*注：本文摘自9月3日《经济学人》
Noshrinking violets
不必害羞
A TV series about femalevigilantesbreaks taboos in Pakistan
一部关于女性私刑犯的电视连续剧打破了巴基斯坦的禁忌
Shows on streaming services can tackle topics that television channels avoid
流媒体电视剧可以处理电视频道避免的话题
1.“NOT ALL heroes wear capes,”declares thetrailerfor a new Pakistani television series. Some wearburkas. The stars of “Churails”—which means “Witches” in Urdu—are a gang of femaleavengerswhowieldfists and hockey sticks in anger. Theydispenserough justice to abusive andphilanderingmen.
一部巴基斯坦电视剧预告片称，“不是所有英雄都穿着披风。”还有一些穿着长袍。《Churails》(Churails在乌尔都语种是“女巫”的意思)中的主角是一群愤怒地挥舞着拳头和曲棍球棒的女复仇者，她们严厉审判了那些虐待和玩弄女人的男人。
2. Sara is a lawyer who gives up her career for her husband before discovering that therotterhas sentexplicitmessages to scores of women. Jugnu plans weddings for rich couples, and happens to be analcoholic. Batool served 20 years in prison for murdering her husband, who was apaedophile. Zubaida has long suffered under adomineeringand violent father.
Sara是一名律师，她为了丈夫放弃了自己的事业，后来她发现她丈夫是个无赖，给很多女人发过色情短信。Jugnu是婚礼策划师，嗜酒。Batool因谋杀了她那有恋童癖的丈夫而在监狱
服刑20年。Zubaida长期以来一直被专横、暴力的父亲折磨。
3. Thrown together by chance, the quartet run a secret agency that aims to helpwrongedwomenexactrevenge. They use a clothes shop in Karachi as a front for their activities. The heroines drink, swear and take drugs. There are lesbian characters and a trans one.
偶然的机会，这四人组成了一个秘密机构，专门帮助受委屈的女人进行报复。他们利用卡拉奇的一家服装店作为活动的幌子。剧中的女主嗜酒如命、满嘴脏话、还吸毒，有的还是女同，还有的是变性人。
4. Female characters in Pakistan’s television dramas are often depicted as helpless damsels. Their conflicts are usually with children, mothers-in-law or rivals in romance. Lately TV producers have sought to introduce more challenging themes, such as rape and child abuse, but advertisers and channel bosses are not keen. “The most refreshing thing about ‘Churails’ was that it was completely uncensored,” says Aamna Haider Isani, a journalist who covers entertainment for The News, a Pakistani daily. One enthusiastic reviewer called it a “feminist masterpiece”. Another hailed “a monumental moment for representation”.
巴基斯坦电视剧中的女性角色通常都被塑造为无助的天使，她们面临的冲突通常都是和孩子，婆婆或者情敌有关。最近，电视制作人试图引入更具挑战性的主题，如强奸和虐待儿童，但广告商和频道老板们对此并不看好。“《Churails》最让人耳目一新的是它完全没有经过审查，”巴基斯坦日报《新闻》娱乐报道的记者Aamna Haider Isani说。一位热情的评论家称其为“女权主义的杰作”。另一位则称“这是电视史上的一个里程碑”。
5. Asim Abbasi, the show’s creator and director, who lives in Britain, explains that he “wanted to tell a story that wasauthenticto women I know and to the society I know”. He is able to do so because “Churails” is airing over a web-streaming service, instead of a television channel. It was created for the Urdu-language unit of Zee5, an Indianvideo-on-demandservice. Going digital “allows us to take risks”, says Mr Abbasi.
该剧的主创兼导演Asim Abbasi定居英国，他解释说他“想要讲述一个我所处的社会和我所认识的女性都相信的真实故事”。他之所以能够这样做，是因为《Churails》是没在电视频道播，而是在网络流媒体上播出的。这部剧是专门为印度视频点播服务公司Zee5的乌尔都语单元制作的。Abbasi说，数字化“让我们敢于冒险”。
6. Pakistan has no domestic streaming services, but Zee5, Netflix and Amazon are all gaining users. Lockdowns imposed tofend offcovid-19 have helped to boost subscriptions. Ms Isani says her children no longer watch conventional television channels. “They say, ‘Why are you watching the same woman cry day after day?’” That TV-streaming youngsters are now watching completely different things to channel-hopping elders may explain why “Churails” has not provoked more of abacklash. Many conservative Pakistanis have yet to discover it.
巴基斯坦国内没有流媒体服务，但Zee5、Netflix和亚马逊订阅用户都在增加。为抵御新冠实施的封锁有助于提高这些流媒体服务的订阅人数。Isani女士说，她的孩子们不再看传统的电视频道。“他们说，‘你为什么要看同一个女人如复一日地哭泣？现在在流媒体上看剧的年轻人和在电视频道看剧的老年人看的东西完全不一样，这可能也是为什么《Churails》没有引起更多反对的原因——许多巴基斯坦保守人士还没有发现这个事实。
篇章结构
P1—P3：《Churails》的女性角色及其内容。
P4:《Churails》是一部不同寻常的电视剧，触及了不同的主题。
P5：流媒体服务使得人们敢于冒险：《Churails》等新剧能够播出是因为流媒体没有审查。
P6：流媒体的内容和电视频道内容完全不一样；巴基斯坦保守人士还没有发现这一点。
重点单词
shrinking violet羞怯的人；畏首畏尾的人
【例句】
None of the women he paints, however, could be described as shrinking violets.
