By Huma Yusuf for The New York Times

On Monday morning, Pakistanis awoke to news that their country had just won its first Oscar. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and her co-director Daniel Junge received the award for best documentary in the short-subject category for “Saving Face.” The film chronicles the work of the British-Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad, who performs reconstructive surgery on women who were attacked with acid.

The media in Pakistan couldn’t get enough of the story. Television channels repeatedly broadcast footage of Obaid-Chinoy receiving her award. Fans posted on their Facebook pages pictures of the filmmaker on the red carpet. Her acceptance speech was tweeted and retweeted: “To all the women in Pakistan who are working for change, don’t give up on your dreams — this is for you.”

Politicians tried to share the limelight. Altaf Hussain, the head of the Karachi-based M.Q.M. party, congratulated Obaid-Chinoy publicly. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced that she would be given a civilian award for making Pakistan proud and catalyzing social change.

The chain restaurant Nando’s, which specializes in grilled chicken, even designed an advertising campaign riffing on the documentary’s name: “From one hot chick to another: Thanks for Saving our Face.”

But Obaid-Chinoy’s triumph, a rare piece of good news out of Pakistan, also reveals the extent to which Pakistanis have become accustomed to feeling dejected.

For once, Pakistan is making headlines for a positive achievement, not another terrorist attack, political squabble or natural disaster. For Pakistanis who have been struggling to restore their country’s flailing image, it’s a relief to see a talented, young Pakistani woman receiving a coveted international award — and hobnobbing with George Clooney. As the cultural critic Nadeem F. Paracha put it in a tweet, “Viva la @sharmeenochiony! The pride of Pakistan is in their artistes & intellectuals. Not in bombs and bans!”

But what does it say about a country that it would rejoice at attracting global attention for rampant violations of women’s rights?

Pakistan is the world’s third-most dangerous country for women. Over 150 Pakistani women are the victims of acid attacks each year. Activists for women’s rights claim that only 30 percent of acid cases are reported and that this form of violence is extremely widespread because acid is easily available and inexpensive. Last year, the government passed the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill, which imposes on attackers prison terms from 14 years to life and fines of up to one million rupees (about $11,000). But the new law has yet to be rigorously implemented, and attitudes toward women’s rights are far from reformed.

Obaid-Chinoy’s film highlights these problems — hardly a point of pride for Pakistanis.

Once the Oscar high subsides, Pakistanis will have to contend with the fact that their nation remains notorious for its challenges, violence against women included. Then the question will be, can the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who rooted for Obaid-Chinoy at the Academy Awards muster the same enthusiasm to tackle the problems that her work exposes?

Huma Yusuf is a columnist for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn and was the 2010-11 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

Filed under: blasphemy laws, British Muslims, Freedoms, Pakistan, Pakistani Britons, Pakistanis Tagged: Academy Award, Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill, Altaf Hussain, Dr Mohammad Jawad, George Clooney, Huma Yusuf, Karachi, MQM, Oscar, Pakistan, PPP, Saving Face, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Zakia & Rukhsana

Sharmeen wins first Pakistani Oscar

LOS ANGELES: Pakistani filmmaker and first-time Oscar nominee Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Academy Award on Monday for her documentary about acid attack victims, a first for a Pakistani.

In her acceptance speech, Chinoy dedicated the award to the women of Pakistan. “All the women in Pakistan working for change, don’t give up on your dreams, this is for you,” she said.

Directed by Daniel Junge and produced by Sharmeen Chinoy, the film follows British plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad, who returns to his homeland to help victims of acid burns.

More than 100 people, mainly women and girls, are disfigured in acid attacks every year in Pakistan, although groups helping survivors say many more cases go unreported.

“The women who decided to be a part of the documentary did so because they wanted to make their voices heard and wanted to bring attention to this form of assault,” Chinoy said in an interview conducted before she won the Oscar.

“The main reason that they are in ‘Saving Face’ is to make their stories heard and have an impact.”

Many victims are women attacked by their husbands, and others assaulted for turning down a proposal of marriage. One girl in the documentary describes how she was burned after rejecting the advances of her teacher. She was 13 at the time.

Another woman featured in the film is 25-year-old Rukhsana, whose husband threw acid on her and her sister-in-law doused her in gasoline before her mother-in-law lit a match and set her on fire.

Chinoy said she hopes the cases in her film will resonate for others in Pakistan.

“It is a story of hope with a powerful message for the Pakistani audience. I felt this would be a great way to show how Pakistanis can help other Pakistanis overcome their problems,” she said.

Chinoy’s films have won international acclaim. Her 2010 documentary, Pakistan’s Taliban Generation, won an International Emmy Award.

