KARACHI, Pakistan — Many think she’s “hot,” with some likening her to Lara Croft, the “Tomb Raider” of Internet gaming fame who Hollywood decided should be played by Angelina Jolie in a live-action blockbuster.
Others, however, have argued that she makes Lara Croft “look like a candy striper.”
This woman is Bloody Nasreen, a fictional female anti-hero from Pakistan. Despite the male attention she’s garnering, it’s difficult to dismiss her as just another male fantasy or something to be ogled. (Although, by the year’s end, oglers will likely be lining up to see the film that is currently in its pre-production phase.)
Created by Shahan Zaidi, a 31-year old Karachi-based artist who works at an animation house, Nasreen went viral when the artist shared his sketches on social media.
She is a far cry from “Burqa Avenger”’s Jiya, a celebrated Pakistani cartoon character and 2013 Peabody Award winner. Jiya, a mild-mannered Pakistani teacher, dons a flowing black burqa to hide her identity and uses magical powers to fight for women’s empowerment — especially for Pakistani girls’ rights to education — and to fight against child labor and environmental degradation.
Pakistan’s first superhero, Jiya was developed for a children’s television series which is being shown on a few private TV channels. Vocal female activists have criticized Jiya’s attire, however, saying it represents suppression.
Gun-toting, sword-wielding anti-hero
Nasreen wears a long, figure-hugging shirt emblazoned with skulls over chooridar (fitted bottoms). A wisp of a scarf slung around her neck barely conceals her plunging neckline, while red lipstick and black eyeliner play up her pout and big dark eyes.
Nasreen is 27 and single, a smoker who swears. She would likely never be found on the streets of Pakistan, not even among the hundreds of women protesters at the ongoing sit-in against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government in Islamabad.
Even though she’s not the stereotypical Pakistani woman, people are smitten by the strong female character. Her level of popularity is surprising, as it is something many characters on the big screen have not even enjoyed in Pakistan.
Afiya Shehrbano Zia, a Karachi-based feminist researcher and activist, is not quite sure what to make the attention showered upon Nasreen.
“It could be related to a larger message of bodily empowerment. Women may not want to wear exactly the same clothes or act like her, but the admiration can be attributed to the restrictive environment of a Pakistani woman that closes off spaces for them to be physically expressive. This character probably symbolizes a physical mobility equal to men’s,” she told MintPress.
Meanwhile, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy says Nasreen’s popularity in a society that “represses” its women is “readily understandable in Freudian terms.”
“A culture of conformity and social intimidation forces Pakistani females into sub-dominant roles, but still cannot kill their natural urge to be active agents of change or to exert their individuality. While there is not yet a rebellion of the slaves, there are definitely some murmurs,” Hoodbhoy, a physicist and peace activist, told MintPress.
“So, while a part of their minds has been subjugated, another part seeking freedom remains. Bloody Nasreen, through her derring-do, provides important cathartic release,” he continued.
But what Zia also finds noteworthy is that the men who create characters like Nasreen imbue them with male attributes and roles. “As if equality means aspiring to be like men!”
“That’s not ideal for me!” she said emphatically, adding, “Aggression, vengefulness, rebellion are not characteristics all women aspire to when they ask for equality. Women’s rights are more about just treatment, equal material rights and equal opportunity!”
Zaidi, however, is a little annoyed that his character is being put under the microscope and picked apart in these ways.
“Let’s not make a simple character like Bloody Nasreen bloody controversial,” the character’s creator said. “That was never, and still isn’t, my intention!”
He admits to MintPress that even he is taken aback by the popularity of his character. “It was not my intention to make her a little eye candy, neither do I find her that hot… the way people do.”
“You see, sometimes people see what they want to see,” he added.
Bloody Nasreen’s origins
Zaidi says that something happened in Nasreen’s past to turn her into what she has become, but he does not want to dwell on that. “It doesn’t matter. She left her past and her story begins after that. She has not completely forgotten her past or that terrible series of events that took place,” he explained.
Nasreen, he explains, has realized that obtaining justice by going through the proper course is a pipedream in a place like Pakistan, and so she has to take matters into her hands to avenge the wrong done to her.
Though she lacks Jiya’s superpowers for fighting evil, Nasreen’s missions are more dangerous. The Burqa Avenger fights for the empowerment of women, but Nasreen fights serious crimes like terrorism and human trafficking and all of the evils that come with them, including corruption. But, of course, Bloody Nasreen wasn’t made with an audience of children in mind.
In a way, Zaidi’s character reflects what is happening to Pakistani society and the way it has narrowed the public spaces available to women. In fact, the visibility of women in public spaces is minimal, and over the years, a majority of Pakistani women have opted to wear black abayas (a black long cloak-like outer garment common in Arab and Gulf countries).
Saudi-ization of Pakistan
Hoodbhoy, who has taught for four decades at Quaid-e-Azam University, considers the increase in abaya-clad Pakistani women a natural response to the ongoing “Saudi-ization” of Pakistan. He explains that the groundswell of Islamic zeal arose during military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s time in power (1978 to 1988), as part of his endeavor to Islamize the country.
This required that culture be redefined and Pakistanis be persuaded that, if they were to be good Muslims, they must exchange their South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one.
“Two decades back, the fully veiled student was an absolute rarity on Pakistani
university and college campuses. The abaya was unrecognizable a word in Urdu. Today shops across the country specialize in abayas. At colleges and universities across Pakistan, the female student is seeking the anonymity of the burqa,” Hoodbhoy wrote for Newsline magazine in 2009.
Talking to MintPress, Hoodbhoy says the “unyielding version” of Wahabi Islam has steadily displaced the pluralistic Indo-Pakistani culture, and it has also taken away “the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints.”
The Afghan War in the 1980s, when Saudi-funded charitable organizations acted as a front, provided Afghan rebels with billions of dollars to fight the Soviet-backed Afghan government, indoctrinating young soldiers to puritan Islam in the process.
A 2013 report by the European Parliament, however, reveals that when Pakistan reaches out to Saudi Arabia rulers for help to prop its economy, it comes with conditions to propagate the more puritanical Wahabi version of Islam.
“Now, with petro-dollar backing, the Saudi Salafi/Wahabi penetration of Pakistani society is deep, insidious, and ever increasing. By reducing women to property, it has brought about increased tolerance for cruelty against women, deprivation of their rights, and loss of precious freedom. We are witnessing today a re-tribalization of society, a return to the dark prison that women had briefly escaped from,” Hoodbhoy concluded.
Bloody Nasreen, it seems, represents a welcome change of pace.