Burka Avenger Cartoon In Urdu

[Rocki Eibl]

MeetBurka Avenger: a mild-mannered teacher with secret martial arts skills who uses a flowing black burka to hide her identity as she fights local thugs seeking to shut down the girls' school where she works.

The Taliban have blown up hundreds of schools and attacked activists in Pakistan's northwest because they oppose girls' education. The militants sparked worldwide condemnation last fall when they shot Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old schoolgirl activist, in the head in an unsuccessful attempt to kill her.

Action in the "Burka Avenger" cartoon series, which is scheduled to start running on Geo TV in early August, is much more lighthearted. The bungling bad guys evoke more laughter than fear and are no match for the Burka Avenger, undoubtedly the first South Asian ninja who wields books and pens as weapons.

"Each one of our episodes is centered around a moral, which sends out strong social messages to kids," Rashid told The Associated Press in his first interview about the show. "But it is cloaked in pure entertainment, laughter, action and adventure."

"It's not a sign of oppression. She is using the burka to hide her identity like other superheroes," said Rashid. "Since she is a woman, we could have dressed her up like Catwoman or Wonder Woman, but that probably wouldn't have worked in Pakistan."

The series is set in Halwapur, a fictional town nestled in the soaring mountains and verdant valleys of northern Pakistan. The Burka Avenger's true identity is Jiya, whose adopted father, Kabbadi Jan, taught her the karate moves she uses to defeat her enemies. When not garbed as her alter ego, Jiya does not wear a burka, or even a less conservative headscarf over her hair.

The main bad guys are Vadero Pajero, a balding, corrupt politician who wears a dollar sign-shaped gold medallion around his neck, and Baba Bandook, an evil magician with a bushy black beard and mustache who is meant to resemble a Taliban commander.

Caught in the middle are the show's main child characters: Ashu and her twin brother Immu and their best friend Mooli, who loves nothing more than munching on radishes in the company of his pet goat, Golu.

In the first episode, Pajero wants to shut down the girls' school in Halwapur so he can pocket the money that a charity gave him to run it. He finds a willing accomplice in Bandook, whose beliefs echo those of the Taliban and many other men in conservative, Islamic Pakistan.

Bandook is unmoved, but the Burka Avenger appears and fights off the magician's henchmen with martial arts moves reminiscent of the movie The Matrix. Using his magical powers, Bandook disappears in a puff of smoke. The Burka Avenger hurls a flying pen that breaks open the padlock on the school's gate as the children cheer.

He leveraged his musical background in the process. Each of the 13 episodes completed so far contains songs written and performed by him and other major Pakistani rock stars, such as Ali Azmat and Ali Zafar.

Rashid is producing an album of 10 songs and music videos that will be broadcast alongside the show. He has also created a Burka Avenger iPhone game and a fully interactive website that will accompany the show's launch.

In one of the music videos, Rashid and local rap star Adil Omar sing in praise of the Burka Avenger, while standing in front of a pair of colorfully decorated Pakistani trucks festooned with bright lights.

A veiled woman walks past Pakistani security personnel in Peshawar on September 17, 2012. A new cartoon superhero disguised in a flowing black burka is set to debut on Pakistani television next month in an animated series which follows her battle for girls' education in Pakistan. (AFP/File)

While set in the fictional town of Halwapur, the world of Burka Avenger will resonate in Pakistan where Taliban militants have prevented thousands of girls from going to school in the country's northwest and attacked activists campaigning for girls' education.

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The concept was created by British-Pakistani singer-songwriter and pop musician Haroon, developed by the production company Unicorn Black and has now become Pakistan's first original animated series (excluding Captain Safeguard, a cartoon which exists to do little more than sell Safeguard soap).

The Urdu-language show first aired July 28 on channel Geo Tez in Pakistan with the tagline "Justice, Peace and Education for All." Burka Avenger made its YouTube premiere last week on Friday with English subtitles. The show's first season is set to run for 13 22-minute episodes. While American superhero cartoons have yet to feature a female solo lead (to my knowledge) and Warner Bros. executives have not yet begun producing a Wonder Woman film out of fear of public disinterest, Pakistan's first major superhero has sparked international attention. Haroon told the Khaleej Times that a European distribution company has taken an interest in translating the show into 18 languages and screening it in 60 countries.

