Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy not only became the first Pakistani to ever get nominated for the highest filmmaking honour in the world, the Oscars, but she also became the first one to win it for her documentary short film, Saving Face, along with Daniel Junge. PM Gilani has declared a civilian award for her achievement for putting Pakistan on the face of the Oscars, where the whole world watches and take notice of things. She won an Emmy, America’s highest television honour, for her documentary, Pakistan: Children of the Taliban in 2010
Saving Face is about the acid victims and this is the reason why she dedicated her award to all the hard working women in Pakistan who believe in change. She said:
“Daniel and I want to dedicate this award to all the heroes working on the ground in Pakistan, including Dr. Muhammad Jawad who is here with us today, the plastic surgeon working on rehabilitating all of these women. Rukhsana and Zakiya who are our main subjects of the film, whose resilience and bravery in the face of such adversity is really admirable. And to all the women in Pakistan who are working for change, don’t give up on your dreams. This is for you.”
A lot of the people, both known and unknown went on Twitter to tweet about this great moment for Pakistan and the Pakistani women.
She said during an interview on the Oscars Red Carpet that:
“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. The main reason that they are in ‘Saving Face’ is to make their stories heard and have an impact.”
