Female superhero takes to the screen in a black burka

Wonder Woman and Supergirl now have a Pakistani counterpart in the ranks of female superheroes — and one who shows a lot less skin.

Burka Avenger is a teacher with secret martial arts skills who uses a black burka to hide her identity as she fights local thugs seeking to shut down the girls’ school where she works.

Sadly, it is a battle Pakistanis are all too familiar with in the real world. The Taliban have blown up hundreds of schools and attacked activists in Pakistan’s north west, because they oppose girls’ education. The militants sparked worldwide condemnation last year when they shot 15-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai in an unsuccessful attempt to kill her.

Action in the Burka Avenger cartoon series, which is scheduled to start running on Geo TV in August, is much more light hearted. The bad guys evoke more laughter than fear and are no match for the Burka Avenger, undoubtedly the first South Asian ninja who wields books and pens as weapons.

The Urdu language show is the brainchild of one of Pakistan’s biggest pop stars, Aaron Haroon Rashid who conceived of it as a way to emphasise the importance of girls’ education and teach children other lessons, such as protecting the environment and not discriminating against others.

“Each one of our episodes is centred around a moral, which sends out strong social messages to kids,” he said. “But it is cloaked in pure entertainment, laughter, action and adventure.”

The decision to clothe the superhero in a burka could raise eyebrows because some people view it as a sign of oppression. The Taliban forced women to wear burkas when they took control of Afghanistan in the 1990s.