Pak Tea House » Uncategorized » ISI, Honour Brigade, Liberals and Veena Malik
ISI, Honour Brigade, Liberals and Veena Malik
Raza Habib Raja
So once again our own, according to some “shameless vamp”, and for some the “ultimate liberal”, Ms Veena Malik is in the news. And once again she has transcended conventional limits and has ensured to evoke a lot of controversy by posing nude for FHM magazine. In this increasingly commercial world controversy means just two things: Money and “Fame”. However, the way we have all become, Miss Veena Malik’s every calculated step becomes either “desecration of so called national honour” or a “bold” move to break the taboos with the ultimate goal of female emancipation.
Growing up I always believed that “truth” often falls in the middle particularly with respect to complex social phenomenon and that there are shades of grey in the real world. But it seems that in real world perception is reality and reality in our increasingly polarized ideological universe is either black or white.
Now the new mass media, if the word “mass” is taken literally is perhaps no longer even the electronic media, but the social media like Facebook and Twitter and right now these sites are buzzing and mimicking the kind of polarization I mentioned above. Ms Veena Malik ensured that apart from nudity she would also bring in controversial “realpolitik” in the picture. The word ISI shines out even more than her nude body. Wow another brilliant controversy to feed the honour brigade as well as the liberals.
My dear “patriots”, who have the tendency to accuse Veena Malik of ruining Pakistan’s so called honour; I would like to remind you that “national honour” is not in female chastity. Veena Malik is a grown up woman and has every right to do whatever she wants to. Get your head examined, which in my opinion should be your first priority rather than Veena Malik’s seductive though carefully calculated nudity.
Today Pakistan’s ill repute in the international arena springs from what you have been doing not from an attention grabbing actress’s controversial antics.
My dear patriots, there are far graver issues than this which need your serious consideration. The biggest issue is perhaps your screwed up mind set which gets riled up on these trivialities while completely ignoring much serious problems like rising extremism, sectarian killings and massive inequality.
To all “liberals” (assuming they exist in Pakistan), I would merely put forward an interesting and somewhat twisted question: how come posing nude in a male magazine which generally the feminists abhor ( as they rightly believe that these magazines simply objectify women for the purpose of tantalizing the male predatory sexual instincts) be a ‘progressive” and a “taboo” breaking act?
Now in some ways it is bold. I am not denying it. If you argue that she is “liberating” her sexuality (does it need to be liberated by posing nude on male skin flick??) and exercising her choice, then ok I concede that it is her right and choice. But to stretch it beyond that and equate it to some kind of grand “bold” taboo breaking act of female emancipation is frankly too much. If this is some kind of “liberation” then all those cheesy vulgar remix videos which women often find repulsive are also grand liberation. How many women find those videos as a contributor to female progression?? Frankly how many women find Veena’s nude picture on a MALE voyeur magazine comforting? I have talked to some and frankly most of them find it repulsive. Yes a few do support her decision but even they are not in agreement with this idea whole heartedly. Their agreement is coming only because of the fact that religious right opposes it NOT because the act itself is very “liberating”
Yes I agree that these acts rile the Mullah and hypocritical Honour brigade and consequently provide us a lot of joy but these acts are also in many ways a mere reinforcement of typical penis centred male view of women. Yes Veena Malik took on that Mullah in one video and we really enjoyed it but let’s not be subject to “hallow” effect.
In the end, I would just say one thing that I don’t like Veena Malik and nor I think that she should be President of Pakistan but I would accept her right to do whatever she wants to do. It is her life and her choice. However, at the same time I won’t try to project it as some kind of grand liberation simply because in some ways it is not as it creates this FALSE impression that all women want to do is to pose naked to grab male sexual attention. There is something wrong with this kind of projection where an act of nudity to gain attention is tied up with female emancipation.
However, I loved that ISI tattoo. Now that was really liberating and bold!!!
Filed under: Uncategorized · Tags: ISI, Liberals, Raza Habib Raja, Veena Malik
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Tattoo was the idea of the editor of FHM not hers. It is added via computer not real.
