Kabul ? The manager of an Afghan television network who refused to censor images of women dancing in short skirts and plunging necklines was arrested in what appeared to be a new sign of the government’s struggle to define the role of Islam in a country once led by extremists.

The government has previously censured television stations and taken others to court, but the arrest of Emrose TV’s Fahim Khodamani on Monday was the first for airing overly salacious content, the Afghan deputy attorney general said Tuesday.

The debate over television in this conservative Muslim country heated up after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.

The militant group, which practices an extreme version of Islam, banned television and other forms of entertainment that it deemed un-Islamic when it ruled the country in the 1990s. It also required women to cover themselves under an all-encompassing burqa.

Since the Taliban fell, television stations have flourished, pitting the issue of freedom of the press against conservative norms in a country where most women wear clothes that cover everything but their face and neck.