Naveen Naqvi - Model, Journalist & Sexual Activist

The following caps were taken on Eid, November 2009. Naveen Naqvi chose to wear a delightful mauve knit top with a deep scoop neck and dark gray pants. The top is gathered over her bust line and drops downwards. It is sufficiently diaphanous to allow a fairly clear view of her mammoth proportions and incredible cleavage. The sharp edge of her bra cups, gives way to miles of liberated mouth-watering curves. With her dusky skin, sharp features, cascading lush hair and commanding presence, she resembles more an Aztech Warrior Queen, than DAWN's morning show host.




The word "Naveen" is from ancient Sanskrit which means "new". Naveen Naqvi however, has been around for awhile. The buxom beauty is of Amazon class with legs that go on forever. From what we have seen of her, she is sophisticated, hard working and serious about her work. In her interview, she claims to have spent her formative years enrolled in the American International School in Saudi Arabia. Upon her return to Karachi, she did her O'Levels from the Centre of Advanced Studies and A'Levels from good ol' Lyceum, the playpen for the rich and bored.




After giving modeling a try, she joined NBC News. After 9/11 they wanted a footprint in the area. A scenic backdrop of 'hajis' against which they could stand and broadcast their anti-Islamic propaganda. Naveen was hired to look after their logistics and equipment. It's like Jang Akhbar going to New York and hiring Karolina Kurkova as their chota. But at least the Americans paid her money for services rendered. In modeling, according to Naveen, they gave her the runaround until she would break down and cry --but no dinar.




After her stint with NBC she went to New York and spent two years writing a book. It's about a girl who grows up in Saudi Arabia and Karachi, who is searching for her identity and battling the evil patriarchal society (The Man) who is trying to keep her down. She insists it's not an autobiography.




After departing from DAWN News on January 2010, she disappeared from the public eye, only to appear online. She now has her own blog at NaveenNaqvi.Com. She sometimes writes articles for the Huffington Post blog and has taken up with local female 'web-activists' who are championing the cause of women in Pakistan. Her particular area of concern is sexual abuse, incest, rape, etc. In a recent public appearances, she claims to have suffered sexual abuse as a child.

Video of Naveen Naqvi with Sana Saleem, a survivor and activist [5:55 - 6:38]:



In addition to a striking resemblance, her professional career seems to be eerily following in the footsteps of her favorite writer, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Virginia was a feminist writer, who was also sexually abused at a young age, by her brother. She was bisexual and is reported to have had numerous affairs. From nubile poetesses to married women and men of letters. She also suffered several mental breakdowns, starting from the age of 13 and she finally committed suicide at age 59.




In a letter Woolf describes her joy at being touched by an older woman, "it is astonishing what depths - what volcano depths - your finger has stirred". About men, she had this to say, "Why are women so much more interesting to men, than men are to women ?". At the very end of her life, she wrote, "I feel certain that I am going mad again... I begin to hear voices". She reportedly put stones in her coat pockets and drowned herself in the river Ouse. Her body was fished out three weeks later.




Virginia Woolf played a pivotal role in England's Suffrage Movement (helped women get voting and other civil and legal rights, which had been forbidden them by British aristocracy). Is this what our beautiful, leggy brunette aspires to ?. A champion of women's lib in 21st Century Pakistan ?. We would have liked to see Naveen go the route of beautiful sex-positive feminists like Camille Paglia and Betty Dodson, rather than fat, ugly, hairy, men-hating butch lesbians like Andrea Dworkin and Naomi Wolfe. While the former celebrate beauty and sex, the latter consider any form of penetrative sex to be a violation of women. I guess strap-ons, vibrators, dildos. . . they don't count.

Whatever the case, Naveen will find the men of Pakistan firmly behind her. Where do we sign-up ?. We can help arrange mass bra burnings on M.A. Jinnah road, topless marches on Zaibunissa street, Lollapalooza at Sunday Bazaar where chick-bands like Club Caramel, Hadiqa Kiyani and Rabi Peerzada can rock the aunties who have just spent two sweaty hours bargaining for shoes and purses next door.