True is subjective, just like beauty. It is relative to the observer just like Einstein’s theory.
What is more offensive is that Ms. Malik has had plastic surgery on the fact and fake breasts.
How can this be nude when she is not showing anything. Pakistani are already viewing all
Sunny Leone’s video which show everything and she is a punjabi kudi.
I hope this doesn’t become a matter of national honour with some Pakistanis. Other nations don’t feel dishonoured if an occasional female citizen displays herself while not wearing anything.
I wonder though whether Veena Malik will have the courage to return to Pakistan. She had a bad press over that reality show-this is bound to be worse. She denies posing for the magazine but they say they have evidence to confirm that she participated willingly and approved the layout.
ISI tattoo on her arm? Mian Sahab to probe it too plz!!!!!!!A deep conspiracy of “Hunood/Yahoods”
National honor is not in woman’s chastity- bang on
There is something wrong with this kind of projection where an act of nudity to gain attention is tied up with female emancipation. – again bang on
[...] ISI, Honour Brigade, Liberals and Veena Malik By admin | December 3, 2011 December 3rd, 2011 | 4 Comments [...]
Veena maLICK with an ISI stamp of brand=approval. Uggh. I look forward to someone like pre-pregnancy Ashwirya Roi, MSc (Architecture) or Miss ‘Bayan Something’ (she appeared with Shrimathi Sharmila Tagore’s son in a movie .. where she gives birth to a love child of the side hero and then marries Sunil Dutt’s son … about five years ago) who apart from being bdeautiuful has an MA from Cambridge Uniuversity *(like Najam ASethi who is also beautiful!!) WITH AN isi TATTOO.================================================
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after partially-donating the above piece of Litterature to his beloved readers of PTH, here is the requisite commercial … because there is no free lunch ….
The Only Paris Biennial Left alive in All Asia (Guess Who!) will show his art in Lahore wef 16th Jan 2012 for 9/3 months and then incinerate/amolete/.burn it ought, inshawLAW…..
Where may one review SUNNY LEONE, the punjabi kurri’s Bharath Natyam Nudem .. i want to grossly criticize her after affording her an opportunity to be viewed and heard (audi/viewdi alteram partem) and scholarly measuring any redeeming features of her cultural dimensions.
But the readers (under undue influence of the inebriated bitch from Mow Dulltown who wickedly generated a foto-session compaign against me last year about my Harvard degrees .. the stunt of gthe Laidy having fizzled disgracefully) .. may think it is not sexy (i use this word in the prep and poroper sense, meaning fashionably-appropriate) to subject me to see an improper blue movie. I utter a stanza sin cereally:
KHARRAK SINGH KAY KHARRRAK-NAY SAY KHARRKK-TEA HEIN KHIRRKIYAN
KHIRRKIYOUNN KAY KHARRAK-SAY KHARRAKKTAW HAY KHARRAKKK SINGH
You guys may protest all you want here but you are not fooling anyone! That woman is sooooooo hot! She is so gorgeous and frankly, I believe she is doing the world, that is, anyone who has the opportunity to view this photo, a favor by letting them see her is all of her delicious nude female glory! Any woman who not only has a body of perfection like that (enhanced or not) and that incredibly beautiful face needs to be seen! Can’t help but remember Marilyn and the rolling snowball she started back in the 50′s! She was denounced from every “Pulpit” in America but still today the LEGEND still lives on! Although there are very few women who can compete with Zeena, at least she can encourage women to celebrate their bodies as beautiful and each man loves their own woman and thinks that their woman is their own Zeena. I believe that it is “one small step for woman and one giant step for womankind”! Zeena, you go girl!
Lady Guinevere
Leave Veena alone. She is the Madonna of Pakistan. Enjoy the fun while it lasts.
Hina next?
I think they could have done with a better font for “ISI”. That looks a bit hurried. Or maybe they should have had a PPP stamp on her butt.
