Instead of celebrating this unique victory at the Oscars for Pakistan, which most spent a life-time in a hard-working career and still do not achieve, some of the nay-sayers are critising Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for portraying Pakistan in a negative light. She has answered back to these skeptics by launching a campaign on Tuesday through their website, savingfacefilm.com. Around 200 women fall prey to such victimization and cases are hardly registered against the culprits with minimum prosecution carried out against them. According to the co-director of the short documentary, Daniel Junge:
“The film must be more than an expose of horrendous crimes, it must be a recipe for addressing the problem and a hope for the future.”
Just last year, Pakistan’s parliament passed stricter penalties against such acid attacks with the punishment being between 14 years minimum to a life in prison and a fine of Rs.1 million.
According to Sharmeen’s mother, Saba, the victory “provided her with a unique opportunity and strength to strive for her goal more effectively”.
Hence, not only had Sharmeen become the first Pakistani to get nominated and win an Oscar for her country, but she is also helping to bring positive change by actually addressing the issues instead of hiding away from them. If the educated class and the ones filled with opportunities will not take of this country, then there is no right of Pakistani Government to go on begging others to do so for this nation.