The series will feature Burka Avenger battling all kinds of evil, from henchmen with rockets and corrupt politicians to robots and ghouls. Her arch-nemesis is the venomous Baba Bandook (which means "Father Gun" in Urdu), a fake magician who seeks control of the fictional city Halwapur, located in Pakistan's northern mountains. In addition to fighting for girls' education, Burka Avenger will also be tackling different social issues each episode, "including discrimination, child labor, sectarian violence, electricity shortages and protecting the environment."

It's easy for shows like this to devolve from children's entertainment into PSA announcements, but if the first episode is indicative, there's enough humor and action (with just a touch of superhero angst) to keep it interesting. The opening credits are well done, complete with a catchy "Burka Avenger" tune and a superhero monologue. The computer animation is standard fare, though viewers outside Pakistan should keep in mind that this is the first cartoon series produced in the country. I don't speak or understand Urdu beyond a few words, so it's not possible for me to judge the voice performances, but I will say that the cast kept me entertained, especially the lead Ainy Jaffri, who provides Burka Avenger with a confident and austere voice. Also of note is the music, award-winning musicians Adil Omar, Ali Azma, and Ali Zafar joining Haroon and others in creating original music for Burka Avenger.

The show's concept takes a symbol viewed as oppressive by feminists and liberals in Pakistan and turns it into a weapon against patriarchal oppression. The burka, the use of which predates the Qur'an and the origin of which remains unknown, has been an unwelcome import for many in South Asia. Whether or not the Qur'an itself prescribes veiling is a subject of academic debate (from my own reading and research, I would say that it doesn't), but many ultraconservatives view it as religiously sanctioned. Pakistani law neither requires nor restricts the wearing of the burka or the hijab (with the possible exception of the SWAT Valley, where in 2009 the Pakistani Parliament negotiated a deal with the Taliban, allowing for Shari'a laws in return for an end to Taliban attacks).

Many women choose to wear the hijab in Pakistan, and some even opt for the more pious burka, or are pressured to do so. Burkas are more common in the northwestern part of Pakistan (the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas), a rural region constituting roughly half of the Pashtun heartland (its other half in eastern Afghanistan). Pakistani Pashtuns sometimes feel at odds with the Punjabi-dominated federal government located to the east in Islamabad, and various forms of Pashtun nationalism have emerged over the years, a more radical example being the Taliban.

It is no coincidence that Burka Avenger takes place in a fictional town located in mountainous northern Pakistan and that Jiya is a school teacher by day. The Taliban have terrorized the people of Pakhtunkhwa and FATA (as have, frankly, the Pakistani and American militaries), and women have been a primary target of their oppression. The Taliban has attacked dozens of girls' schools, most infamously last October when 14-year old activist and blogger Malala Yousafzai was shot by a Taliban member after she blogged about the destruction of her school in Swat, Pakhtunkhwa by insurgents. Malala survived and continues her advocacy for women's education with the support of her father. (She's even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize).

Burka Avenger was created in reaction to the Taliban's attacks, the creators using the show to combat the ultraconservative movement's ideology. But regardless of intent, some view a cartoon for children with a burka-clad lead problematic at best. Marvi Sirmed, a journalist and activist based in Islamabad, told the BBC that a progressive woman wearing the burka is "demeaning to those brave women in the conservative parts of Pakistan who have been fighting for women's rights, education and justice, and who have said 'no' to this kind of stereotype." Pakistani author Bina Shaw expressed similar concerns, stating on her blog that:

Shaw continued by recognizing that Burka Avenger only wears the controversial garment as part of her superhero costume and that in some conservative areas the burka does in fact allow women more freedom of movement, "a modicum of agency," as women wouldn't be allowed to leave the home without it.

By appropriating a garment taken so seriously by ultraconservatives and using it subversively in a children's cartoon, the show's creators are taking power away from ultraconservatives, who will no longer alone be able to define how a burka should be used. Burka Avenger's use of the burka recontextualizes the garment to mean something new, positioning it as a tool to help promote progressive ideas and battle the very ultraconservatives who would promote the burka's ordinary usage. Kids will understand the irony and I think those worried that a burka-clad superhero will fool children into believing that wearing burkas is progressive aren't giving kids enough credit.

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