of Shakeb, a former VJ in Afghanistan now living in Sweden in exile.
Here’s the link: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1756654,00.html

Shakeb Issar, a young spiky Afghan VJ bringing western, MTV style music videos to a country where such entertainment is regarded as downright porn and blasphemous is a convenient target for the religious zealots.

He looked upon the MTV culture as more of an alternative route to a better life than the commercialization aspect by which it invites so much contempt in the first world. But…well I won’t divulge it as yet. Do read the whole story, it’s a great piece.
Here are some excerpts:

'Just 10 per cent of peoples, they hate me,' he said after recording the show, the childlike enthusiasm of his voice enhanced by his habit of over-emphasising certain nouns and adjectives. 'Mullah peoples, al-Qaedas, Arabs: all are my enemies, all have made promise to kill me. I hate these people too much! But Afghan girls, they love me more. Every day I'm receiving too many text message. "Shakeb please to marry me." "Shakeb you're tooo cute!" So today I think I am the Enrique Iglesias of Afghanistan.'

There was no doubt that Shakeb had a following among thousands of young Kabulis. The ratings reflected as much. But to his enemies, he was the anti-Christ - or rather the anti-Muhammad. The country's new religious council had issued a number of fatwas against him. And al-Qaeda and the Taliban had appealed for him to be put to death immediately. Not a day went by without Shakeb receiving a new threat. They came to him by post, by courier, by phone - even by SMS text message.

'Dog Boy!' began one. 'Son of noseless whore! Bald-faced ape! Understand that as Allah is my witness, I will wipe your accursed self from the face of the Earth! To snap your neck will be as easy as picking the gristle from between my teeth.

Then his life takes a turn, he wants to move to the West, to realize his dream, and finally rather ironically ends up in a small town in Sweden and finds the ground reality. His dreams of staying in a western society with its fast money, bling-bling, page 3 girls is not as ‘awesome’ as he imagined.

The 'number one bad boy' of Afghanistan, as he used to call himself, has also found certain things shocking. 'In Sweden, all girls at 14, 15 they're having sex!' he tells me, wide-eyed.

'Up till now I never kissed a girl in my life,' he says, adding in a loud voice so all the restaurant can hear: 'I am virgin! Yes, it's true! I don't believe it's nice to have sex with girl and leave her. For me it must be someone very special.'

It's at this moment that I realise just how innocent Shakeb really is. He likes Celine Dion and dreams of meeting David Beckham. In Afghanistan, he was told there was freedom of expression and was encouraged to express himself. For that innocent crime, he's been banished from his home, a symbol of the ever-widening divide between the West and the Islamic world. But Shakeb hasn't given up. Recently Tolo TV broadcast his Swedish video diary. And he's hoping to do more for his enduring Afghan fans.

Here he sounds like a revolutionary in his own right, so what if doesn’t involve arms, a huge treatise, academic theory or any form of old school anarchy. He at least seems sincere even though his reasoning may not be that convincing.

'I believe that music can change Afghan culture,' he says. 'Because entertainment is the most powerful tool.'

But don't you still worry about eroding important cultural values, I ask him. You've been shocked yourself by how morally loose this place has become.

'People must decide for themselves,' he says, a certain maturity in his voice suggesting that he is finally coming of age. 'Nothing is worse than mullah peoples. They are murdering and always they want to control people. They are my enemies and I must fight them.'

We finish our coffees and Shakeb hurries off to play football with a local team. He's wearing shorts, something he did just once in Afghanistan because he was abused for putting on 'his little brother's trousers'.

Watching Shakeb leave, I think how tragic it is that he has been forced to flee his home and has had to choose between two cultures. But neither the missiles nor the mullahs, the Taliban nor even his isolation so far from home seem to have dampened his natural optimism. As he put it to me: 'They can abuse me, they can laugh at me, they can even beat me, but if I have music then I know I am OK. Because I love music too much!'