Sharmeen Obaid– Who Brought an Oscar to Pakistan – 2012

We have been talking about different ways to earn money by now, but today I have decided to share something from which you will learn how to utilize money in serving your country and the humanity as well as generating a good revenue and respect for yourself.

Sharmeen Obaid- Chinoy, A Pakistani Film maker has recently won Oscars for the best documentary short for her masterpiece of work “Saving face”. This is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that an Oscar has come home. After India’s shot for the Slum dog millionaire, it’s now Pakistan’s bitter reality that has been appreciated and now known throughout the world.

Why Sharmeen Obaid?

There is so much to Learn from the life of this remarkable lady that can actually motivate you in everything you plan up to do in your life, whether it’s your online business or offline job, your internet marketing or your trading business, if you acquired some lessons from her strategies and make them your principles, you will be soon the one you ever dreamt of!

Personal Life

I know, being a girl that life for women in Pakistan is not an easy one. Although we claim that we are an independent nation, still the women of the in-dependent state are merely treated as personal slaves, and are deprived of basic needs of life and no scope to acquire knowledge. In these circumstances, the families that take steps for the welfare of their daughters, allowing them to build their separate identity are really worthy of praise, and Sharmeen’s family is one of them.

Sharmeen was born in Karachi and attended Karachi Grammar School (one of the best ones) and was the first women in her entire family who went to the U.S College and after getting graduated from Smith, with a degree in economics and government, Stanford University in California was her next target.

She herself said once:

“Initially, I struggled with coming to terms with the reality on the ground, and to accept that I, as a Pakistani woman, had enjoyed liberties and freedoms that were entirely unavailable to survivors of acid violence”.

Sharmeen is living in Pakistan with Her Husband Fahd Obaid and a daughter, serving the nation by her unique subject selections for her film making.

Building Career

Sharmeen’s career started with New York Times in 2002, when she produced her first film “Terror’s Children”, which was about afghan refugee children. That brought her two awards too. Since then she has produced twelve Films around the world.

Some other popular Documentaries of Sharmeen are:

“The Lost Generation,” it’s the story of middle-class Iraqis driven out of their country by war;

“Pakistan: Children of the Taliban,” which explored the Taliban’s recruitment strategies among the poor and disenfranchised;

“Women of the Holy Kingdom,” about the rising women’s faction in Saudi Arabia;

“Afghanistan Unveiled/Lifting the Veil,” all about women’s tyranny in Afghanistan and the delayed reconstruction efforts there.

Working for the Nation

It’s a fact that if she would have chosen some other subject for her film making, it would have been easier for her to make money by directing romantic movies, just like other directors of Pakistan, but she had something else to achieve.

In one of her interviews, Obaid-Chinoy disclosed her passion and said:

“My passion is to bring the voices of minorities, women and refugees from one part of the world to another.”

After the success of Terror’s Children, she decided to return Pakistan and to work for it. She petitioned her College and New York Times Television production division to help in achieving her goals, which the both organizations accepted and gave her funds as well as assistance.

Saving Face

Obaid-Chinoy’s biggest success, “Saving Face” won Oscars as Best Short Documentary and has made her native country, Pakistan proud of it.

It is the story of women in Pakistan who endure acid attack. It actually relates the incidents of throwing acid or gasoline on the faces of women in. Pakistan is a male Dominated country where women are punished for breathing, if that’s against the will of her custodian (and not guardian). Such practices often leave women brutally burned, disfigured, emotionally scarred and sometimes blinded.

The story is also based on Dr. Mohammad Jawal, who is a plastic surgeon based in London and devotes a part of his practice to reconstructing the faces of women who are the victim of acid attacks.

The entire nation feels a pride that finally Pakistan won an Oscar but an interesting thing to be noted is, none of the Pakistanis are ashamed of the fact that throwing acid on women’s face is still a practice in their homeland. No one might have thought about doing anything to protect the women rights but Sharmeen Obaid did!

I really hope that you find an inspiration in her work which she not only did to make money but also to serve the Humanity.

Blessings,