November 20, 2007
A HIP-SHAKING performance by the pop star Shakira has provoked a showdown between the Afghan government and the country's independent media.
Senior Muslim clerics have joined the culture ministry to warn Tolo TV, the largest private television station, of serious consequences after the broadcast of a concert by the Colombian singer, famous for her onstage gyrations.
The incident is the latest sign of a growing fightback by the country's powerful conservative establishment against the more liberal-minded newspapers and broadcast media and the tide of Western-backed liberal reforms since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.
