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Faizabad TV: Symbol of Resistance
It's 17:59. A technician comes rushing in, videotape in hand. He quickly flips on the two VCRs and shoves the tape in. Less than aminute later, a religious text appears on the screen and shortly afterwards, the call to prayer begins to blare out. Faizabad TV, the only television station in Afghanistan, a nation of 16 million people, begins another 2-hour daily transmission to a potential audience of less than 60,000.
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There are 5,000 TV sets in Faizabad, and everyone in the city watches their programmes, assert the station's staff. But few people can afford to turn on their sets. The tiny bit of electricity produced by the Islamic State of Afghanistan is weak and irregular and only reaches some inhabitants of the old city. Everyone else has to use batteries to watch TV. Most simply can't afford them. People are more concerned about getting food on the table every day.
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Twilight has fallen. 4-wheel drive is the only way to get up the dark, steep hill leading up to Faizabad TV. A few guards stare at us as we walk up the last few metres to the building. Despite the many pairs of shoes outside the entrance, we're told we don't have to bother removing ours, as Afghan custom demands. As we enter, we're enveloped by a musty, pungent smell. We walk down a corridor, illuminated only by a single, flickering neon lamp. The drought has cut power in Faizabad to virtually nothing. No one is spared, not even Faizabad TV. A few minutes before the transmission, the lights in the studio suddenly become brighter as the electric generator is turned on. The show must begin…
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"I'm proud to work here," declares Mohammed Nadir, one of the 19 technicians working at Faizabad TV. "Our programmes are the best programmes here."
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Faizabad TV is located on the hills that rise sharply above the old city of Faizabad, the capital of the most remote part of Afghanistan. The province of Badakhshan juts out into China in the east, Tajikistan in the north. It's the base of the ousted Afghan president, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, who retains controls over less than 10% of the country. Faizabad TV doesn't even cover the capital city and its 60,000 or so inhabitants.
Faizabad TV was established in 1987, during the Soviet occupation. Initially it did nothing more than relay the programmes broadcast from the capital. But a few months after the mujaheddin entered Kabul in 1992, they destroyed the Kabul Broadcasting Centre. Faizabad TV suddenly found 
itself on its own. The staff had to burrow through the 1000 or so videotapes in the station's archives to fill airtime. The archives are still the station's mainstay.
"When the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996," says Mohammed Nadir, "all our programmes became anti-Taliban. Our programming is still the same."
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Start of News bulletin (45")
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The station's 29 employees manage to produce a daily news bulletin, which may include a few snippets culled from international TV stations such as BBC World Service and Iranian television. With almost no budget, Faizabad TV's staff has to be resourceful. Every day, they manage to get at least two hours on the air, up to four when they broadcast a film, usually from the United States or India. The rest of the programming is a mixture of news, music, programmes on military and political affairs and ancient material for children. In line with the policies of what's officially known as the Islamic State of Afghanistan, women never appear on Faizabad TV.
Faizabad TV's voice doesn't reach far. Its 10 Watt transmitter reaches only the inhabitants of the old city. Everyone in the new city knows about their one Watt re-transmitter, but no one seems to have seen it recently. Nonetheless, Faizabad TV remains a symbol of resistance. Since 1996, when the Taliban captured the capital, Kabul, it has been the only TV station on the air in Afghanistan. The Taliban, mainly young religious students, have been striving to create a purer, more Islamic society. They have banned television, cinema, video, music and photography of living beings.