SHAM FOR THE MEN THEY CAN NOT DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOR ALL THE WOMEN .THEY WANT TO SEE A MAGAZINE BY THE NAME FOR HER .VEENA WILL NOT FEEL ALON IN THIS BEAUTIFUL HAVEN OF HERS.
TATOO ISI IF YOU LOOK AT THE ARM OF THE VEENA WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS YOU WILL NOTICE IT IS STRAIGHT HER ARM IS ROUND WHEN YOU PUT A TATOO ON A ROUND PLACE IT GO ROUND NOT STAYS STRAIGHT . IT HAS BEEN STAMPED ON THE PICTURE . ISI STANDS FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING INDIA .SO WHAT.THE SHIPPING CO MIGHT HAVE PAID FOR IT TO THE MAGAZINE AND VEENA.
Veena Malik is doing great service to Pakistan. She is showing that women from Pakjab can be feminine and beautiful as well, and need not look like trannies and drag queens with a natth or worse like Shrileen Mazaris! It is good to know that there is still some beauty left in Pakjab after all the cousin-marriage stuff!
Pakjabis should be proud of her!
I AM SORRY ISI STAND SHOULD BE CORRECTED AS INDIA SHIPPING INTERNATIONAL .
Akram,
are u suggesting that more such shipments are on the cards under the MFN?
Yes, definitely a better export than the Kasab variety!!
Hindustan ko Pakistan ka Tohfa kabool hai! Mugambo khush hua!
MADonna alright, but less attractive, because Veena’s venal Crash and Carry irrigation habits (liberally fructified) have been too wholesale and erratic.. which is not cricket.
Canada , here she come!! Lahore Dubai Toronto one way with permanent Canadian Visa stamped appropriately. Dont cry For me Pakergina moment approaching for Veena.
The beautiful actress I meant to indicate BUT DID NOT RECALL HER GOOD NAME (somewhere is this Dis-Cussion OF Paki Veena Ma’LICK) upon whom viewing the ISI Tattoo would be visually and intellectually more rewarding is MISS VIDYA BALAN, MA (Cambridge) she stars in NEW MOVIE: The Dirty Picture [2011], directed by Milan Luthria in a Balaji Production.
@ RHR:
Breaking any taboo is liberating… I didn’t get why posing nude is not liberating
Vidya Balan is not showing anybody the middle finger. Bharat was often a land where sexuality and sensuality were qualities admired as long as these were shown artistically. So if Vidya Balan shows some part of her body it hardly causes ripples.
But Pakistan is a society where the people are so bottled up, that they go and google for all sort of sex practices with animals, etc, even as the Mullahs, the Guardians of Pakistani Honor, play holier than thou! Veena Malik is however showing a big middle finger to all protectors of Pakistani Lajja and Honor! She is causing an earthquake! She should however show a lot more, and not just her!
@ salman Arshad..
In some ways it is..but that was not the point..
I have expressed it in the article what my real point was..
Regards
Raza
@ RHR:
Ok, but your real point is based on a fundamentally wrong assumption.
.
Posing nude is liberating to a religiously suffocated woman..
Just like wearing a burqa is liberating to a woman who feels forced to reveal.
Both are taboo breaking acts in their own contexts, while at the same time both might be business as usual for many women in other parts of the world.
There is nothing objectively liberating about being nude.
.
I think you are not sure what you are challenging in the article.
.
You are personally against using nudity of women in advertising .. a common feminist point of view..
but that is in no way contradictory to the act of nudity being a breaker of a taboo in a particular context, which is what this particular case is about.
.
Its not the act of nudity in itself that is “liberating”, it is only liberating in that it is an action that defies a taboo.
If there was no taboo, there would have been no “liberating” effect either.
.
You seem to be advocating your feminist point of view too in the form of a taboo that “liberals” should not go against. You article is anti-liberal :- P
I do recognize that Raj has a point upthere going beyond finger-pointing.
All I subliminally saw on Pakistan TV was Veena’s face and bare shoulder … rest was covered-up. The shown ‘schon’ did not impress me.
To me Iranian-Assyrian-Canadian gal Romana Amiri (not now at her 2005 prime) is more liber-A-rating.
