Afghan TV 'stars' don't shine for all

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — To a rumbling bass line and the essential mirror ball spinning overhead, nine young contestants spill nervously out from behind the curtain. The audience is mostly young men who have been squirming in their seats waiting for the show to begin. But there are young women too, in lipstick, sneakers and scarves, shivering against the winter chill that penetrates the Kabul wedding hall.

Every Thursday afternoon, this second-floor ballroom is converted into a television set for the recording of "Afghan Star," the country's version of the ubiquitous pop music talent show.

Different culture. Same template: Wannabe singers, a panel of three judges and a host channeling his inner Ryan Seacrest. And just like the contestants on "American Idol" or Any Idol Anywhere, the young Afghan contestants know that how you look can matter as much as how you belt out pop versions of Afghan standards.

So there's a singer wearing an electric-looking white suit and pink tie and another in a black leather jacket. Two more come out in traditional dress with formal, pointed shoes, looking like they might stick around to sing at the next wedding. One of the two female contestants wears jeans and a head scarf; the other is swathed hair-to-toe in bright red fabric.

The clashing fashion, from traditional Afghan to retro rocker, underscores the cultural mash-up that is modern Afghanistan. Since the Taliban's ban on music, television programs and other art forms was lifted when the fundamentalist Islamic group was chased from power in 2001, a wave of foreign culture has washed over the country, reviving music, bringing pirated Hollywood DVDs to downtown shops, and introducing programs as varied as South Korean dramas and "24" on the country's burgeoning private television channels.

Many Afghans have welcomed the disorienting swirl of this cultural revolution as a sign of the country's modernization, but others are alarmed by what they see as the infusion of a foreign virus into their culture -- a split that risks confrontation between generations and can pit the values of rural areas against a rising cosmopolitan ethos in the cities.

"There are tensions because some of these shows -- like the Indian serials -- are very hard for fathers to sit down and watch with their daughters," said Latif Ahmadi, the head of Afghan Film, the agency that has resumed making feature films in the country. "In 15 years, it will be different. But at the moment, these changes still frighten some people."