International dramatic serials or soap operas have found an avid viewership and new market in Afghanistan. The broadcasting of “foreign” media including representations of diverse lifestyles, religions, and expressions of gender and sexuality is fostering cross-cultural connections and understanding as well as clashes and contestations. While Islamists attack the popular serials for tainting an imagined pure Afghan Islamic culture, their large fan base find them liberatory in many ways. In this project I propose to study the most prolific of these foreign imports, namely from India, Iran, Turkey, and Latin America. Specifically I would like to explore how the cultural codes and aesthetics, including color schemes, of these programs have been interpreted, politicized, and violently debated by different audiences, government officials, and media executives. In other words, how do different publics differentiate between Hindu, Islamic, and Persian forms of self-expression, performance, and embodiment and situate their own their own dis/identification and dis/taste vis a vis their perceived cultural notions?