The fuss over Veena Malik's 'nude' FHM cover

BY:Nosheen Iqbal

Did she? Didn't she? Does it make the slightest bit of difference at this point? At the time of writing, Veena Malik, the Pakistani actress, model and reality TV star, is suing Indian FHM for £1.2m. She claims the lads' mag doctored a photoshoot to make her appear naked on their December cover. Save for a crude "ISI" tattoo slapped across her arm – an audacious (and, well, pretty funny) two fingers up to Pakistan's notorious intelligence services, complete with a strapline suggesting the agency has a "hand in the end of the world" – the image shows Malik completely bare, with only a careful pose keeping her nipples and pubes from actual view. Editor Kabeer Sharma insists the photo is real, hasn't been "morphed" (Malik's words), and that FHM has the video evidence to prove it. The response of Malik's lawyers? Their client never agreed to or partook in a fully nude shoot; she'd worn a thong and later on, an ammunition belt. Well, quite.

Irrespective of whether the bum floss did or didn't exist, Malik is astute enough to have anticipated the inevitable ruckus her allegedly "nearly nude" photos have provoked. No stranger to the wrath of Pakistan's conservative, religious right, she was vilified earlier in the year for her appearance on Bigg Boss, the Indian Big Brother. Her crime? According to Mufti Abdul Qavi, whom she memorably slaughtered on a live TV debate, she shamed all Pakistan and Islam by dint of appearing on the show at all. As Malik passionately pointed out, national disgrace has little do with a female entertainer appearing on TV. "What about the politicians? What of the corruption, robbery, murder and terrorism committed in the name of Islam?" she asked. "Why are you picking on Veena Malik? Because she's a girl? Because she's a soft target?" Yes, and sadly as the case proved, yes.

For all its unsubtle attention-seeking, though, you've got to admire Malik's chutzpah on that cover. As perverse as it seems for her to risk her life for a pay cheque, make no mistake: hers is also a subversively political position. Already in receipt of death threats, there are now predictably angry calls for Malik to be stripped (sorry) of her Pakistani nationality for betraying her country, embarrassing dishonourment – which, if you believe her critics – rests entirely, fatuously, on female sexuality.

And yet, while I fully defend her right to make it, that's not to say I entirely agree with Malik's choice. From my privileged western perspective as a British Pakistani Muslim, a woman using her body as the battleground to make an empowered feminist statement is redundant and cliched: whichever way you cut it, there's little intellectually liberating about getting your rack out for the lads. By the same token – and this one often stings – nor does, in my view, donning a burqa mean you've solved the problem of being sexually objectified. Quite the opposite, really.

Admittedly, in south Asia – because let's face it, these photos have the power to shock across the myriad cultures of the subcontinent, not just in Pakistan – that representation is a touch less commonplace. But while that makes the images more provocative, does it necessarily mean they are any more powerful? In terms of advancing women's rights or pointing out the un-Islamic hypocrisies endured under the banner of national "culture" – both of which Malik has articulated on perfectly well in the past – I'd hazard not.

Desensitising the public capacity to be offended is one thing, having your opinions disregarded by the mainstream is quite another. Malik has been repeatedly called out for her besharam behaviour across Facebook, Twitter and in the vox pops of Pakistan's national media. Members of my own family in the country denounce her as nothing more than a kunjari – or, quite literally, a whore. Ugly chauvinism already denies too many women a public voice; who in Pakistan (apart from its minority of cheering progressives, who've already made her something of a liberal mascot) will take on board Malik's critiques now? She has plenty to say worth hearing. That her impact to make people think, rather than be outraged, has fallen away with each bit of her wardrobe is just depressing.

To wit, Malik's own father has reportedly called for her arrest, while the country's interior minister Rehman Malik (no relation) has promised that once "the investigations are complete, we [the government] will be able to tell what action we will take against her". All because Veena Malik refuses to conform to the homogenous view – both in the east and west – of what a Pakistani and/or Muslim woman should look like and how she should behave. A flash of skin causing more frenzied controversy than jihadists posting beheading videos online. That, by a long measure, has to be the real national shame.