Pakistan's superhero Burka Avenger becomes a role model for female empowerment

Cartoon fans in Pakistan have been excited by the arrival of the country's first caped crusader, in the form of a female superherowho flies through the air, battling villains using pens and books. 

The heroine, Burka Avenger, is certainly an unusual role model for female empowerment in Pakistan: a woman who uses martial arts to battle colourful villains such as Baba Bandooq, a Taliban-esque figure who tries to shut down her school, and Vadero Pajero, a corrupt politician. 

But the cartoon, in which a demure schoolteacher, Jiya, transforms into the action heroine by donning a burqa, or traditional cloak, has also triggered an awkward debate about her costume. "Is it right to take the burqa and make it look 'cool' for children, to brainwash girls into thinking that a burqa gives you power instead of taking it away from you?" asked the novelist and commentator Bina Shah in a blog post. 

The criticism has not overshadowed the broader welcome that Burka Avenger has received. With slick computer animation, fast-paced action and flashes of humour that even adults can appreciate, the character could offer Pakistanis a new cultural icon akin to Wonder Womanin the US. 

The burqa debate centres on whether her use of the all-covering cloak - albeit a more streamlined version of the one usually seen in Pakistani villages - is subverting a traditional symbol of segregation and oppression or reinforcing it. 

Sherry Rehman, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, said she also disliked the use of the burqa in a children's show. "A dupatta could have done the job," she said on Twitter, referring to the head scarf that some women wear in Pakistan. 

The show's maker, Aaron Haroon Rashid, said the criticism was misplaced because the heroine uses a burqa only when in disguise. (As Jiya, she does not wear a head scarf). "She wears it to hide her identity," he said. 

While most Pakistanis have little difficulty relating to burqas, he said, he understood they were controversial in the West. "Sometimes there are extremes when the authorities ban hijab in public or in schools," he said, referring to efforts to restrict Islamic head scarves in some European countries. "That does not make sense to people in Pakistan." 

The Burka Avenger character has obvious parallels with Malala Yousufzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by Taliban gunmen last year for advocating education for girls and who recently addressed a seminar at the UN headquarters in New York