然而，他画过的所有女人中没有一个是羞涩腼腆的。
vigilante/ˌvɪdʒɪ'læntɪ/ n. (自发组织的)治安团体的成员
vigilant/'vɪdʒələnt/ adj. 警惕的；警戒的；警醒的；注意的
【同根】
It comes as social media is blamed increasingly for a rise in vigilante attacks.
社交媒体正日益成为义警袭击事件上升的攻击对象。
Not all heroes wear capes.
这句话可以用来称赞我们身边的普通人是英雄。这些人并没有像超人或蝙蝠侠那样穿着披风，但是依然做出了英雄式的壮举。
cape/keɪp/ n. 披肩；海角，岬
【例句】
She was wearing a cape over her dress.
她在外套上披着一件披肩。
trailer/'treɪlə/ n. 预告片；拖车；追踪者v. 乘拖车式活动房屋旅行
【例句】
I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs.
我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。
burka/'bə:kə/ n. 蒙住全身的长袍
【例句】
It may be small and red, but this lanyard is no better than a burka!
这虽然很小 而且还是红的，但是这条短绳无异于蒙住全身的长袍啊!
avenger/ə'vendʒə/ n. 复仇者
【例句】
At Avenger Field, the last WASP class learned that their training would be abbreviated.
在复仇者基地，最后一班黄蜂队得知他们的训练将被缩短。
wield/wiːld/ vt. 挥舞；使用；行使
【例句】
They wield enormous political power.
他们行使巨大的政治权力。
dispense/dɪ'spens/ vt. 分配, 分发; 施与, 试行；配(药), 发(药)
【例句】
The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.
这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。
philander/fɪ'lændə/ vi. 调戏,玩弄女性
【例句】
He spent his time philander with the girls in the village.
他把时间花在和村子里的姑娘们调情上了。
rotter/'rɒtə/ n. 无赖
【例句】
Why do you invite a rotter like that to your house?
你为什么邀请那样的一个无赖上你家里来？
explicit/ɪk'splɪsɪt/ adj. 详述的, 明确的, 明晰的；直言的, 毫不隐瞒的, 露骨的
【例句】
She was quite explicit about why she left.
她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
alcoholic/ælkə'hɒlɪk/ adj. 酒精的n. 嗜酒者, 酒鬼
【例句】
We do not sell any alcoholic beverages.
我们不出售含酒精的饮料。
paedophile/'pi:dəfail/ n. 恋童癖者
【例句】
Mr Musk tweeted unfounded claims that one of the rescuers was a paedophile.
马斯克在推特上发表了毫无根据的声明，称其中一名救援人员是恋童癖。
domineering/'dɑmə'nɪrɪŋ/ adj. 刚愎自用、喜欢支配别人的
【同根】
domineer vi. 跋扈；作威作福；盛气凌人
【例句】
Many of her women friends also had domineering husbands.
她的女性朋友中,好多人的丈夫也都很专横。
wronged/rɔŋd/adj. 被委屈的；被冤枉的
【同根】
wronger 错误的; 有毛病的; 不合适的; 不道德的（wrong的比较级）;
wrongness n. 不正直；谬误；不公正
wrong v. 不公正地对待，委屈；诽谤
【例句】
She enjoys playing the wronged wife.
她很喜欢扮演受委屈的妻子。
exact/ɪg'zækt/ adj. 精确的；准确的，精密的vt. 强求；要求；急需vi. 勒索钱财
【例句】
Stress can exact a high price from workers (= can affect them badly) .
压力可能迫使工人付出昂贵的代价。
damsel/'dæmz(ə)l/ n. 少女；年轻女人
【例句】
When I got a flat tyre I had to wait for my boyfriend to come and help me, like a true damsel in distress!
爆胎时，我不得不等男朋友来帮忙，真成了落难女子。
mothers-in-law婆婆；岳母
【例句】
From interfering to molly-coddling, mothers-in-law have long been accused of making life a misery. But their daughters-in-law may now be exacting revenge.
从干涉到溺爱，长久以来，婆婆都被指控是让人日子不好过的角色。但她们的媳妇或许现在正在报复。
uncensored/'ʌn'sensəd/ adj. 未经审查的,无保留的
【例句】
He said it is highly likely that another service sharing Gab's views on uncensored speech would take over.
他说，另一个在未经审查言论上与Gab网站持同样观点的网站可能会接手。
authentic/ɔː'θentɪk/ adj. 真的, 真正的；可靠的, 可信的
【例句】
This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it.
这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
video-on-demand视频点播
【例句】
The new update allows users to access video on demand just like the iPad version could since February.
从2月开始，新应用将允许用户可以自选视频，就如iPad版本一样。
fend offv. 避开；挡开
【例句】
They also fend off infections by hostile bugs.
肠道细菌也能抵御有害菌引起的感染。
backlash/'bæklæʃ/ n. 强烈反应, 对抗性反应；后冲, 反撞; 后坐力
【例句】
A modest backlash is under way, in an unexpected quarter.
温和反弹正以一个让人意想不到的方式进行。
- THE END -
坚持就会有收获！