Paris TV station that's a lifeline for women in Afghanistan

From a tiny television studio in Paris, 7,000km from Kabul, a slate of female hosts and programming geared to women beams 24 hours a day into homes across Afghanistan even as women are being steadily erased from public life in the country.

- By Ashifa Kassam

"For us, it's a way to provide hope," said Hamida Aman, the Afghanistanborn, Swiss-raised entrepreneur behind the satellite channel Begum TV. "For women in Afghanistan, television is their only window into the world. Especially now, when they're confined to their homes. There are no schools, no work for them, and no parks or leisure activities." Launched in March on International Women's Day, the channel seized on the popularity of satellite television in Afghanistan-Aman described it as one of the country's most popular media - to speak to women affected by what the UN called a "gender apartheid".

Women's rights and freedoms have dramatically worsened since the Taliban returned to power. In early December, the group reportedly barred women from training as nurses and midwives - one of the last remaining paths through which women had access to further education.

By day, Begum TV offers school classes in Dari and Pashto at various grade levels, offering girls banned from school a chance to study; in the evening it transmits programmes from light entertainment to those that address women's rights and questions on medical issues and mental health.