- Priya, India's first female superhero, is a survivor of rape who empowers others to be unafraid and speak out.
- This week, her fourth comic, Priya's Mask, debuted.
- In the comic, Priya befriends a little girl named Meena who's the daughter of a frontline worker. Meena is feeling emotionally isolated during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Priya takes Meena on a tiger ride to better understand what's going on in the world around her.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Priya is a superhero who wears a cape and rides a tiger.
For six years, as India's first female comic star, she's fought back against gender-based violence.
Faced with a world in coronavirus crisis mode, Priya has a new mission: combating fear, isolation, stigma, and the spread of misinformation related to the pandemic.
"Priya's Mask" debuted online Wednesday, with both a video and a free comic book, funded by the US Embassy in New Delhi. Insider spoke with both the writer and creator of the comic, who are sharing much of this new, colorful story with us here:
Priya is India's first and only female superhero, a rape survivor who empowers others to be unafraid and speak out.
Priya's three previous comics centered on sexual violence, acid attacks, and sex trafficking.
"Priya's powers are not gadgets or things that fly out of places," Priya's Mask author Shubhra Prakash said. "Her power is simple: it's to empower someone by speaking the truth and speaking up — even when you're being silenced."
Comic creator Ram Devineni says Priya's superpower is "her power of persuasion to really change society."
Devineni said that the coronavirus project was sparked out of necessity, as other creative work was put on pause during the pandemic. He sees Priya's Mask as "historical documentation about what we've experienced this year."
"We didn't want to part be a part of the cultural wars happening, not only in the US but all over the world, we didn't want to get into these debates," he said.
The target audience for this book is a little younger than Priya's usual readers, who are typically in high school and college, Devineni said.
"Why would an adult read a book about a woman riding a tiger? It's just not going to work. So I thought, you know, maybe the audience we should reach is not the adults, but their children. I mean — you can't dispute or argue against your own child."
Prakash, a writer and actress based in New Delhi, came up with the storyline for Priya's Mask while dealing with the isolation and loneliness brought on by the pandemic.
"I want someone to tell me what's going on, and give me assurance that things are going to be okay," she said.
"I have a balcony here, and I spend so much time standing over there," she said.
"You're just wondering: when are you going to step out?"
The new comic introduces us to a mother working on the front lines, and her daughter, Meena, who says "I miss my friends. I have no one to tell my feelings to."
Meena's words were inspired by those of Devineni's 3-year-old niece, who broke down crying after many weeks away from her friends, and told her mother this.
"A lot of parents are finding it difficult talking to their children about what's happening around them," Devineni said. "It's just so monumental the changes that are happening, the disruption in their lives."
Priya helps soothe Meena's pandemic loneliness and uncertainty, by showing her what's going on and why.
"She gently tells her about what the reality of the world is at this moment, and she doesn't sugarcoat anything," Prakash said. "I believe if you show kids something, they respond better than just telling them to do things."
Prakash and Devineni both hope the comic will encourage more empathy towards frontline workers, and others who have been stigmatized and forgotten during the pandemic.
"There are people out there that are really working hard right now, and they are sacrificing the time that they could have with their families," Prakash said.
"If you shift the focus to empathy for people who are going out there, then it becomes a bigger thing, it becomes something that's larger than just us being anxious and worried."
In New Delhi, where Prakash lives and COVID-19 cases are now rising rapidly, masks recently became mandatory. There's a 2,000 rupee ($27) fine for violators.
"You have to do certain things: social distance, wear a mask, it seems like a big ask all of a sudden," she said.
Prakash hopes that by considering "the families of the people that are directly impacted by this," people might better appreciate the impact of the sacrifices now being asked of them.
Priya's superhero mission is to empower people to think for themselves.
"We want the brown girl to come out," Prakash said of Priya. "She's not exotified, she's not judged. She's coming out as someone who gives you confidence."
That includes in combating misinformation about the coronavirus. In Prakash's circles, this misinformation tends to spread in text messages.
"We call it WhatsApp University," she said. "You know, if you've learned it on the WhatsApp University, please don't tell me about it, because that means that it just came through the chain and just found its way to you."
Some of the most common rumors that Prakash hears on WAU are that the virus only hurts old people, or poor people. In the comic, Priya addresses these falsehoods with compassion.
"Those are the voices of people who are more afraid than they are aware," she tells Meena. "Kindness shows us the way, while fear makes us weak."
You can watch a short video about Priya's Mask here, or download the entire story from the comic book website.
Free PDF and Kindle versions of the full comic are available on Priyashakti.com
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