Leaders of the Afghanistan Bible Society blazed new ground Oct. 24 by helping launch satellite Christian television and online programming into a country where owning a Bible and publicly worshipping Jesus Christ are forbidden. 

Mozhda TV is the first exclusively Christian channel broadcast into Afghanistan, where the authoritarian Taliban took control in 2021 and instituted strict Sharia law, destroying public displays of Christianity, banning Bibles and barring women and girls from access to education.

Christians in the Muslim-majority nation live under constant threat of being discovered and reported.

So far, the channel is broadcasting on TV and the internet in the country’s two official languages: Dari and Pashto, though it plans to add programming in Turkmen, Baluchi, Uzbek and Hazaragi. Some two-thirds of Afghanistan’s 35 million people speak either Dari or Pashto, but there are more than 40 distinct languages and hundreds of dialects spoken by various ethnic groups. 

“Our strategy,” a Mozhda team member said, “is to make at least some program in every language, so that every viewer could find something to watch in their own heart language.” 

Getting Around The Taliban

Mozhda TV Executive Director Masoud Ghorbani said that because most Afghan homes have a satellite dish, the network is able to bypass Taliban restrictions to reach their nation. Some of the channel’s programming targets women. Since Sharia was implemented, the Taliban barred women from university education and girls from secondary schools. 

During the inaugural broadcast, Ghorbani preached a message from Mark 6:34, according to news reports. The passage says: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”

“We don’t know who is watching our program for the first time right now, perhaps even the Taliban. We need to pray for them. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd of Afghanistan,” Ghorbani said.

The channel’s website states, “Mozhda TV is a Christian media ministry created by Afghans, for Afghans—dedicated to communicating the truth, joy and peace of Jesus Christ in the heart languages of Afghanistan.”

Mozhda TV also has a 24-hour prayer team available using online platforms like Facebook and Instagram and through email.

Organizers said the launch results from decades of prayer and help from numerous Christian denominations and mission boards.

Decision Magazine, founded by Billy Graham in 1960, works through its website and monthly magazine to communicate the Gospel, as well as inform and challenge readers about key cultural and Biblical issues. Decision is also a Contributing Publisher to Harbinger’s Daily.