It is also a 100 per cent Afghan project. The glossy monthly run by a team of women in their 20s proclaims itself proudly as “Afghanistan’s first fashion magazine”. “I am sure we’ll get some reaction, some complaints. “ lack of participation of women in life has made this country very violent,” said Sandjar Sohail, head of the Hasht press group behind the launch of Gelara magazine. The teams behind the two privately-run projects have bold ambitions to use their mass media platforms to change attitudes and inform Afghans of their rights.īut they know full well the dangers of such trailblazing ventures in a war-torn nation where many still believe that a woman does not belong outside the home. Kabul: Afghan women are redrawing the media landscape in the deeply conservative country with the launch of a new magazine and a television channel, risking the anger of extremists by giving their gender a glamorous voice.
