Inspirational Women March 2012: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

"I have always felt that if you are educated and empowered you can become the voice for those that are marginalized and disenfranchised,”

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Oscar winning Documentary Film Maker



The Skinless Project is honored to have Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as March’s inspirational profile. Ms.Obaid- Chinoy has made women around the world proud as she snagged her first ever OSCAR for her powerful documentary “Saving Face”.  She used her passion and intellect to tell the stories of women less fortunate to the entire world. Our new Film and Media blogger - Sadia Ashraf, sat down with Ms.Obaid-Chinoy for an interview. We are delighted to share her intimate conversation with you.

Sharmeen’s Career Trajectory

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Oscar Academy Award win was a landmark victory for women in Pakistan. Her work as a filmmaker got worldwide recognition with an Oscar nab for Saving Face in the category of Documentary Short. Fitting then, that Obaid-Chinoy dedicated her Oscar to the struggle for women’s emancipation in her acceptance speech: “All the women in Pakistan working for change, don’t give up on your dreams, this one is for you.”

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is an investigative correspondent and a documentary filmmaker from Karachi, Pakistan. Her other notable films are Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret and Pakistan’s Taliban Generation .  Obaid-Chinoy has worked on 14 films broadcast in networks in the United States and Britain including CNN, PBS, Channel 4 (U.K.) CBC, Arte and the Discovery channel.

She has earned many awards and honors for her work: the Alfred I. Dupont Award, The Livingston Award, The Overseas Press Club Award, The American Women in Radio and Television Award, The One World Media Award and the Banff TV Rockie Award. Obaid-Chinoy also won an Emmy award for her documentary, Taliban Generation (2010) and is the first non-American to win the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also announced that a civil award would be conferred on Obaid-Chinoy for the Oscar win.

A seasoned public speaker, Obaid-Chinoy has spoken at the World Affairs Council, Asia Society, Harvard, and Yale. She is also a TED senior Fellow and she organized TED conferences in Karachi.  She has written for several local and international publications including The Independent , The Philadelphia Inquirer , The Globe & Mail , Dawn and The News .

Obaid-Chinoy graduated from Smith College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Government and then completed two master’s degrees from Stanford University in International Policy Studies and Communication. After living in the US for ten years, Obaid-Chinoy returned to Pakistan inspired to give international coverage to that country’s social and political inequities.

Obaid-Chinoy says she always had a particular interest in exploring social issues, “especially the impact of violence on society, critical thinking in education & women's rights in marginalized communities.” She has worked in many countries to highlight refugees, women’s advocate groups and human rights defenders. In 2007, Sharmeen helped found The Citizens Archive of Pakistan; a non-profit, volunteer organization that promotes the culture and history of Pakistan.

The Activist Filmmaker

Two days before the Academy Awards, I interviewed Obaid-Chinoy at a pre-Oscar celebration in Los Angeles. Our conversation revealed the complexity of pessimism and hope in Pakistan. I asked if her career trajectory was based on her activist work or the artistic fruition of a filmmaker. Without hesitation, she replied that her “desire to help others” guided her path as a Pakistani filmmaker, adding that “wherever I have made films around the world, the topics I have chosen are all about giving a voice to the voiceless.”

On one hand, while Pakistan produces educated, enlightened and talented females like Obaid-Chinoy, it also bears witness to victims of acid throwing, like 25-year-old Rukhsana, who is featured in the documentary, Saving Face . The variations that can produce such juxtaposed lives — in a developing country like Pakistan—are the stratum of education, social milieu and background.

“I have always felt that if you are educated and empowered you can become the voice for those that are marginalized and disenfranchised,” said Obaid-Chinoy.

While Pakistan rejoices in the Oscar win for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy; there is need to pause and reflect on the topic of the film — women who are the victims of acid burning. The film also features the transformative struggle for female rights in Pakistan. Obaid-Chinoy said that as an “emancipated woman” who enjoyed “liberties,” she produced the documentary because it perturbed her that “many other women don’t have that freedom.”

As Obaid-Chinoy stepped off the Oscar stage after accepting her Oscar, humanitarians and actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt congratulated her and got a copy of Saving Face . Obaid-Chinoy told the New York Times, “It reinforces the fact you can be anyone, come from anywhere and as long as you do quality work, it gets rewarded.”
When asked about her hope for the future of Pakistan, Obaid-Chinoy said— despite the problems women face— she felt optimistic. “We have a strong feminine presence: female lawyers and legislators fighting on behalf of these women, who hear the testimonies, write the bills and get them passed in parliament. This shows no matter where we come from in Pakistan, there are people working to make it a more tolerant society,” she said.

Saving Face: the Film

Saving Face documents the reconstructive work of British-Pakistani reconstructive surgeon Dr. Jawad and some of his patients who are victims of acid attacks in Pakistan. It focuses on the stories of Rukhsana and Zakia and their efforts to overcome the legal, social and psychological repercussions of that violence.

There are 100 reported cases of female acid attacks in Pakistan annually though it is a universal problem with pockets prevailing in South Asia, South America and Africa. Dr. Jawad initiated cutting edge techniques of burn treatment in the reconstruction of Katie Piper — a British model who had sulphuric acid thrown on her face by a stalker in 2008.

Female victimization is a social predicament spreading in developing countries — regardless of religion and culture. Acid throwing on women is not a religious phenomenon and the causes of acid throwing are poverty, illiteracy and ignorance.

Amidst the agony, hope does exist. Saving Face highlights the mêlée for women’s rights in Pakistan by activists, lawyers, journalists and politicians like Marvi Memon. The movement led Pakistan’s parliament to pass two bills — the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Laws — in December of 2011. These bills enforce imprisonment and heavy fines on the perpetrators of these crimes.

Obaid-Chinoy said that the passing of the bills is a testament that “the documentary is really a story about how educated women can help underprivileged women in Pakistan.”

At a Pomona College, CA viewing of Saving Face , held one day after the film’s Oscar win, the auditorium was bursting at the seams.  The audience reacted visibly and verbally to the documentary: They gasped at the horrific stories of Rukhsana and Zakia; laughed at Dr. Jawad’s flippant quips; snorted when the perpetrators were interviewed and cheered at the sentencing of one of the criminals, who received two consecutive life sentences for acid throwing.

At one point in the film, there was a palpable lump-in-the-throat silence when Dr. Jawad stops an interview with a victim of acid throwing, takes off his foggy glasses and wiped his eyes. It was therapeutic and promising.

Obaid-Chinoy is a young woman who has already delivered her talent to the world’s center stage. However it seems her career trajectory has just been launched and shows tremendous promise.

Want to learn how you can help? Visit the Acid Prevention Foundation, a non-for-profit featured in Saving Face at http://acidsurvivorspakistan.org/you-can-help