RHR-Sahib, let us wink and wish Veen maLICK a good Luck in kama sutryan Greater India. ((Bra-Woe!!))
This is show business folks.
Firstly remember that Veena Malik denies the allegation. This should be borne in mind. We can have our own views of course. She is in India as a private citizen of Pakistan. She is not there as a Pakistani state representative. The nudity, if true, is done in her private capacity. It seeks to arouse and shock, irrespective of the extent of one’s social liberalism or not. Her act is an individual one and has nothing to do with Pakistani women’s honor or a reflection of Pakistani liberalism and Pakistanis who frame his alleged act in those terms are missing the point.
As for the tatoo of a Pakistani state institution, ISI, on her naked arm, this is a poke at that institution. Again, if true, this tattoo is there to please FHM’s macho male Indian audience who have a penchant for risque. It’s not clear to me why the ISI reference is there on her arm in the first place. Perhaps it’s there to make the whole image look silly (and a poke at Veena) or make Veena look more dangerous to a pubescent sex craving mind.
If Ms Malik puts herself up to such antics in a country which is perceived as an antagonist of Pakistan, she should not be surprised that many macho and nationalist Pakistanis would feel aggrieved and given the context of Pakistan, unfortunately some violently so.
It’s clear from previous controversies that Miss Malik is a publicist and it seems no publicity is therefore bad publicity for her career. However, she is not helping her personal security as she has increased the odds of facing the ire of Pakistani machos when she returns home. Perhaps she will ask to stay in India and get a sympathetic hearing for this. Meanwhile she has chosen to fight FHM in a legal dispute to negate many parts of this absurd story which is all the norm for show business.
She is talented but cuts a tragic figure for many.
@ Salman Arshad
Is appearing nude on the cover of FHM breaking a taboo India?
One thing is for certain, FHM will increase it’s circulation in Pakistan. Sex and nudity sells.
@this..
I believe it would if you were to!!
@Tilsim:
No.. perhaps not much.. since she is essentially seen as foreign..
But Sania Mirza faced severe criticism from Muslims in India regarding her clothing and went so far as to completely stop playing inside India.
Also, I think the real point of focus in India would be the ISI tattoo rather than her posing nude..
.
The FHM representative has said that they used the ISI tattoo as sarcasm towards Indians who think everything that goes wrong is done by the ISI … and there is some article about the end of the world or something.. My guess is that there are some Indians who might even be advocating that veena malik is an ISI agent!
.
So apparently it has nothing to do with Pakistan or ISI itself..
Salman
Foolishness knows no boundaries. Some people have raised that fear (she has some ‘professional’ opponents, like India’s drama queen – rakhi sawant.)
Tilsim
In India, Veena breaks prejudices. There, the dominant image of a Pakistani woman is that of a person who is increasingly raised to or compelled to hide her body from an hostile public gaze – and one who accepts, supports and subsidizes a secondary ideological role, living life mostly on others’ terms. Odd though it may seem, Veena Malik single-handledy does more (positively, from Indian perspective) for the image of Pakistani liberal women than all the khars and rahmans will ever do because the latter are seen as playing the roles handed to them by Pakistani men.
It’s a great irony. Pakistan would not have enough money to buy the benefits to its image that Veena Malik brings, at least in India, but the lady gains nothing more than denunciation from so many Pakistanis.
Salman
read the article AGAIN..
And if you think that it is wrong then so be it!!
I never said that she does not have any right to go nude. In fact the article clearly acknowledges that she has..
In fact the article is severly critical of pakistanis who are trying to link it with national honour.
However at the same time, I dont think that posing nude for Male soft porn magazine is feminst and this article was written after many females who had previously even supported Veena (when she had a spat with Mullah) objected to the act being branded as female liberation. The point is not that veena has a right to do it or not or whether she should be judged for it. No THAT IS NOT THE POINT. There point is that there are shades here.
A porno star takes a very bold step and works in a porn flick..she is bold but at the same time she is also reinforcing penis centric male view of women.
