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The first animated TV series produced in Pakistan offers a positive role model to counter Taliban opposition to girls' education

 Link to video: Burka Avenger: the Pakistani cartoon challenging the Taliban on girls' education

 

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Name: Burka Avenger.

Age: Mid-20s, or thereabouts.

Appearance: A mysterious black-clad superhero, taking on the Taliban one school at a time.

Cool, a superhero. What's his superpower? Oh dear. First of all, Burka Avenger is a woman.

A female superhero? So her superpower must be the ability to show off her boobs and bottom simultaneously, like Scarlett Johansson in that poster for The Avengers. Not quite. Burka Avenger is a master of Takht Kabaddi, a martial art that uses books and pens to defeat her enemies.

You mean figuratively? She beats her foes with intelligence? No, she literally just clonks them around the head with books and pens.

Is this a Batman thing? Was Burka Avenger traumatised by a flock of books in a cave as a baby? No, nor was she bitten by a radioactive book in a science lab, you dolt. Books and pens are her weapons because she's a teacher who wants to emphasise the importance of studying in her native South Asia.

Oh, now I get it. She's a social justice superhero, like Captain Planet. Kind of. Burka Avenger is the first ever animated series to be produced in Pakistan. She's the brainchild of local pop star Haroon, who wanted to create a positive role model to counter the Taliban's ongoing opposition to girls' education.

Sample dialogue? "The girls of today are the mothers of tomorrow. If the mothers are not educated, then future generations will also remain illiterate."

This all sounds a bit worthy to me. It's also funny. In one episode, a villain's plan to destroy London and Paris with a giant robot is scuppered by his inability to get a European visa.

I'm sold! Please tell me she's also the subject of a Will Smith-style rap song. You mean Lady In Black by Haroon & Adil Omar, which claims that "She kills extremism and corruption and stops it from breathing"? Done.

Do say: "Finally, a positive cartoon role model able to underline the importance of girls' education."

Don't say: "Let's get Kate Upton to play her in the movie! In a bikini!"

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