Alter Ego

For Inquiries on licensing or assignments please contact us

When Ali Saleem applies glossy lipstick, eye patches, face powder, extra eye lashes and finally assumes the role of a woman, he becomes his alter ego Begum Nawazish Ali.

Ali cross-dresses as a woman wearing a sari and asks influential guests provocative questions in his show Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali. While he doesn’t care too much about the critics he raises for such unsual role, some accounts assure that he signed his own death warrant. He continues to show off Anne Moss-like walks throwing a voluptuary kiss to provoke his guests.

Saleem is Pakistan’s defiant answer to militancy and extremism, even though he risks attracting the Taliban’s wrath. So far, the militant group – renowned to be against women’s education across the country – has refrained from issuing any statement. For Saleem it is not a matter of picking up a fight as much as defying the taboos of a society. His show invited the likes of business tycoons, industrialists, actors and actresses, government and religious leaders. Begum would flirt with any one of the male guests “using suggestive banter and sexual innuendo

Islamabad, Pakistan

Mandatory credit: Asim Hafeez / UnFrame