The documentary competed against “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” a Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson film about a mid-century starlet who chose the church over Hollywood; “The Barber of Birmingham,” a Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday film that follows the life of 85-year-old barber James Armstrong and the legacy of the civil rights movement; James Spione’s war film “Incident in New Baghdad”; and “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom,” a film by Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen that follows survivors of Japan’s 2011 earthquake and their struggle to recover from the wave that crushed their homes and lives.

Sharmeen Obaid talks about Saving Face

Technorati Tags: first pakistani oscar, oscar award 2012, sharmeen obaid

Saving Face directed by Pakistani investigative documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Junge, received the prestigious Academy Award in the category: Best Documentary (Short) at the 84th Annual Academy Awards®. Here is the acceptance speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rvRi6skW-M&feature=youtu.be

The category of Best Documentary (Short) was presented by Rose Byrne & Melissa McCarthy to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Junge. This marks both Sharmeen and Daniel’s first ever Oscar award and was also the first Oscar to be awarded to a Pakistani in the history of the Academy Awards. Upon receiving the award, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy thanked the Heroes of Pakistan , The Academy, her colleagues, cast and crew, fellow nominees, parents, friends and family and said “I am deeply humbled and blown away by the outpouring of support and well wishes that I have received. It is an indescribable feeling and is a dream come true! This is for all the budding filmmakers who think that their work will not be appreciated or recognized; if I can do it, so can you. Today, Pakistan was in the news for all the right reasons and I am thrilled that we are now recognized as artists and story tellers. Zakia, Rukhsana- this one is for you”

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California and Billy Crystal hosted the ceremony, while Brian Grazer produced it. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy walked the red carpet with her husband Fahad Chinoy wearing a custom made and quintessentially Pakistani outfit by renowned couturier Bunto Kazmi with jewellery exclusively designed for Sharmeen for the occasion by Kiran Aman of Kiran Fine Jewellery. After the main Academy Awards ceremony, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy attended post-Oscar events on which she wore an ensemble by leading fashion designers Sana Safinaz with exclusive jewellery by Sherezad Rahimtoola.

Saving Face chronicles the work of acclaimed British Pakistani plastic surgeon, Dr Mohammad Jawad as he travelled to Pakistan and performed reconstructive surgery on survivors of acid violence. Acid violence, an extreme form of physical abuse, is systemically underreported in Pakistan; official figures state that 150 cases of acid violence are filed every year, though it is estimated that the actual figure is far greater. This is caused in part by structural inequalities that make it difficult for women to access the judicial system in addition to longstanding cultural practices that support gender discrimination. Saving Face is an account of such violence told by survivors through their personal journeys of endurance, recovery and reconciliation. Saving Face is equally a story about the ways in which women continue to struggle for justice in Pakistan as it is about their resilience and unwavering strength in overcoming difficult circumstances. The observational documentary was filmed entirely in Pakistan, primarily in the Seraiki belt in addition to Rawalpindi, Karachi and Islamabad.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy hopes to screen Saving Face in Pakistan, with special screenings at local schools, colleges, universities and communities in order to spread awareness and promote dialogue within Pakistan.

Renowned for producing hard-hitting, character-driven content, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy continues to set new standards for documentary films that address cultural and political inequality. With a formidable list of awards under her belt including a coveted Emmy Award for her film ‘Pakistan’s Taliban Generation’, this is Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s first ever Oscar award.

Saving Face is set to air on America’s premier television cable network HBO, on March 8, 2012.

Who is Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy?

In 2001 the global view of terrorism and Muslims changed forever – and like the millions of people affected post 9/11, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, an aspiring journalist turned to the medium of visual storytelling, with a decision to work as an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her vision has been to connect global audiences with the everyday lives of alienated and marginalised communities across the world. To date, Sharmeen’s work has taken her to over ten countries around the world where amongst other things she has had the opportunity to connect with refugees, women’s advocate groups and human rights defenders.

Sharmeen started her career in journalism while enrolled at the prestigious Smith College where she read Economics and Government, while freelancing as a writer for newspapers in the United States and Canada. She later completed her post graduate degrees in International Policy Studies in 2003 and Communication (Journalism) in 2004 from Stanford University.

Her work as an international documentary producer and correspondent progressed in 2002 when she started working at New York Times Television while she was still enrolled at Stanford. Since then, Sharmeen has worked as a producer, director & reporter at Channel 4 (2004-2009), a director & reporter at PBS Frontline World (2004-2009) and at Al Jazeera International (2006-2007). Indeed Sharmeen was one of the first Muslim women to be broadcast on mainstream Western media.

