Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the woman behind the Oscar-winning documentary film, Saving Face, has received numerous accolades locally and internationally for her cinematographic genius as well as her courage for having highlighted a profoundly deviant, abominable and sinister aspect of the male-dominated society of Pakistan. Acid attacks targeting females are rampant in our society and the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are never brought to justice, as money and influence play a quintessential role in paving the way for such criminals to evade legal accountability for their actions. However, that is not the focus of this article, as I am more interested in discussing the subtle, intricate and inadvertently abandoned implications of the international marketing, distribution and release of the aforementioned documentary film.
First of all, for the sake of argument I would like to emphasise, at this point in time while Pakistan is facing some of the greatest challenges since its inception and is being ruthlessly vilified by the international media on all fronts, global publicity of a documentary film that depicts a very harsh and detestable reality of the Pakistani society was completely redundant. More so, given the reputation of Pakistan already marred by constant negative media coverage. Please note, I am neither against the making of nor the documentary film itself as it is irrefutably commendable. But rather the international media hype over it that is to be solely attributed to the filmmaker, as it is none other than herself by whom it were sent as the official entry of Pakistan to the Oscars.
Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, the reason it seems, behind the nomination and subsequent awarding of the Oscar to this documentary film was not to honour and acknowledge the creativity and professional expertise of the filmmaker. Instead the agenda was to adopt and execute a sly and malicious action plan approach to all the more humiliate and discredit a nation already surrounded by a plethora of controversies. Being a staunch feminist and supporter of human rights, I endorse the production and distribution of documentary films about crime and injustice towards women in the Pakistani society. However, in lieu of the status quo this should be done only at domestic level in order to raise awareness among the masses, urging community members as well as the government to take proactive measures to adopt a holistic approach towards trying to eliminate such criminal conduct, while simultaneously providing speedy justice and recourse in the form of medical treatment to the victims.
I find it utterly preposterous that in recent years some factions of the Pakistani media as well as a significant portion of the general public of Pakistan have taken it upon themselves to unequivocally malign the name of their own country by denouncing it publicly and in a derogatory fashion. This may be in the form of defamation of religion, false propaganda the war on terrorism or condoning the conduct of the likes of pawns such as Veena Malik on local television talk shows, online threads or at international forums.
The ways of Ms Chinoy and the undue recognition and praise afforded to her by the Pakistani media, government and the well educated segment of the civilian population personify the same irrational and rather idiosyncratic frame of mind as despite having lived abroad and having interacted with people of many different nationalities, I have yet to come across a single individual apart from fellow Pakistanis, who takes pride in publicly disgracing his or her country of origin.
Furthermore, it is indeed a pity that we feel privileged to be the recipient of an award bestowed on us for voluntarily exposing to the West yet another dark side of the society by the media of a nation responsible for committing war crimes in Pakistan, be it in the form of genocide of innocent civilians in drone attacks or covert criminal activities of numerous CIA operatives such as Raymond Davis.
It may be argued that such documentaries are routinely produced in Western and other Asian countries - the most prominent of which are the United States and India. However, unlike Pakistan they are not indiscriminately and perpetually lambasted by the international media for the controversies surrounding them.
Also, it is noteworthy that issues of gender discrimination and violence against women are used as one of the justifications provided by the West for waging war against Muslim countries. The root cause of such unlawful and immoral conduct is always erroneously cited as conformity to religious beliefs and convictions and the international media endorses this misconception thus fuelling hatred and religious bigotry against Muslims and Islam.
Proponents of Ms Chinoy may argue that the documentary also depicts a positive side as it shows female victims of acid attacks receiving medical treatment in the form of reconstructive surgery and the relevant offenders being brought to justice. However, statistically there are very few women as such and the Western audience, for which this documentary film was specifically intended, is well aware of this fact. The vast majority of female victims of acid attacks comprises women belonging to the working class, who cannot financially afford to pursue legal battles to bring their attackers to justice. As a result, not only are such cases under reported, but even when they are reported, the overwhelming majority of the offenders is exonerated from the charges levelled at them.
The crux of my argument is in case the purpose of the international marketing and release of this documentary film was to raise global awareness, while urging Western countries, particularly the US, to provide funds to help these unfortunate women, this is not an appropriate time to have endeavoured as such. I believe the international release of this film has served no purpose other than to further tarnish the image of Pakistan on the international front, while concurrently providing the international media and the Western public another reason to fallaciously ascribe such communally anomalistic behaviour, resulting from sheer lawlessness, to so-called “Fundamentalist Islam”.
I wonder why Ms Chinoy has not made a single documentary film to-date about real problems such as the involvement of foreign intelligence agencies in terrorist activities, sectarian violence and insurgent movements in different parts of Pakistan or the devastating consequences of recurrent US drone attacks in the tribal areas, which have claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, including men, women and children up till now.
Evidently, the filmmaker is only interested in identifying the injustice prevailing against women and children in the Islamic world and some remote areas of Africa as opposed to Western countries. The physical and sexual abuse of women and children that exists on a large-scale in the Western countries has never been the subject of any documentary film produced by her. The genocide of innocent civilians in Islamic countries apart from Pakistan such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Occupied Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia or Palestine is another topic she could possibly make a documentary on and release it internationally in order to invoke awareness among inhabitants of the Western countries, regarding the war crimes and human right violations being committed by their elected governments in different regions of the Islamic world for ulterior motives. The illegal abductions and thereafter torture, rapes and killings of countless civilians from Pakistan and other Muslim countries in the garb of the war on terrorism is also subject matter worthy enough of being the focus of a documentary film for the aforesaid purpose.
I would like to end my article by requesting fellow Pakistanis to take some time to think rationally about the points raised in the article before forming an opinion. I know we are all in our own different ways victims of a feudal political system, which has forced an ordinary citizen to succumb to a life of despair and total despondency. However, we should not allow the resentment we feel as a consequence to manifest itself in the form of hatred for a country for which our ancestors sacrificed their lives by disparaging it at international level, particularly at this critical time, while we are being targeted by the international media in order to gain public support for the war on terrorism. The documentary, Saving Face, directed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the credit for which goes to the filmmaker herself, reflects a similar mindset. It is the need of the hour that we unite as a nation and collectively strive to resolve our problems, instead of either consciously or unconsciously playing pawn to those who are trying to destabilise our country.
n The writer is a freelance columnist.