by NOSHEEN IQBAL
Malik’s opinions on Pakistan’s problems are being drowned out by a furore over whether or not she posed naked for photos
Did she? Didn’t she? Does it make the slightest bit of difference at this point? At the time of writing, Veena Malik, the Pakistani actress, model and reality TV star, is suing Indian FHM for £1.2m. She claims the lads’ mag doctored a photoshoot to make her appear naked on their December cover. Save for a crude “ISI” tattoo slapped across her arm – an audacious (and, well, pretty funny) two fingers up to Pakistan’s notorious intelligence services, complete with a strapline suggesting the agency has a “hand in the end of the world” – the image shows Malik completely bare, with only a careful pose keeping her nipples and pubes from actual view. Editor Kabeer Sharma insists the photo is real, hasn’t been “morphed” (Malik’s words), and that FHM has the video evidence to prove it. The response of Malik’s lawyers? Their client never agreed to or partook in a fully nude shoot; she’d worn a thong and later on, an ammunition belt. Well, quite.
Irrespective of whether the bum floss did or didn’t exist, Malik is astute enough to have anticipated the inevitable ruckus her allegedly “nearly nude” photos have provoked. No stranger to the wrath of Pakistan’s conservative, religious right, she was vilified earlier in the year for her appearance on Bigg Boss, the Indian Big Brother. Her crime? According to Mufti Abdul Qavi, whom she memorably slaughtered on a live TV debate, she shamed all Pakistan and Islam by dint of appearing on the show at all. As Malik passionately pointed out, national disgrace has little do with a female entertainer appearing on TV. “What about the politicians? What of the corruption, robbery, murder and terrorism committed in the name of Islam?” she asked. “Why are you picking on Veena Malik? Because she’s a girl? Because she’s a soft target?” Yes, and sadly as the case proved, yes.
For all its unsubtle attention-seeking, though, you’ve got to admire Malik’s chutzpah on that cover. As perverse as it seems for her to risk her life for a pay cheque, make no mistake: hers is also a subversively political position. Already in receipt of death threats, there are now predictably angry calls for Malik to be stripped (sorry) of her Pakistani nationality for betraying her country, embarrassing dishonourment – which, if you believe her critics – rests entirely, fatuously, on female sexuality.
And yet, while I fully defend her right to make it, that’s not to say I entirely agree with Malik’s choice. From my privileged western perspective as a British Pakistani Muslim, a woman using her body as the battleground to make an empowered feminist statement is redundant and cliched: whichever way you cut it, there’s little intellectually liberating about getting your rack out for the lads. By the same token – and this one often stings – nor does, in my view, donning a burqa mean you’ve solved the problem of being sexually objectified. Quite the opposite, really.
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