A multi-faceted entrepreneur, Sharmeen started her eponymous film production company Sharmeen Obaid Films in Toronoto in 2006 and recently opened a sister company in Karachi. Sharmeen has produced sixteen critically acclaimed films, all of which have been aired across international channels to global audiences including networks such as CNN, CBC, Channel 4, PBS, Al Jazeera and HBO. Sharmeen is also the co-founder of Pakistan’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to cultural and historic preservation, The Citizen’s Archive of Pakistan and continues to serve as the company’s President and leading cultural preservationist since its founding in 2007.  As a senior fellow at TED 2011 international, Sharmeen has also been one of the driving forces behind the locally organised Tedx Karachi events in both 2010 and 2011 where she reached out to iconic personalities such as Imran Khan and Mukhataran Mai, to share their stories of inspiration .

In September 2011 Sharmeen spoke at Google Zeitgeist in Arizona alongside the likes of Ted Kopple & Ariana Huffington. She was also selected as one of eleven rising young leaders from Asia by the Asia Society in 2011. and participated in the Asia Society’s sixth annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit, which was held in New Delhi India in November 2011.

Over her career, Sharmeen has received diverse international and national awards and accolades for her intrepid filmmaking and to this end, she has been the recipient of the esteemed International Emmy Award for her documentary Pakistan’s Taliban Generation (2010) and is still the first non US citizen to have received the coveted Livingston Award for Best International Reporting under the age of 35 in any medium, print and broadcast. She was also the proud recipient of the YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction award for her services in the field of Communication, making documentaries that touch upon the lives of women in extraordinary situations, from the refugee camps of Afghanistan, to the plight of aboriginal women in Western Canada.

Her ongoing projects include: Saving Face, a documentary chronicling the work the work of acclaimed British Pakistani plastic surgeon, Dr Mohammad Jawad as he travels to Pakistan and performs reconstructive surgery on survivors of acid violence.

Pakistani plastic surgeon aiding victims of acid attacks in Pakistan, which she is co-directing with acclaimed international director Daniel Junge. The film will air on HBO on March 8th  2012, Saving Face has won an Academy Award [Oscar] for the Best Documentary, Short Subject as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; Transgender: Pakistans Open Secret is another more recent film with Sharmeen at the director’s helm – the film was released in the UK in December 2011. The film explores the lives of transsexuals in Pakistan who exist on the fringes of society.

Sharmeen is also producing an animated television series for children in Pakistan for national broadcast which endeavours to explore issues in identity, history and culture in Pakistan.

For more information on Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy Films visit http://sharmeenobaidfilms.com

Image from the Guardian: Dr. Jawad examines Zakia's Face

Tomorrow is Oscar day. If you are anything like me, you watch as many Oscar-nominated films as humanly possible (while still, of course, maintaining some semblance of a life) and hope your favorite movies walk away with the coveted trophy.

The Oscars are it, the last pit stop in the awards season, the culmination of all that was brilliant in film that year. This year, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy became the first Pakistani to ever garner an Academy Award nomination. Her documentary, Saving Face, co-directed with Daniel Junge, is up for the Oscar in the short documentary category. The film delves into the issue of acid attacks through the lens of the women affected by tragedy and the doctor trying to help them. In Pakistan, there are 100 acid attacks reported each year, but many cases go unreported, the victims instead relegated to the shadows of society.

Saving Face follows two women who chose not to remain silent. Zakia was horrifically injured after her husband, a drug addict, threw undiluted battery acid on her after she tried to divorce him. In the film, Zakia’s husband, who was in jail following the crime, called the charges against him a “conspiracy,” stating that his wife was his and it was “a matter of dignity.” The crimes against Rukhsana, who is just 25 years old, were also perpetrated by her sister-in-law and mother-in-law, who lit her on fire and locked her in a room. When asked for his account of the attack, her husband Yasir claimed Rukhsana had a temper and high blood pressure and threw acid on herself. He added, “99 percent of [these women] throw acid on themselves.”

The stories are woven into the larger narrative, but also are documented as a journey for retribution. Dr. Mohammed Jawad, a plastic surgeon in London, works to help these women become a part of society again. On Zakia, he performed the first surgery of its kind in Pakistan. The Guardian noted, “He used Matriderm to smooth her ravaged face, gave her a pair of glasses with a painted eye and attached a prosthetic nose, allowing her finally to show her face in public.” The results are extraordinary for a woman who had stopped showing her face in public (instead covering it with a burqa and sunglasses), whose life had previously been stolen by her husband’s atrocities.

The beauty of Saving Face was in its very human and nuanced portrayal of all its characters. Zakia was not just a victim of an acid attack, a faceless woman both literally and figuratively. She was a survivor, someone strong enough to fight against the system. During the film, her husband was found guilty of his crimes, receiving two life sentences. Her case was the first to be tried under the new law passed unanimously by Pakistan’s Parliament (and tirelessly pushed forward by the Acid Survivors Foundation and  MNA Marvi Memon). Rukhsana’s story was more bittersweet but reflected the tragic reality facing most acid victims. Many, like Rukhsana, are forced to live with their attackers, mainly for economic reasons.

