Former Taliban media head defects

Ishaq Nizami, who served as head of the radio and TV directorate under the Taliban from 1996 to 2001, has left the movement, and may join the current Afghan government. In response, the Taliban have claimed that Nizami was brainwashed.

While Nizami held his position under the Taliban, there were no TV broadcasts in the country, as the radical Islamist movement had banned the medium entirely.

According to other ex-Taliban media workers, Nizami helped preserve Afghanistan's art and film archives from destruction by his fellow Taliban members (BBC).

I hope this defection encourages others to follow suit, so that the various political currents of Afghanistan can cooperate in building the country's future, instead of continuing the fratricidal war currently underway.

[This post was written in Toronto.]