From MIC.com
The Muslim world doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to female empowerment. With a lack of of strong, independent female role models, young women in the region have few places to look in popular culture for guidance. Until now.
Meet Burka Avenger, the game-changing Pakistani cartoon that, for the first time, has flipped the status quo on its head with its female superhero protagonist, who fights crime in her magical burka.
The Burka Avenger is a teacher, Jiya, who in her spare time dons a burqa while fighting gender-based crimes and other evils, and she is the symbol of empowerment for girls across the Muslim world that many hoped would arrive. The Pakistani cartoon has been around since August 2013 and syndicated in Afghanistan, but Jiya is about to get a much larger audience in April, when the show launches in India on “edutainment” channel ZeeQ.
Originally broadcast in Urdu, the Indian version will be dubbed in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, in order to maximize its reach.
The woman in black: Burka Avenger has received worldwide acclaim for its success in reimagining and challenging what it means to be a Muslim woman or girl, from winning a Peabody Award to being nominated for anEmmy.
The show uses irony to captivate its audiences and convey larger themes. The subjugating burqa, which Jiya only wears at night to fight crime, is transformed into a symbol of empowerment as she fights villains with her own special martial arts, using books and pens, not guns or swords, as her weapons, and all with a silly twist — it is, after all, a kids’ show.
