Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won her second Oscar at a glittering Academy Awards ceremony Sunday, becoming one of the few women to achieve the coveted distinction for her short documentary “A Girl in the River – The Price of Forgiveness.”
Chinoy is among a bunch of extraordinary Pakistanis whose creative work has won acclaim in the United States and other leading Western countries in the last few weeks. Earlier, this month two Pakistani scientists MIT Professor Nargis Mavalavala and Europe-based Imran Khan hit headlines for being part of the team that discovered cosmic gravitational waves in a momentous breakthrough. Another Pakistani engineer Samir Iqbal working at the Texas University invented a device that would help detect cancer at early stages and this way boost chances of patients’ survival through timely treatment of the deadly disease.
Chinoy has been a well-known name in the world of documentary films since 2012, when she won her first Oscar for her probing documentary Saving Face, which highlighted the issue of acid attacks on women in Pakistan, and also won an Emmy Award.
The 37-year-old journalist and filmmaker has confronted issues like honor killing and attacks on women – issues which had been previously overlooked in the country with a large conservative population. Although literary works like short stories by some of the leading writers addressed the issues of violence and discrimination against women, Sharmeen Chinoy’s documentaries – helped by Internet-eased freedoms of expression and discussions in the society and the progressive media – have brought the issue to the front burner like never before.
“This is what happens when determined women get together,” a jubilant Obaid-Chinoy said excitedly to an applauding galaxy of film stars, actors, directors, writers and filmmakers.
Just days before traveling to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, Chinoy met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who hailed the documentary work and declared “there is no honor in honor killing.”
Chinoy, who is Pakistani-Canadian, cited the meeting in her remarks : “This week the Pakistani prime minister has said that he will change the law on honor killing after watching this film. That is the power of film.”
Girl in the River presents the story of a Pakistani woman Saba Qaiser, who survives a chilling honor killing attempt by her father and uncle after she marries against their wishes.
According to human rights organizations hundreds of women are killed in deeply conservative parts of Pakistan in the name of honor every year. However, in recent years, thanks to a general sense of awareness and focus of civil society organizations on the social ills retarding the country’s progress including crimes against women, the country has started taking steps to stem the inhuman treatment of women.
