After the death of her old school friend in childbirth, brought on by the pressure of bearing a baby boy, a young woman doctor decides to move to the village and educate people on family planning and birth control practices. In the process she has to overcome hostile village elders and orthodox priests who consider birth control against the will of God.

While Indian TV may have little space for such a story, it is moving audiences in a country far unlikelier: Afghanistan, where the topic of birth control is so controversial that it is referred to as ‘birth spacing’.

While Khooshi, in Dari language, joins the list of Indian soap operas currently airing in Afghanistan, and earning a huge following, it deals with a subject considered taboo in this country, bound by tradition and fighting off the Taliban, while at the same time having one of the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.

Tracing the life of a young female doctor from a hospital in Kabul who takes voluntary transfer to a village medical centre, and produced by an Indian television team, Khooshi started airing on the popular Ariana channel last week on prime time. The response after the first episode has been good, with the people relating to its approach to the sensitive issue.

The plot unravels the ‘advantages’ of birth control and shares knowledge about oral contraceptives and condoms. The lead role is played by Indian actress Soumya Tandon recently seen in Jab We Met as Kareena Kapoor’s sister.

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