But seriously, if Naveen is going through her NGO-phase and needs to take a few years off, get this out of her system and onto her resume --we can wait. I had only hoped that she would opt for lipstick, rather than going butch. Seeing her turn out like Hagrid from Harry Potter, without make-up and unkempt hair is discomfiting. But seeing these caps we know the real Naveen is still in there and like fine wine, only getting better with time. And one fine day, soon, we will see her again: bright and beautiful, cool and confident, lustrous hair, caramel skin, larger than life with all the talent and bounty that mother nature has blessed her with.

The accompanying video.

Shabana Maniar, "Sheer" Excess

The word Sirens in the title of this blog is not a reference to the horn that you find on top of an ambulance, or a police mobile. It is referring to the Sirens from Greek mythology. Yeah, I know you knew that. It's for the guy next to you.





Sirens were water nymphs, part women, part fish (part bird). They sat near the water's edge and lured in sailors from the high seas with their bewitching songs. The music they made would prove irresistible for the men, who would try to make it to shore without caring for their safety, often with disastrous results.

In other words, these Sirens would turn them into those guys you see, standing outside of girl's colleges, disregarding the stick of the chowkidar that will eventually hurt them. No, not in that way! Oh, come on!.



I had to go into all this detail so that I could justify adding Shabana Maniar to this blog.



At first glance, Shabana is a thirty-something housewife with frayed nerves (read: multiple kids), worn hands and neglected nails. At one time she was a fair colored maiden, hounded by men. But in a few years, she will bear an uncanny resemblance to Grandpa Munster. Despite all that, she fits the bill of a Siren, the temptress.



Shabana is the host of the new show "Bila-Takalluf" on Metro-One. On this evening she had on Mrs. Hameed, a veteran of a marriage bureau who looked entirely drained (Grandpa is up to his old tricks). Now lets get down to business. Two things; one her dress and the other, is what happened to it.



She's wearing a multi-layered outfit that is all the rage these days. These dresses usually have an expansive outer, diaphanous shell that is worn over a more risqué' number inside.

This particular dress has a sleeveless fuchsia colored shameez inside, with a scoop-neckline that is a foot deep. Any lower and you would have struck water. The outer shell is a sheer, in pink leopard print. The object of this design, as far as I can make it, is to draw and focus your attention on her cleavage. The sheer material is there to tease and tantalize. The low neck camisole inside, is the Siren's Call.



This dress does for boobs, what fishnet stockings do for legs.



Then something happened that would up-the-ante. It was a wardrobe malfunction... or so I guess. Her neckline was caught on some lacy bit on her bra cup and stayed stuck there for the duration of the show. So in addition to all of that cleavage, half of her bra was also on display, behind a sheet of sheer leopard.

If she knew about it, she certainly didn't seem to care. In fact, as you can see in the video, whenever her dupatta fell down from around her neck, she would immediately gather it and push it back up, making sure nothing got between us and her funky stylings.



This sort of sly, tongue-in-cheek exhibitionism is now rampant in our society. It transcends all social and economic strata. On the street women from all walks of life are wearing sheer, barely-there lawns with deep scoop necklines, front and back, which leave little to the imagination. Sometimes you may even feel like walking-up to one and telling them that they really must retire their faded, frayed bra with the missing snap-hook in the back.



This liberal trend of "saaf chuptay bhee nahi, saamnay aatey bhee nahin" dresses, also represents a clear shift in public attitudes. The stylish dress behind the diaphanous veil and the flashy lingerie worn inside sheer shirts, are all living aspirations biding their time, waiting to be realized. Women want (and some say, need) to feel attractive, sexy and desirable. However hard we have made it for them, to express their feminity and sexuality, they seem to have figured-out ways around it.

Like the sheer stuff, but showing-off lingerie is a bit tacky. But we'll take it.

Here is the accompanying video.