Billboards featuring Women Reappear in Peshawar!

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Reappearance of billboards featuring women in Peshawar​

* Previous MMA govt had barred companies from displaying female models on hoardings

By Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: Multinational companies in the NWFP have started replacing men’s photos with women’s on billboards after the defeat of extremist forces in the general elections.

The images of female models on billboards have reappeared in the provincial capital after secular political parties defeated the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), ending its five year hold on the province. The Taliban and MMA activists, whose influence is still growing in the province, considered the depiction of unveiled women to be ‘un-Islamic’, and had been issuing threats that those who failed to stop this practice would face bombing.

Multinational national companies have now installed now billboards carrying photos of female models on University Road, Grand Trunk Road, Saddar Bazaar, and Surai Pul near the NWFP Assembly building.

Cinemas have also started displaying billboards and posters carrying photos of actresses around the city. They had been barred from displaying movie posters by the former MMA government.

Expressing confidence in secular parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Mohammad Faraq, a Peshawar resident, said it would take time to improve the image of Peshawar.

He said the MMA had caused an irreparable loss to the Pashtun culture, adding that it had closed the doors of a state-run theatre for singers, dancers, and musicians during its five year term.

The city’s only state-run theatre closed its doors long ago to singers, dancers, and musicians, who were also barred from holding public concerts because the former ruling religious alliance in the NWFP considered this to be ‘un-Islamic’.

Undeterred by allegations that it was treading in the footsteps of the ousted Taliban government of Afghanistan, the MMA tried to introduce a strict code of Islamic law by tabling the Shariah Bill and the Hasba Bill in the provincial assembly.

The Shabab-e-Mili, a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) affiliated group, headed by Sabir Hussain Awan, a former member of the National Assembly, destroyed billboards, causing millions of rupees of loss to multinational companies. The JI is a component of the MMA. MMA activists had accused multinational companies of promoting ‘obscenity, lewdness and vulgarity’ in society.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Oh Ballay Ballay!!! (or whatever the equivalent expression in Pashtu is)

 

[Always Neutral]

Thats a Good sign. Normalcy is hopefullly round the corner.

Regards

 

[blain2]

I do not think its a good move. It just agitates the other side whose sole purpose is to make fuss about basic things such as the appearance of women on billboards, shaved men etc etc. Is there a need for these? No! Can marketing be done without showing chicks on the bboards? I certainly think so.

Bottom line is that this sort of stuff will antagonize the other side, just like they antagonized the more liberal with instructions to grow beard and enforcing it.

Pakistan would do well to stay away from polarizing issues such as this one. The need is for the liberal parties to follow the middle of the road keeping in mind the religious zeal of some in the province. While the Taliban were not very accommodating, the liberal parties must be more inclusive and keep the sensitivities of the other side in mind.

The Taliban movement thrives on perceived immorality. The lesser chances given to them to lash out against, the better off you are.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Blain:

There is a difference between lewd and "fahash" images, and mere images of women promoting products. I don't think Peshawar is going to see Anna Kournikova promoting lingerie any time soon. And I don't see any reason to cave in to ridiculous demands about not having images of women at all, next thing you know it is about not having billboards period, since "images of any sort are haram in Islam".

Reasonable accommodations (such as not having billboards with women exposing etc.) are perfectly legitimate, but asking for no female images at all is not.

This is the middle road.

 

[Always Neutral]

Blain,

If you cave into the demands now you will see the demands getting more stringent leading again to an LM situation few years down the line.

Sensible marketing never hurt anybody.

Regards

 

[blain2]

My friends,

Sensible marketing is what I am suggesting here. The government is with the liberal parties so they can make a call as to where they have to draw the line on what they can give in to and what not. Chicks, no chicks makes very little difference to me and I think it should be of little concern to anyone who is aware of what ticks the mullah power.

In the face of a bull, its best not to wave red. If you recall, a little bit of "Hikma" (prudence) is whats needed in such cases.

I can guarantee you that in 3-5 years, the opinion in NWFP would be that there is too much lewdness if this goes on and then there would be a mullah reaction.

I say this knowing the cycle of liberalism and mullah power in Pakistan. They feed on each other and unfortunately no one has realized that the middle of the road means accommodation and not sticking your thumb in the face of the other side all the time.

 

[solid snake]

Great day for Peshawar.

 

[khanz]

yay !

I don't see wong in it all the women are fully clothed and they aren't advertising any bad products either besides women are part of pakistan too there can't be just men .

 

[asaad-ul-islam]

i understand that these women are not naked, but i have to agree with blain. this is not the move to make, especially right now when our troops have just defeated the militants in the area.

in the minds of the militants, "evil has entered the area as soon as the Pakistan army arrived". it's only going to further violent acts against our troops.

 

[mujahideen]

As long as these billboards are not sexual in any way I have no problem with them.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Blain:

For the sake of discussion, if the Bull is not taken by the horns and defeated once and for all, it will forever be a pain in the ***.

However I could agree with what you are suggesting, if it was part of a long term (possibly generational) plan to change the institution and mindset of the Mullah, along with winning over the local populace.

I don't see anything in sight that is moving towards institutionalizing the Mullah - which means that twenty years from now he will still be having fits over a women "showing her teeth"" in a Crest Billboard. And the local populace, successively starved of the little things in life that subtly suggest an equality of sexes, a certain presence of freedom of expression, a presence of the arts and culture, will inevitably become more intolerant and obscurantist in its thinking.