This speaks to the complexities that exist in societies like Pakistan, where attitudes towards domestic violence (honor-related or not) and victims, are a very large part of the problem. Lack of economic opportunities, social stigma, and safety problems among others all act as significant obstacles for survivors of these attacks. While passing legislation to give their attackers life imprisonment is an important top-down step, there is much more that needs to be done to address the symptoms behind this problem. We need to do more than just be prescriptive.

I watched the film yesterday evening. I expected to cry, to be horrified and indignant for the state of our society, for the crimes committed daily against women in their own homes and by their own family. But I did not expect to also walk away with a deep and lingering sense of hope. Dr. Jawad’s compassion and charm jumped off the screen, and his deep relationships with both Zakia and Rukhsana were touching. After having a baby boy, Rukhsana told Jawad she had named him Mohammed with hopes that he would grow up to be a doctor just like him. Zakia’s son was also a strong but silent character woven beautifully into the narrative. Though he did not speak during the film, he stood constantly by his mother’s side, a small example of how all is not black and white in these stories.

In a segment for NBC News, Sharmeen, who has previously won an Emmy for her documentary Children of the Taliban, told NBC’s Amna Nawaz, “I fell in love the first time we put the cameras on, and it was because I could see the colors, the textures, the language, the beauty and the heartache that could just transcend all barriers.” The purpose of this documentary, she noted to the Washington Post, was to educate people about acid attacks in Pakistan, but also to recalibrate attitudes towards honor violence. She said, “We wanted men to know they think it is manly to throw acid, but in fact it was the most unmanly thing to do.”

As a Pakistani, I am incredibly proud of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and her much-deserved nomination. But I am also proud of the characters in the film, who were all larger-than-life in their capacity to love, to fight, and to live. We all can learn many lessons from them. At the end of Saving Face, Dr. Jawad noted, “I’m part of this society that has this disease. I’m doing my bit. Come join the party.”

The Oscars will air tomorrow evening (EST), and Saving Face will be shown on HBO on March 8th. Sharmeen, you have an entire country behind you. And we are all rooting for you.

UPDATE 2045 EST: Sharmeen just won the Oscar – AHHHHH!!! Pakistan’s first Oscar – SO PROUD!

Horrible quality photo, but I was too excited to take a good one of my television!

Filed under: Op-Eds

by Nadia Rasul

Visual storyteller and Academy Award nominee Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy spoke to Asia Blog recently about the strong tradition of storytelling in Pakistan, the need for spreading awareness and generating dialogue about critical social issues in the country, the impact of digital media technologies on her work and what an Oscar nomination means to her.

Chinoy is the first Pakistani to be nominated for an Academy Award for her film Saving Face. Her film, which is up for an Oscar in the Best Documentary, Short Subject category deals with the issue of acid violence on women in Pakistan.

She acknowledges that there are people who feel she presents a negative image of Pakistan in her work, however she feels “that it is important to address issues instead of running away from them, and that the first step is to accept that we have faults just like every other country”. According to Chinoy, winning an Academy Award will allow “people to see a different side of Pakistan, even if it is just for one night. Here is an excerpt of the interview.

In the 10 years since you started your career as a filmmaker, how has storytelling in Pakistan evolved, especially with the changes in the digital media landscape?

Pakistan has always had a rich history of story telling. We have a tradition of oral history and narrative driven content which is reflected in our literature, art and music. When I started my career 10 years ago, Pakistan had two state run TV channels — now we have over 80 privately owned channels along with dozens of radio stations and newspapers. This coupled with a booming digital media community has had incredible results on the documentation of our culture and access to information and news. Digital media in particular, breaks barriers between the storyteller and the audience allowing for more voices in the public sphere. The fluidity and inclusive nature of this medium has been specifically beneficial for the youth of Pakistan.

We have a thriving blogging community and filmmakers and artists have the opportunity to promote and distribute their work online. This is an exciting time to be part of the creative community in Pakistan. Our music is bringing people together, our literature is garnering international acclaim and our film industry is breaking boundaries and expanding. I am thrilled by the possibilities presented by an open and free media, and hope that we continue to patronize these institutions.

Read the rest of the interview on Asia Society website here

By Sonya Rehman

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was in her office, in her hometown of Karachi, Pakistan, when she found out that “Saving Face,” which she co-directed with Daniel Junge, had been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary short.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy – Photo: Amean J

Read the entire article here!

The Wall Street Journal, Scene Asia

Some people make things happen, some watch while things happen, and some wonder “what happened? Film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has become the first Pakistani to win an Oscar nomination for the best documentary in the short subject category. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary Saving Face is about the problem of acid attacks on women in Pakistan. ‘Saving Face’ [...]