DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Arab viewers of a soap opera about Afghanistan apparently won’t learn how the love story ends because the series was suspended after Internet threats against anyone involved in airing it.
The series — “Al-Tareeq ila Kabul,” Arabic for “The Road to Kabul” — chronicled life under Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers. It was being aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began Oct. 15 in most Muslim countries.
The soap’s producers asked all channels planning to air the series not to do so after a threat surfaced Oct. 14 on a Web site known for militant content.
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The statement threatened harm against anyone involved in the series, from actors to TV executives, if the Taliban was portrayed in a negative light. The authenticity of the threat could not be verified.
Some Arab channels pulled the show off the air even before the first episode, but the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) and the Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network, both owned by Saudis, aired several episodes.
MBC said Saturday that it was forced to suspend the show because the producers had refused to provide any more episodes.
“Qatar Television, which funded the series, and the Arab Audio Visual Center, which produced and distributed it, violated their commitment to provide all of the episodes before Ramadan,” MBC said.
The company said it had received only eight episodes, the last of which aired Friday.
A senior Qatar Television official refused to comment.
Orbit said Sunday that it also had suspended the show.
“The Road to Kabul,” one of the most anticipated series this year, revolved around an Afghan woman who goes to England to study and falls in love with an Arab man. She returns to her native country, where she faces pressure from the hard-line Taliban, who force her to wear an all-enveloping burka and prevent her from working.
Producers have said the series also depicted internal feuds among the Taliban but did not rebuke the thousands of Arabs who fought the Soviets alongside it.
Viewers only got to see the heroine fall in love and return for a visit to her native Afghanistan while it was under Soviet occupation.
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