Row over Pakistan actress Veena Malik nude 'ISI' photo

A row has erupted over an image of Pakistani actress Veena Malik sporting the initials ISI on her arm, with FHM India insisting it is not fake.

It has caused a sensation in Pakistan for both the nudity and the initials of Pakistan's controversial Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.

Pakistani media have quoted a spokesman for Ms Malik as saying she never took part in such a photoshoot.

But FHM India's editor told the BBC that nothing had been doctored.

"We have video footage of the shoot as well as emails from Veena about how she's looking forward to the cover," Kabeer Sharma told the BBC's Nosheen Abbas in Islamabad.

"The idea to have ISI written on her arm was mine, and it was Veena's idea to have it in block letters," he added.

He said that the image was intended to be playful, saying that: "In India we joke about this... if anything goes wrong... we say the ISI must be behind this."

The ISI has been in the headlines in recent months after senior US officials accused it of supporting militants based in Pakistan's tribal areas who target Western troops in Afghanistan.

In September the most senior US military officer Adm Mike Mullen said that the Haqqani militant network "acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency".

Pakistan has vehemently denied such allegations.

Pakistan outrage

Correspondents say that the image, which is the cover of the December issue of the Indian edition of the global men's magazine, has caused a storm in Pakistan with many people expressing outrage over the nudity and the boldness of the photo.

Many Pakistanis on the micro-blogging site Twitter are also expressing bemusement at the image.

The Express Tribune newspaper in Pakistan said a representative of Ms Malik had denied she posed for the shoot.

"Veena knows her limits. I know we have done quite bold stuff/shoots, those which are available on our website, but she knows her parameters," Sohail Rashid is quoted as saying.

FHM's editor said he had never heard of the representative and added that Ms Malik had not got in touch to ask him to modify or remove the image.

The actress has been at the centre of controversy before.

She caused outrage among conservative circles in Pakistan for appearing on the Indian reality show Bigg Boss in 2010. She hit the headlines again in March this year by challenging the views of a Pakistani cleric on television.

A Delhi-based men's lifestyle magazine dropped a bombshell today that recalls the controversy back in April over Turkish Cosmo running a photo of the Armenian-American television star Kim Kardashian without her permission.

The story begins this morning, when FHM India fired off a barrage of tweets on an upcoming cover featuring Pakistani actress Veena Malik, fully nude and sporting an ISI tattoo in reference to Pakistan's controversial spy agency. "Pakistani W.M.D. Veena Malik on Asif, burqas, and work visas," the magazine promised around Malik's midsection. It wasn't shy about promoting the exclusive on Twitter, either. "ISI + Counter Terrorism + Hot Naked Chick = THE HOTTEST WINTER EVER!!" the magazine crowed.

Naturally, mayhem ensued. The Pakistani Twitterverse exploded with commentary and screenshots. FHM India's site temporarily crashed. Malik denied posing nude, claimed the picture had been "morphed," and threatened legal action (the magazine has been accused of altering pictures in the past). FHM India retorted that it had a video of the photo shoot and an email from the actress to prove the image's authenticity.

A frenzied back-and-forth is taking place among Twitter users in Pakistan and India as well. Some are debating whether the image was Photoshopped while others are dismissing the cover as yet another publicity stunt by Malik. The Express Tribune's Saba Imtiaz -- a frequent FP contributor -- suggests Malik be appointed ISI chief for her bold statement, but MTV India isn't so sure. "Veena Malik would make a terrible ISI agent considering how much she reveals," the channel quips. Still others are tired of all the talk. "A heartbeat away from 2012 and the image of a naked woman disturbs more Pakistanis than images of dismembered limbs and headless corpses," Pakistani journalist Faiza Khan complains.

Beyond the cover's authenticity, there's another lingering question. Why the tattoo of Pakistan's spy agency? Kabeer Sharma, FHM India's editor, tells the BBC that he came up with the idea for the tattoo as a joke. "In India we joke about this," he explained. "If anything goes wrong ... we say the ISI must be behind this." Malik doesn't appear to have much of a track record of criticizing the ISI, but she has challenged Pakistani power centers before, making headlines in January by publicly dressing down a Muslim cleric after he chastised her for cuddling with men and wearing inappropriate clothing on the Indian reality show Bigg Boss.

