The Taliban forbids many things, excepting of course prayer and punitive amputations. Television ranks high on their list of verbotens, as do music and dancing. So when a Pakistan comedy troupe decided to mock the Taliban by envisioning what Taliban-run TV would look like, they had their work cut out for them. The T Channel, as they call it, is meant to "fight terrorism with humour," according to one of its writers. Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper, Dawn, reports:

If the Taliban produced a soap opera, Pakistani comedy writer Younis Butt pondered one day, what would it be like? The love triangles would be impossible to understand, he thought, because all the women would be hidden behind burkas and no one would know which character was engaged in a heated tiff with another. ...

For the creator of Pakistan's most popular satirical television show, the prospect was too tempting and the spoof Taliban 'T Channel' episode was born, airing in June this year and becoming a major hit.

Segments are punctuated with Kalashnikov fire, as manic-eyed actors sporting black turbans hand out household tips on weapons maintenance.

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