My article was not a critque on Veena Malik but on some people who are unable to see the shades here.
Yes partly you are right that it is liberating but it is not without shades…
Anyways you have every right to call me totally wrong and anti liberal..
Regards
Come on guys.. Take her act politically… She has just shown her assets… Its her own will.. And it should be taken to the supreme court to constitute a probe committee.. And decide where to probe her.. I know CJ wud love to probe her…
[...] government may still be distressed that in some parts of Pakistan Ms. Malik is known as the “ultimate liberal.” And this probably does mean that such current “fierce monarchists” in Ottawa as PM [...]
@ RHR:
I agree with you that posing nude is against (SOME) feminist stances, and I did not say it wasn’t.
Its probably you who is confusing feminism with liberalism. Feminists don’t necessarily have to be liberal, and many are not.
Feminists will probably become anti-liberal when they fear “allowing” non-feminist ideas will undermine their stances. That is typical mullah behavior, and there have also been feminists who have criticized such behavior.
Feminism is a totally different subject here.
salman
It would have been anti liberal if I had said that Veena malik should not have posed naked or she has no right to pose naked..
Since I have admitted her right to do so therefore liberal crieria has not been violated.
However, I am just differing with the interpretation of her act. Now it is not anti liberal to have a different interpretation of her act. And in fact it is not even negative, but rather pointing out to the shades of grey.
It would have been anti liberal if I had said that she had no right to do that.
She has every right and I have admitted it in the article
Come on fellows. veena is one gutsy and courageous woman. Read latest article about the controversey and her reply to Mullahs in Foreign Policy magazine….
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/07/the_india_subtext_in_the_veena_malik_nude_cover_controversy
@BADE MIYAN:
You are so Right. India lags far behind us. If there was a magazine like the one in India in Pakistan, it would not have published her photograph au naturale with the sacred initials caressingly scrawled on her left arm, but the initials rather would have been love-scratched and affectionately emblazened on her balling breasts.
That’s our cricket.
Sir Geofreey,
I would have preferred those initials on her derrière. C’mon guys, you should admire her spunk! There is nothing to be embarrassed about it. A body like that should be seen in an aesthetic light. Isn’t that also a beautiful creation of God? If people are going to have sexual thoughts on seeing her pictures, let them worry about it. Good grief, you should be thankful that she is giving you some respite to enjoy finer things in life as compared to bombings and killings, etc.
Personally, I would have liked to see Hina Rabbani on the cover. She is one hot woman with an even hotter voice. phew!
Salman,
When did Sania Mirza stop playing in India? In fact, she told those assorted mullahs to go and take a hike.
RHR,
Considering the “heat” that her act has generated in Pakistan, my respect for her has increased manifold. Not that this woman is some brainless bimbo. She had ventured where even the bravest have refused to tread: bearding(pun intended) the Mullah in his own den. And, no matter what you say, posing nude is a liberating act–calculating or otherwise. Pakistani liberals should be proud of her.
Bade mian most of men r “proud” but women r very divided. Anyways my idea was to point out shades not outrightly critisize or endorse the act. And shades do exist. Read the article you will understand what my central point is.
Bade Miyan:
You have demonstrated elegant taste which must be lauded. I hail from Suchcha Sauda in district Sheikhupura. Kamoke and Marrh Bhunguannm are the nearby places where he obtained his Primary education … I did amicably ask Iqbal Geoffrey as to what would he find more truthful as well as titilating than Veena Malik on that lucky magazine’s coveP? He responded that he would much prefer, Miss Asmeh Jilani BA LLB in her chaddor and hijab with the words: “PHRC” discreetly woven on her Right-side deep-pocket.
[...] consideration,” wrote Pakistani economist and writer Raza Habib Raja, after the photo spread earned the rancor of the honor brigade. “The biggest issue is perhaps your screwed up mind set which gets [...]
[...] consideration,’ wrote Pakistani economist and writer Raza Habib Raja, after the photo spread earned the rancor of the honor brigade. ‘The biggest issue is perhaps your screwed up mind set which gets riled up [...]