Unfortunately our television channels have never shown much interest in providing children with quality entertainment. Our schools also stress more on English than on Urdu and as a result most of the children who go to private schools find it difficult to grasp Urdu, which in my opinion is a much more difficult language to learn than English. Cartoons and animations in Urdu which teach children good lessons are the need of the hour. The electronic media can play a vital role in educating the kids. By education, I don’t mean teaching them ABCs but by helping them understand the difference between good and bad. Learning this difference goes a long way. It helps children become good individuals when they grow up.
I have never been a big fan of fairy tales because they send the wrong message to little girls in particular. Almost all of them send out the message that being pretty is very important. None of the fairytale princesses were ever average looking. In fact the other day when my niece was reading Snow White I was actually amazed at the way her beauty had been explained! Thanks to these fairy tales at a very early age girls start obsessing with having long hair. They also start differentiating (unconsciously of course) among friends or class fellows on the basis of color; who is whiter and who is “brown” is sadly very common nowadays.
Other than this all the fairy tales end with the damsel in distress being rescued by her prince charming because her happy ending is not possible without a prince charming.
Burka Avenger comes as a breath of fresh air considering just how clichéd these fairy tales are. Our super hero is no damsel in distress but she helps those who are in trouble. She is strong enough to take care of herself and other people too. She does not have long locks of beautiful hair and rose colored lips but she wears a burka to hide her identity and looks great in it. I think the concept that this super hero is actually a school teacher by profession is sheer brilliance because kids all age look up to their teachers. They are their ideals and now they can be super heroes too – how cool is that!
The Burka Avenger has been launched in a very intelligent way too. It has a facebook page which has a lot of fans already, there are Burka Avenger phone games and t shirts and it has a great soundtrack of its own. Annie Jaffrey is the voice behind our super hero. The Pakistani pop star Haroon Rashid came up with this idea.
The Burka Avenger does not use weapons to fight her enemies but her weapons are pens, pencils and books. This clearly shows that the idea behind the concept is that with education we can fight all kinds of evil. Burka Avenger’s first episode was very impressive. The creator of the animation has made it clear that main purpose of this animation apart from educating the kids is also going to be to entertain them.
Following is the description given in the official page of the animation, “The Burka Avenger is an amazing action-comedy animated TV Series that follows the adventures of the Burka Avenger and three young kids in the imaginary city of Halwapur as they fight the evil Baba Bandook and his henchmen.The Burka Avenger wears the burka veil to hide her identity like superheroes do. Her alter ego is that of a mild-mannered teacher at a girls’ school. Her use of pens and books as projectile weapons to fight the bad guys is symbolic on many levels. Her main motto is “Justice, Peace and Education for all”. The good news is that the series Burka Avenger is all set to go global with plans for it to be screened in 60 countries. It will be translated in 18 different languages.
If your kids/younger siblings/nieces/ nephews etc didn’t get a chance to watch the first episode of this amazing series, I suggest that you make them watch it online because it will entertain them and teach them some thing positive. It airs on Geo Tez at 6 pm on Sundays. The production house (Unicorn Black Production) has taken a great initiative by introducing this series. It is highly recommended that you visit the official website of Burka Avenger for fun games, trailers and the OST.
Did you watch the first episode? Do you agree that we should be proud of our new super hero?
Ayesha Ahmed
