Begum TV beams educational and entertainment shows into homes of women living under strict Taliban rule

From a tiny television studio in Paris, 4,500 miles from Kabul, a raft of programmes geared towards women and presented by female hosts beams 24 hours a day into homes across Afghanistan, even as women are being steadily erased from public life in the country.

“For us, it’s a way to provide hope,” said Hamida Aman, the Afghanistan-born, 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.”