The people need to experience Music and the arts, they need to live in a society where women are not looked upon as objects to be shut away from prying eyes. It is then that the medieval demands of the Mullah can be seen in their true light.

The Mullah wants to blow us up to shut us up - One of the two suicide bombings in Lahore happened blocks away from where my family lives - I say bring it on you bastards, and Pakistanis will smash your faces into Meera's posters.

This is how the moderates should respond and fight, not with Guns, not with violence - but by doing the exact thing the Mullah wants to force us into submission over.

 

[blain2]

AM,

I am not suggesting giving in to the Mullah power. Keep in mind that the whole LM issue started on the basis of perceived lewdness going unchecked. I have a big disagreement over the way the Mullah party went about the whole issue, but in a predominantly Muslim country, where people are turning to Islam (not in the extreme manner, but turning back to it), certain sensibilities should be exercised.

Every time some Pakistani from the West returns to Pakistan, I hear comments such as "things have become too open and liberal". Now I think it is a matter of perception, however it is becoming a common perception in Pakistan that too much immorality is not a good thing. Mullahs take it 10 steps ahead by putting a ban on everything. I am not proposing that either.

Also the women's emancipation in Pakistan will not be through billboards offering glamour shots of women, rather through education of the unrealized 50% of our population (I.e. our women) and their integration into the Pakistani society on equal footing as men.

Extremist movements find most support when somebody else is running the show (I.E. liberals). They can take all the pot shots at them and offer something that is again perceived by the people as something better (even though the track record of semi-literate Mullahs has been nothing to write home about). To the uneducated (who happen to be the vast majority of Pakistanis and an extreme majority in NWFP), the alternate of a utopian Mullah rule starts becoming appealing when lewdness on top of mis-governance rear their ugly heads.

All I am saying is that by going the way of billboards, nothing positive has happened. Some may call it normalcy, in my opinion, its far from it. If anything, I would agree that the cultural aspects (traditions, music, heritage etc. etc.) of the region should be given PR exposure. This would go much further in eroding the influence of outsiders in NWFP who in turn have empowered the Mullahs there.

 

[Awesome]

Oh Ballay Ballay!!! (or whatever the equivalent expression in Pashtu is)

Yaara, voi voi!

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Blain:

I have no argument, and it is indeed not my argument, with your point about female emancipation occurring with the measures you pointed out, and not with being able to "model". While the discussion itself has occurred in the context of Billboards, when I talk about resisting pressures from the Mullah's, I am referring to an all encompassing "moderation" of our society - education, the Arts, Culture, Music etc. The Billboards are merely a symbol in a sense.

Perhaps there is a difference of perception here on what constitutes "being too liberal" - you view the billboards as unnecessarily antagonistic, and something the liberals/moderates should compromise on. I don't see the billboards as being anymore antagonistic than women in Magazines and on TV. I don't see how we can expect the Mullah's to merely stop at Billboards, if we agree to keep women off them, and not continue their campaign against "vice" by insisting upon restrictions on women in other media.

This is not merely speculation - along with the restrictions on Billboards, the MMA almost destroyed the NWFP's Music and culture scene, with artists leaving in droves for other provinces or shutting shop and changing professions. They tried several times to get their "Shariah bill" passed, that would have created an organization of "Prevention of vice and promotion of virtue" (something of the sort) a religious police in essence, and every single use of such institutions, in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran leaves no doubt that "billboards" are not where the restrictions would have stopped.

Pakistanis may be "turning back to Islam", and some of the complaints about "society becoming too liberal" may be true in the context of the content of some Magazines and TV shows, but that does not justify restricting a medium to the point where women are not allowed to be used at all. As a "moderate" I can support "reasonable dress codes" for TV, various forms of advertising and Print images, but not the outright banning of female images - that is taking it too far.

In terms of the "extremists" being ideologically empowered when the "liberals/moderates" are in charge, I would argue that is not a result of liberal policies per se, but an incapability or lack of desire to make the argument that moderate policies are not "un-Islamic". We have empowered the Mullah, and allowed him to define and dictate our religion and our cultural/social/national discourse by caving in every single time issues like this come up, and we have to back down and act as if our actions are indeed "offensive and un-Islamic".

They are not, and the moderates need to unequivocally proclaim that our religion, our Islam, tells us that our actions are legitimate in the eyes of Allah, are commanded by Allah, and in His name we will not retreat from allowing that equality, justice and freedom guaranteed to us under divine law from being exercised.

 

[blain2]

I agree. However for the Mullahs to scale back their rhetoric and for the Moderates/Liberals to assert themselves more, some real work on the ground needs to be carried out by the forces of moderation.

The Mullah party has grassroots support even in the rural areas which is not matched by the proponents of moderation who happen to mostly live in the cities. So there is more proving to be done by the moderates. Mullahs have a certain rhetoric, for you to overcome it, you need to deliver where the Mullahs fail. Thus far our democrats, liberals, moderates have all failed at ensuring this. Thus my concern that little things like chicks on the billboards do nothing to further the moderate cause, but strengthen the mullah power who would definitely claim the re-appearance to be the return of lewdness in one form or the other.

Sorry if I am being repetitive here...I do agree with what you are suggesting here but I think some tweaking in our approach is necessary.