Media executive Saad Mohseni shares his thoughts on what the Taliban’s first moves after taking power could mean for the media, women and young Afghans accustomed to basic freedoms.
: Well, we can’t beat around the bush. This is the new Afghanistan and it’s been new for 20 years. Sixty-five percent of the population is under the age of 20, the median age is 18. The point I often try to stress is how the younger generation of Afghans have never lived under the Taliban rule and that they’re used to media, they’re used to being able to freely express themselves. They’re used to social media.
“They’ve watched women on TV, whether it’s in Pakistan or Afghanistan. So it’s not alien to them. It shouldn’t be alien to them.”: But just because it’s not alien doesn’t mean we won’t see restrictions. We don’t really know in terms of the Taliban leadership if they’ve changed. The country has changed, but do we really expect that that has trickled all the way up to a leadership that has always embraced a very strict version of Sharia law?: You’re stating the obvious. Of course.
The second phase will be a transitional government because they need to have some sort of a government takeover. They need to have a cabinet. They need to have ministers, police chiefs, governors and so forth. In this second phase, I think we will see some restrictions because, despite what we’re saying, the Taliban is a religious movement first and foremost. And they have constituencies that will demand changes, whether it’s media or social behavior and so forth.
So this is the first phase. It may last a week. It may last a month, it may last a day. But I think they’re going to have a laissez-faire approach to media as long as we’re not pushing too hard. That’s one of the reasons we have to be a little careful because you’re dealing with individuals, you’re not dealing with institutions.
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