Pakistan billboard ads featuring bare-shouldered women covered up
Dozens of billboard advertisements featuring bare-shouldered women have been covered over in the dead of night in the Pakistani city of Karachi with black posters and the slogan: "Sell clothes, not your honour".
The advert featuring Bollywood actress
Katrina Kaif was covered up with a banner with the slogan 'Sell clothes,
not your dignity’ on it Photo: SAAD HASAN FOR THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE
1:26PM BST 10 May 2012
No one knows who is responsible. Claims made previously unknown women's groups
have been dismissed and many believe they are being used as a front for
hard-line religious groups.
"These are not paid advertisements. People are putting up banners over
the billboards late at night," Akhter Sheikh, the head of the Karachi
Municipal Corporation's advertising department told The Express Tribune. "There
is nothing we can do about it."
Spring is the time of year when Pakistan's
fashion houses unveil their lawn collections – colourful, airy linens that
make 104F (40C) temperatures more bearable.
Advertising hoardings fill with images of glamorous women, many with their
heads uncovered, draped in thin, filmy fabrics.
Dozens have now been censored. Two of South Asia biggest film stars have also
been targeted.
A soap ad featuring Meera, a Pakistani actress, and a hoarding featuring
Katrina Kaif, a Bollywood star, have been covered up.
The finger of suspicion is already pointing at the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which last month organised an "anti-vulgarity" day.
The Islamist party sent a letter to prayer leaders lamenting the use of women in "erotic and seminude" advertisements.
However, party officials have denied running a guerrilla campaign against billboards.
Bina Shah, a writer who lives in the city, said the campaigners could not stop fashion shows being beamed into homes by satellite and so had picked an easy target in a city that did not protecting.
"Karachi people are much more liberal in terms of women's dress code," she said.
The blacked-out adverts have now been taken down.
It is not the first time that self-appointed morality police have tried to raise standards of decency in Karachi.
Earlier this year a TV talk show host prowled a public park with a film crew to chase down young, courting couples seen in public without chaperones.
However, Maya Khan's stunt provoked a liberal outcry and she lost her job.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9257208/Pakistan-billboard-ads-featuring-bare-shouldered-women-covered-up.html
The finger of suspicion is already pointing at the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which last month organised an "anti-vulgarity" day.
The Islamist party sent a letter to prayer leaders lamenting the use of women in "erotic and seminude" advertisements.
However, party officials have denied running a guerrilla campaign against billboards.
Bina Shah, a writer who lives in the city, said the campaigners could not stop fashion shows being beamed into homes by satellite and so had picked an easy target in a city that did not protecting.
"Karachi people are much more liberal in terms of women's dress code," she said.
The blacked-out adverts have now been taken down.
It is not the first time that self-appointed morality police have tried to raise standards of decency in Karachi.
Earlier this year a TV talk show host prowled a public park with a film crew to chase down young, courting couples seen in public without chaperones.
However, Maya Khan's stunt provoked a liberal outcry and she lost her job.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9257208/Pakistan-billboard-ads-featuring-bare-shouldered-women-covered-up.html
