OP-ED: A Veiled Threat
First Published in Economic Affairs (Pakistan) / Sep 2013 issue The ‘Avenger’ phenomena hit Pakistan sometime in late July 2013. The choice of the name had an instant effect - loud cheers, inaudible gasps, startled looks and a few boos were reported. A musician, composer and most recently Campaign Ambassador for ‘Save the Children's Everyone Campaign’, who reigned in the 1990’s as the front man for ‘Awaz’, and nowadays goes by the name of Aaron Haroon (redundancy alert!) is responsible for these seismic changes in the national topography. Back then the band made history when ‘Janeman’ became the first Pakistani song to air on MTV; now another precedent has been set as Pakistan’s first animated, female super hero takes the stage. It is different because the secret identity goes undercover in a burka. It is controversial for the same reason. A school teacher by day, Jiya dons the invisibility cloak before setting out to conquer the world. A burka has been used here as a sy...