by B. R. GOWANI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl943-Ph4f0
The status of South Asian women appears to be so dismal, that one is left wondering if they will ever achieve equal status. In Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Muslim countries, there is an added menace called the Taliban. In the prevailing circumstances, it is natural for people concerned with women’s rights to come up with creative solutions towards bettering their lives.
Last month, Pakistan’s Geo Tez TV started airing an animated series called Burka Avenger, created by a British/Pakistani pop star Aaron Haroon Rashid, known as Haroon. The title character Jia is a school teacher who turns herself into a burka-clad avenger at night to counter evil people like the Taliban.
When interviewed by The Times of India’s Swasti Chatterjee, in his answer to the question “Why burka for the super heroine?” Haroon replied:
“I chose the burka because I wanted a locally relatable flavour and I didn’t want to objectify our super hero the way a lot of female superheroes in the West are objectified and sexualised through their costumes, like Catwoman and Wonder Woman.”
The reason Haroon gave for the burka super-heroine is its “locally relatable flavour”.
Did he mean to say that the majority of women in Pakistan wear burkas? Not so. Also, do all the women who are forced to don burkas, happy to spend their lives in these tents? Regarding the relatability issue, some may argue that Veena and Mathira, sometimes in clothes and sometimes without, have become local flavors too. Would he have set his protagonist based on them?
Nevertheless, one has to appreciate Haroon’s thoughts of avoiding his super-heroine from being sexualized or objectified because he didn’t want her to look like Catwoman or Wonder Woman.
Haroon said he’s not concerned about how “she looks or what she’s wearing, it’s about what she is doing.” Let us examine what appears to be an equal rights notion.
Strong arguments can be made that, especially in certain contexts, clothes do matter.
Sometimes people rise against restrictions in a way that shocks their oppressors to such an extent that they are forced to pay attention to their victims. The atmosphere for women in a majority of countries of the world is indeed suffocating and women themselves resort to desperate tactics to fight back.
One of the illustrations of this occurred in October 2011 when Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, an Egyptian activist/blogger, protested against the military rule by posting her nude photos on her blog. It was a brave act meant to oppose the military and also the Islamists.
Let us now examine Haroon’s super-heroine who is burka-clad.
What do the Taliban want women to wear?
Burkas!
If Haroon’s heroine was fighting against the Playboy’s Hugh Hefner, the fully dressed heroine would have been appropriate because she would have been fighting the sexual exploitation of women. Even against Hefner, the heroine’s face ought not to be covered because that is her identity. The Burka Avenger with an uncovered face would seem appropriate, if she was fighting the type of Taliban that forced women to wear only bikinis or mini skirts and tank tops. Stranger things have happened!
Haroon also says that “looks” don’t matter. The cosmetic industry earns billions because their women consumers believe (or are forced to believe through ads) that looks matter, a lot. He does subtly allude to this; as he expressed his desire to have Katrina Kaif or Priyanka Chopra play the main character in the movie version. (Indian film companies have approached him with offers. Also a European television distribution company in Europe wants to release it in 60 countries in 18 languages. When big money is involved, the Western corporations don’t mind burka-clad heroine.) Both Chopra and Kaif are physically fit and attractive, and are 5’7″ (or 171 cm) and 5’8.5″ (or 174 cm) tall, respectively, where the average height of a South Asian female is about 5 ft (or 152.5 cm).
The idea of this animated series is a good one but removing the burka would make it truly liberating for women. She should discard the burka in new episodes and in the film version.
We already have a real life Jia of sorts in Malala Yousufzai fighting for women’s right to get an education. Malala does not wear a burka.
When creating a program to promote women’s rights and inspire courage, total equality creates the ultimate role model. Whether it is against the Taliban or the equally intolerant Saudi royal family, there needs to be total and complete opposition to all aspects of inequality. The Saudis couldn’t even tolerate the Muslim Brotherhood’s brand of Islam.
The Burka Avenger is going to make a lot of money and will undoubtedly have a wide global audience, including Muslim girls and women. This is a great start in the right direction. On the world stage, it was essential to see a Pakistani female character as a strong person as it depicts the truism many women there possess.
Liberal Muslims, and it seems Haroon is one of them, should remember Jinnah’s words on women’s equality. In 1940, seven years before Pakistan’s existence, the founder M. A. Jinnah, a staunch believer in equality for women made the following speech at the Islamia College for Women:
“I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com