The XX Factor

Meet Veena Malik, the Anti-Chris Brown

At a time when notorious misogynists Charlie Sheen and Chris Brown are getting headlines for their crazed rants and meltdowns, Veena Malik is a refreshing antidote. Malik is a Pakistani actress who appeared on the Indian reality show Big Boss 4 . Like Sheen and Brown, she’s a celebrity with a lot of anger. Unlike those miscreants, her anger is just and well-placed. Since her return to Pakistan, Malik has faced death threats for “humiliating Islam” and faced harsh criticism from conservative mullahs.

Fortunately, she’s not running and hiding. She appeared on a show called Express News TV (think The O’Reilly Factor , only not as polite) in late January and first dismissed the question from the host asking whether her appearance on the show-as well as her “dresses and action-was an affront to the “ideological foundations of Paksitan.” (Translation provided by Memritv.org )

She then went on offense against Mufti Abdul Qavi, a cleric, who tried to make his opposition political-her trip to India being a challenge to the “Two-Nation Theory” before revealing his true self with comments that “No one in Pakistan can look at her pictures in the presence of their daughters.”

Malik does such an excellent job defending herself and critiquing Islam that I’ll just get out of her way now.