Pakistan woke up to a zingy Monday morning with journalist and documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy grabbing the golden statuette at the 84th Academy Awards.
Column inches have been filling thick and fast since then. Doubtless more is in store in the coming days and weeks to feast on the latest odds-defying story from Pakistan that keeps the foreigner spoiled.
Great symbolism is attached to this epoch-making development where Pakistan is concerned and it would seem even a rhapsodic note wouldn’t fall in the realm of overstatement.
The Oscar won by Obaid-Chinoy, who directed Saving Face — a stunning work on the harrowing lives of victims of acid throwing — with Daniel Junge, is a first for Pakistan.
It has come at a time when the South Asian nation is caught in a maelstrom of troubles, mainly from a draining war-on-terror in its myriad hues with seemingly no end and extremism to a struggling economy — with a government whose grip on the state is tenuous at best.
But that is stating the political economy. For a country whose better half of the population is female, the environment is hardly conducive for creative work. Crimes against women have increased manifold — forming part of the subject of Obaid-Chinoy’s Oscar-winning work — making it difficult to pursue causes that are at great risk of drawing the worst possible consequences at the hands of obscurantist elements.
Since we are on the subject of films here, it is so easy to forget that while there is no dearth of rich content waiting to be explored by the best of their trade, Pakistan is practically a dead hunting ground for its own industry.
For once, this has little to do with issues of security — that bane of many a Doubting Thomas. The moribund state of cinema has contributed to a general decline in exploring the medium as a vital instrument of expression.
This disenabling environment has led to a spectacular decline in the number of cinema houses, which has fallen dramatically from more than 1,300 countrywide in the Seventies to only dozens now. The arrival of a few Cineplexes half-a-decade ago have retrieved cinegoing to an extent but it is all down to Bollywood and Hollywood fare.
Every four years, a decent local flick does make a happy round but it is a bit rich to suggest that it would revive the Pakistani cinema — somewhat coquettishly branded Lollywood after its favoured seat of culture, Lahore.
It is against this backdrop that a Muslim, female documentary filmmaker from Pakistan has made a significant statement by landing an Oscar at a forum which just doesn’t get any bigger and where competition is nerve-wrecking. No wonder, Pakistan is electrified with message boards, Facebook and twitterverse in overdrive.
Obaid-Chinoy’s greatest hour has done wonders to lift the morale of a nation badly in need of heroes. However, to suggest this is the only story worth its speck of stardust would be underrating the heroics of other female of the species this side of Indus.
Pakistani women have fired the imagination of the nation before in both academic and sporting arenas.
Eighth grader Malal Yousafzai, 13, defined courage in her own way as a blogger for BBC, writing from Swat during the heady days of Taliban. Championing the rights of the people of the bloodied valley, she was nominated by KidsRights Foundation, an international advocacy group, for — and narrowly missed — the International Children’s Peace Prize last year.
The tragic death recently of Arfa Karim, the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, drowned the nation in sorrow but her heady achievements — she was still shy of her 17th birthday when she died of cardiac arrest induced by a sudden epileptic seizure — are legion, drawing both the state and private entities to honour her work with several rounds of dedication.
The world was also left stunned last year when Sitara Barooj Akbar, an 11-year-old girl from Rabwah — home to Ahmedis, the most persecuted community whose sect has been constitutionally excommunicated from the fold of Islam in Pakistan — became the world’s youngest to pass O’Level.
Sitara passed five papers including English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology and given her age and petite frame was at first mistaken by an IELTS examination officer for the daughter of a candidate!
No private sector institute was initially, willing to admit Sitara, who still has to commute 60km from home each day to a Beaconhouse branch in Faisalabad and back. Initially, her father was forced to leave his government job and open a private school to educate Sitara when no-one would admit her because of age.
Sadly, the international media is too preoccupied with stereotyped coverage of news events surrounding the war-on-terror in Pakistan to note these incredible stories of human endurance and courage.
If there is one woman, who personifies the never-say-die spirit, it is Naseem Hameed, who literally ran out everyone else to complete a fairytale the likes of which would be any nation’s pride.
A poor labourer’s daughter, Naseem became the fastest woman in South Asia. This happened against all odds. Naseem had a trying journey, not in the least because she was forbidden as a teenager from running and told by a medical specialist she could never compete because of a serious foot injury.
For a girl, who could not even afford a decent pair of shoes at one time, and whose parents had to tide over general disapproval among their kith and kin to allow their daughter to pursue her ambition, the 100-metre dash was more than just a means to secure a gold medal.
The spectacular triumph of Pakistani women cricket team at the Asian Games also did wonders for the image of a republic despite a lack of system that harnesses the obvious potential.
This space would not suffice to account for all the achievements but in a literal manifestation of managing the impossible, 19 Pakistani girls from Karachi Grammar School crammed into a smart car to create a world record in 2010 to drive home the point!
Obaid-Chinoy, then, is the latest amongst this magnificent breed of women, who have often been denied their due but almost always excelled given half a decent chance. Significantly, braver are the acid-attack victims, who defied the odds to tell the world their stories to Obaid-Chinoy.
Even more important than the Oscar she won, it was Obaid-Chinoy’s parting message, hand aloft with the coveted statuette, at the accepting speech that continues to inspire: “To all the women in Pakistan who are working for change, don’t give up on your dreams. This is for you”.
umm just saying though! Just the exam on the 11th. My future is hanging on it.