When She Speaks, He’s Breaking All of Islam’s Taboos
Akhtar Soomro for The New York Times

By SALMAN MASOOD
Published: January 3, 2007

KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 2 — Ali Saleem may have devised the perfect, if improbable, cover for breaking taboos in conservative, Muslim Pakistan.

In a country where publicly talking about sex is strictly off limits, Mr. Saleem has managed not only to bring up the subject on his prime-time television talk show — but to do so without stirring a backlash from fundamentalist Islamic clerics.

And he has done so as a woman.

When Mr. Saleem takes to the airwaves, he is Begum Nawazish Ali, a coquettish widow who interviews Pakistan’s glitterati and some of its top politicians.

A real woman could not possibly do what Mr. Saleem does. In the unlikely event a station would broadcast such a show, the hostess would be shunned. And taking on the guise of a married woman — whose virtue is crucial to her whole family — would be equally impossible.

But apparently a cross-dressing man pretending to be a widow is another matter entirely.

It is something of a mystery why a man who openly acknowledges he is bisexual is a sensation here. Traditional Islamic teaching rejects bisexuals and gays, and gay Pakistanis have few outlets for a social life. The gay party scenes in Lahore and Karachi are deep underground.
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Mr. Saleem, 28, is thrilled with his success for reasons that are both political (he is proud to be breaking ground in bringing up tough subjects) and profoundly personal. “My biggest high is to see myself gorgeous in the mirror” he said recently while reclining in a makeup-room chair. As a beautician outlined his eyes, adding glitter and eye shadow, he said, “Maybe, yes, I am a diva.”

It is hard to judge how successful Mr. Saleem’s show is — there is no form of Nielsen ratings here. And there are clearly people who find the show revolting.
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Urbanites, meanwhile, seem not to be able to get enough of the once-a-week show, which is rerun twice each week. They have showered praise on Mr. Saleem’s portrayal of a middle-aged widow who, in glamorous saris and glittery diamonds, invites to her drawing room politicians, movie stars and rights advocates from Pakistan and India.

With fluttering eyelids and glossy lips, Begum Nawazish Ali (Begum means Lady or Mrs. in Urdu) flirts with male guests using suggestive banter and sexual innuendo. With female guests, she is something of a tease, challenging them about who looks better. Questions are pointed and piercing. Politics, democracy and saucy gossip are enmeshed in her conversation.
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Colorful and witty, Mr. Saleem is open about his own sexuality and sprinkles his conversation with gender-bending phrases. “My life fluctuates between two extremes,” he says. “I always say this: I am a man and I am a woman. It is two gender extremes, and I am constantly trying to balance it.”
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Mr. Saleem, who in the guise of Begum Nawazish Ali often gets away with questions to politicians that print journalists might be wary of, said his show would not have been a possibility earlier. “I owe Begum Nawazish Ali’s existence, in a certain way, to General Musharraf,” he said.

But he appears to know his own limits. He shrugged when asked if he should not invite the general himself on the show, appearing to indicate that he knew that was one taboo he could not break. But it did not stop him from flirting with the idea, especially after General Musharraf made himself so open to the media during his book tour of the United States last year.

“I would love it if Musharraf would come on the show,” he said. “If he can go on Jon Stewart’s show, then why not?”