''Eagle Four'' (Oqaab Chaar) is an Afghan 13 part police action/drama series broadcast on

Tolo TV TOLO ( fa, طلوع, , sunrise) is a commercial television station operated by MOBY Group in Afghanistan. Launched in 2004, it became one of the first commercial stations in the country and laid the foundation for an accessible media outlet by o ...

. Originally broadcast in 2010, the show is about an elite Afghan Police unit solving crimes and fighting Taliban insurgents. The series was written and directed by Sean Lynch. The team of four elite police officers consist of two women and two men - promoting the idea that women can work together as equals in the police force. According to the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'', "The Taliban have long used Afghanistan's corruption and lawlessness as a recruiting tool, promising stability and the rule of law through strict Islamic justice." Recruitment for the

Afghan National Police The Afghan National Police (ANP; ps, د افغانستان ملي پولیس; prs, پلیس ملی افغانستان), is the national police force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, serving as a single law enforcement agency all across ...

increased after the show was played on TV, and the show was intended to represent ANP officers as hard-working and professional. The series is funded by the United States as a form of

soft power In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (contrast hard power). In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defin ...

that complements their financial support for the Afghan National Police. Trudi-Ann Tierney described producing the series in her 2014 memoir ''Making Soapies in Kabul'', commenting that shows are often funded by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

groups with the intention of influencing audience "values and behaviour to suit the objectives of NATO and its allies." In a 2014 interview she stated "a lot of the shows I worked on, the drama serials, they were actually funded by external clients and used as a way to convey positive messaging to the Afghan audiences. So we'd have in our shows messaging around women's rights, the importance of education, particularly for young girls, health issues, the dangers of insurgency in the community, and of course, the shows had to be entertaining, otherwise, no-one would watch them, but my writing team became very adept at weaving these messaging ideas into the storylines."

References

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External links

IMDBEpisode one
on Youtube. Television shows set in Afghanistan Afghan television series 2010 Afghan television series debuts

See also

References

External links