Thursday, November 25, 2010

Research Ideas - Part 3

Next up in the series of research ideas is ....
Begum Nawazish Ali!

OMG! She is SO freaking cool! Actually, she's a man in reality but acts, dresses, and talks like a woman on this one talk show she hosts. (I'm gonna address her as "she" throughout this post.) His real name is Ali Saleem. Check this out: Begum Nawazish Ali with Arbaz and Malaika. She is SUCH a great actress!

She says in one interview that she's had many, many different types of people on her show -- from preachers/imaams to famous celebrities to government officials to you-name-it. She also says that she knows if she were a female, she wouldn't have this freedom, this authority that she does as a man impersonator of women -- at least in the time and society that she's living in, anyway. She also knows that even though she's perhaps the most popular figure in Pakistan right now, she's not appreciated by many because they believe that she is either gay or confused about her identity or just wrong Islamically.

I've millions of questions to ask her and about her for a research project personally. I will let readers/viewers/listeners, however, form their own questions about her. I wonder, though, how she is able to do this ... I mean, what exactly are the stereotypes out there associated with Pakistan? All we seem to hear and are exposed to is this stringent, orthodox Islam and culture, when we have Begum Nawazish Ali in that exact same society, STILL LIVING! :O In one of her interviews, she said that she's never been attacked . . . and that's like the first question that came to our mind when our gender and Islam teacher told us about her. One student was like, "Has anyone tried killing her?"

Anyway, so enjoy her! I'm still mesmerized by her talent and gut.

4 comments:

  1. Oh, yes. Begum is the greatest fun, darlings. You should see her eerily awesome Benazir Bhutto impersonation. Too much LOLz. :)

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  2. LOL! I can't wait to see that! I heard her talking about it in one interview, and to think that even Benazir was impressed -- ahhh!!!!

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  3. I found her/him fascinating when I first saw her/him on telly. My first thoughts were the same, how come she's up there with homophobia surrounding the country! However, I think there is always a place in the entertainment market for an odd one, anymore than 1 or 2 and that's when people can't handle it. Begum got in at about the right time!

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  4. Very true, Hina! Begum Nawaz got there at the perfect time, and I, too, am sure that if more were to enter the field, it'd become unacceptable!

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Dare to opine :)

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