PAKISTAN: Divided Between the Mullah and the Model

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Feb 9 (IPS) A spat between a Pakistani actress and an Islamic
leader has emerged as a vivid
revelation of a deep split across the nation between different sets of
values.

Veena Malik, 27, a model turned actor, was recently ‘evicted’
from season
four of Big Boss, an Indian reality television show. Big Boss, a
three-month
show, follows the Big Brother format in which a group of about 14
celebrities
are invited to live together in a large house, cut off from the outside
world
and watched continuously by cameras. Every week or so, the housemates are
invited to evict one among them. At the end of the game, the last
remaining
housemate is declared the winner of that series and receives the prize.

Malik says "it is a hell of a lot of money," without disclosing
the amount. She
hinted, though, that "TV is bigger than Bollywood."

Since her return to Pakistan, Veena Malik has received flak both from the
media and the clergy for working in a show in archrival India and, for her
supposed indiscretions during the show including giving massages, and
cuddling and hugging her male housemates. She was also reprimanded for
exposing herself in the way she dressed.

"I was who I am, I never pretended to be any different," says
Malik,
undeterred. "I am an actress and an entertainer. I was not
representing any
Islamic group." Those who found her offensive had the option, she
says, to
switch off the television channel.

Malik says much of what she did during the show was "scripted",
and she
followed directions. But she says she went further and tried to show
another
side of Pakistan, of women who are "educated, liberal,
independent." The
outside world, she says, has seen enough of women being thrashed in
public.

"Culture is not just about wearing a salwar-kameez and donning a
dupatta; I
agree I wore western dresses, even shorts, but then I do so in Pakistan as
well.
But more than clothes, I wanted to show them there was another side of
Pakistan." She added: "I know my values as a Pakistani and a
Muslim and
never overstepped these once.

"I never shied from doing housework, I cooked, I prayed, I never
resorted to
abuse or backbiting and bitching when others did."

But the reaction to her shows that more than ever, the space for liberal-
minded people in Pakistan appears to be shrinking, with increased Islamic
fundamentalism on the rise.

In December the liberal and outspoken governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer,
was assassinated for supporting a Christian woman sentenced to death under
the blasphemy law. Lawmaker and former information minister Sherry
Rehman has been threatened she would "be silenced" for seeking
amendments to the law.

Malik has been advised to step up her security in the face of increasing
Islamic fundamentalism.

On the television show ‘Frontline’ Mufti Abdul Kawi called
Veena Malik
"immoral", and berated her for shaming Islam and Pakistan for
the way she
conducted herself on the Big Boss show.

The programme has drawn mixed reaction. There was widespread support
from liberals and rights activists on social networking websites, with
messages praising Malik for her witty repartees. But she drew much
hostility.

"I was a soft target because I am a woman. Had it been a Pakistani
man in my
place, he’d have returned a hero."

What hurts most, she says, is the "double standards with which we
view and
weigh a man and a woman" in Pakistan. "What is ok for a man is
not ok for a
woman, why?"

"It’s not a matter of being a man or a woman," says Mufti
Muhammad Naeem,
head of Jamia Binoria, an Islamic university in the southern port city
Karachi.
"Islam does not allow men and women to interact like this, neither
does our
culture." But he said there was no need for a cleric to go on air and
slate a
woman for her "misconduct".

"This public display of chastisement by the cleric was not in good
taste
either," he said.

Malik says she agreed to come on the Pakistani talk show "to clear
all the
misunderstandings that were being brewed by the media." Instead she
had to
brave insults hurled at her by the cleric and the talk show host himself.
"I was
not told I’d have to be answerable to a maulana."

"I believe Veena spoke both with reason and clarity, and had the
courage to do
so, for which I commend her, indeed, salute her," says Feryal Gohar,
a rights
activist and filmmaker.

Gohar says a misogynist Pakistani society is becoming increasingly
"hostile to
freedom of choice, in particular, when exercised by women. If women are
not
axed or stabbed to death for expressing that freedom or right, then they
are
buried alive, burnt with acid, raped, or electrocuted."

When a woman chooses to live her life as she sees fit, she is
"reviled by a
society which sees itself endangered," says Gohar. This, she says, is
founded
on notions of patriarchy which expects a woman’s complete
submission.

Farahnaz Zahidi, a female Islamic scholar and feature writer agrees that
every
individual has a right to "lead his or her life as they wish."
But celebrities, she
says, "in any capacity" have an "added responsibility when
they are
representing their nation, whether they are politicians, actors, singers,
religious leaders, anybody."

Zahidi acknowledges that in a largely patriarchal society like Pakistan,
Malik
has to "bear with excessive attacks" being a woman.

Many agree that Malik was right in pointing out to the cleric that there
were
many more serious issues in Pakistan that needed the attention of his ilk.
"These fanatics are worrying about the clothes she is wearing while
the
country is being drowned in bloodshed," says Taimur Rehman, a young
political activist and leader of the music group Laal.