India's version of FHM magazine has defended the cover of its latest issue which shows a nude Pakistani actress with the initials of Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency displayed on her arm.

The magazine's December issue has yet to hit news stands. But a preview of the cover on its website triggered a media frenzy which intensified when actress Veena Malik denied posing nude and accused FHM of doctoring her image.

The editor of FHM India, Kabeer Sharma, told AFP at the weekend that he was mystified by Malik's allegations.

"Maybe she is facing some kind of backlash, so maybe that's why she is denying it.

"We have not photoshopped or faked the cover. This is what she looks like, she has an amazing body," Sharma said.

While Malik's pose preserves a scant degree of modesty, any nudity is still very much frowned upon in conservative India - and indeed in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

What has raised more eyebrows was her arm sporting the initials ISI - the acronym for Inter Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have gone to war three times and the ISI has been routinely accused by New Delhi of masterminding militant attacks on Indian soil.

Sharma said the idea had been to take an ironic swipe at India's obsession with the ISI.

A tag line on the cover which points to the initials, reads: "Hand in the end of the world too?"

"People, especially young people in both countries, want to move past this kind of thinking," the editor said.

"It's a very powerful picture - it took a lot of guts for her to do that. It shows a powerful, sexy woman not afraid to speak her mind."

Malik is already known in India for appearing on Big Boss, the country's version of the television reality show Big Brother.

Speaking to Pakistan's Geo TV on Saturday, Malik insisted the nude photos were faked.

"I agreed to a photo shoot and having an ISI tattoo in a humorous way but I did not have any nude photos. My pictures have been morphed," she said.

Sharma responded on his Twitter site on Monday, saying he would release a series of photos from the shoot proving his version of the story.

10-12-2011

Veena Malik, has claimed that the stress caused by the FHM India scandal aged her by almost ten years.

The Pakistani model, is suing the publishers of the magazine for doctoring her photograph and making it appear nude for their latest edition.

However, the Bigg Boss 4 contestant recently revealed that since she filed her lawsuit, she has been threatened with character defamation if she did not drop the charges.

“I feel completely cheated. They’ve added ten years to my age. ‘They threatened to sue me if I don’t keep quiet,” the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

The 33-year-old has claimed that she was wearing hot pants, which were removed by Photoshop on the cover of FHM India.

Malik had appeared naked on the cover of the December issue of FHM India with just her arms and legs covering her modesty, sporting a tattoo of the initials ‘ISI’ on her arm, a reference to Pakistan’s intelligence agency.

The image had sparked huge outrage in her homeland, with her father disowning her and asking her to be punished.

“The image we shot was completely different to the one on the cover. I was wearing hot pants and they promised me they would cover my upper body with multiple tattoos.

“Instead, they removed the hot pants,” she said.

The actress has alleged that the editor-in-chief Kabeer Sharma and the journalist who interviewed her were not responding to her calls even though prior to the shoot they would converse with her regularly.

“I did not sign any contract and refused to until I was given final approval of the images. I was never sent the pictures but I was assured they were the same shots taken on the shoot in November.

“I was cool with those pictures because I felt they were artistic and beautiful. They should have waited for my authorisation but they didn’t.

“There was only one week between the shoot and publication - they were obviously in a rush to print them without my consent,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sharma has strongly denied the allegations that the pictures are doctored and that the model has been threatened, insisting that Malik has given contradictory accounts of the shoot.

“It’s important to note Ms Malik has been dragging the magazine’s name through muck by making false and baseless allegations and we look at it very, very seriously,” he said.

“I invite Ms Malik to furnish one shred of evidence, SMS or a witness to support her allegations which are as concocted as the ones she’s been making all week.

“No one in FHM has had any conversation with Ms Malik directly or indirectly to make this “imagined threat”.

“The one message that was sent to her was one that told her she could call the office landline if she wanted to have a conversation.

“Ms Malik was more than comfortable with the filming, it was only when the cover and the grenade shots were done was the videographer asked to stop filming to make the team more comfortable (not her).

“She did not even once ask him to stop filming,” he added.

Malik had meanwhile claimed that no such video was taken and that when she noticed filming taking place, when she was fully clothed, she asked them to stop as it was not in line with the previous agreement to only shoot images.