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Afghanistan
Porn comes to Kandahar
2002-02-14
  • In a darkened room at the back of a teashop in dusty downtown Kandahar, 23-year-old Latif stands mouth agape, giggling nervously, staring at the first pair of breasts he can remember seeing. Satellite television has come to the conservative southern Afghan city of Kandahar, and as well as Lithuanian documentaries, Polish cultural programs and Catalan soap operas, the city's inhabitants can now watch something equally alien to them -- pornography.

    Following the fall of the Taliban, satellite dishes are springing up on rooftops across the staid city. Private homes, restaurants and guesthouses are tuning in to 170 channels from all over the world. Four of them show nothing but porn. In one guesthouse a group of bearded Afghan men sit glued to the screen, one of them frantically stabbing at the remote control to change the channel when a female Western aid worker walks into the room.
    If it gives them something to do besides shoot each other, I'm all for it. When you've been real desprived for a real long time, looking at a pair of comely titties is probably step one on the road to the pursuit of happiness. I'd rather they did that than shoot up Gardez.
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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