"This case study investigates the launch of a women’s radio station in Herat, Afghanistan, in October 2003. It follows four women journalists’ struggles in balancing the demands of a highly conservative culture on the one hand, and the objectives of their Canadian journalism trainers on the other. By discussing how the radio station was forced to accede to the male-centric norms in Afghan radio production to avoid being labelled unprofessional, the study concludes that gender and media development must be conceptualised more carefully to present an effective challenge to gender inequality." (Abstract)

"The case I have presented here suggests some points of complication in the implementation of a gender and media development project: Given the lack of information on Afghan women’s radio-listening habits and needs, the pre-packaged and in-house women’s programming at Radio Sahar was designed for an imagined audience that was not representative of Afghan society. Radio Sahar’s concern over other, non-target audiences at times led to self-censorship and a bias towards urban-centric, political programming favoured by western donors and radio station decision-makers. IMPACS’ training in western standards of professional journalism and societal preferences for the urban and educated in Afghanistan pressed the radio station towards adopting a scripted and more formal radio voice over spontaneous conversational dialogue in its programming. The formal and privileged content that emerged as a result of the above influences led to radio that was often distant from the everyday concerns of most Afghans. Within the context of a very poor, Muslim, overwhelmingly illiterate nation, what seemed to be entirely natural ideas of legitimacy and good journalism defeated one of the main objectives of the radio station: that is, to produce educational, understandable, and relevant programming for its female audience." (Lessons learned, pages 407-408)