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.
