The Guardian, or Paasban in Urdu, is a comic book series (available in English and Urdu) that fights terrorism and extremist ideologies. According to its creators, "Our comics do not feature spandex clad superheroes, but rather the ordinary people who live through extraordinary circumstances, make brave choices and reject extremism. These stories work to change the narrative of hate and inspire vulnerable kids who might otherwise fall victim to extremist ideologies."
Terrorism has led to more than 50,000 civilian deaths in Pakistan over the past eight years. In December 2014, 150 Pakistani children were murdered when a school in the city of Peshawar was attacked. According to the creators of Paasban, The Guardian, "Terrorism is a blight on our world, a manifestation of hatred and bigotry. We are willing to fight this mindset with whatever we have at our disposal; great art, strong words, and a message of courage and faith."
The Guardian or Paasban is the story of everyday heroes making difficult choices, told in a comic strip format. Designed to help Pakistani children and teens reject extremism and terrorism, the series mirrors the experience of one of its creators who narrowly avoided recruitment by jihadist outfits when he was 13. The series has been met with critical and popular acclaim with articles about them in Fusion, The Christian Science Monitor, and AFP, amongst others.
You can read the comic book and download App at at http://www.cfxcomics.com/
Replies
Thanks for the heads up, Hammad!
Ordinary people acting heroically is always more interesting than people with super-powers or high-tech battle suits.Should be a good read.
I'm curious -- what's the reaction to Paasban in Pakistan, or in Urdu-speaking areas generally?
Thank you for replying Captain.
I look forward to your feedback on the comic, I can email you the first volume or you can download pdf or mobile app from website/app store.
We have distributed 15,000 copies (5,000 sets) for free in three cities of Pakistan and so far the local audience loved the content, most hadn’t seen something like this before, and frankly even the audience in the larger cities like Lahore couldn’t afford comic books (priced between $6-$8 an issue). This is a free app with background music, animated effects and with a ‘Lite’ version that can run even on really low-end phones. As far as the message is concerned, that’s where our research has shown really promising results. We ran a survey and focus group exercise with 100 9th grade students in both rural and urban public schools, asking them questions both before and after they had read all three issues. Prior to reading our content, a majority believed that religious leaders and authority figures only spoke the truth, while after reading two-thirds of this group switched their views to neutral, which is exactly the kind of critical thinking we hope to foster amongst the target audience.