Sharmeen Oboid-Chinoy – who is a Pakistani journalist and filmmaker – made her way to winning the Academy Award twice. She is the first Pakistani woman to win the Oscar award and the first woman to win it twice.
Her most recent documentary – A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015) which won the 88th Academy Award in Documentary Short Subject category – is about honour killing. This documentary follows the story of 18-year-old Saba who survived an ‘honour’ killing attempt by her own people. Her only crime was that she had fallen in love.
Back in 2012, Sharmeen and Daniel Junge – an American documentary filmmaker – co-directed ‘Saving Face’ which too won an Academy award. The documentary features two women who were victims of an acid attack, and their struggle for justice.
According to Sharmeen, in Pakistan 1,000 women were killed annually in the name of honour. Both her award-winning documentaries show a dismal condition of women in Pakistan. Specifically, honour killings put the women in a deteriorating position.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reports that from February 1, 2004 to February 1, 2006 there were 988 incidents of honour killing in Pakistan, and there was not a single FIR registered against the culprits. Furthermore, between Feb 2014 and Feb 2016, there were 1,276 cases of honour killing and nearly 400 cases did not have FIRs registered.
It is an unfortunate state that honour killing is considered saving the honor of a family. It takes place, for instance, when a female member of a family wants to marry the person of her will. This is not the case with every Pakistani family, but it is safe to say that to a great extent this psyche or misconception about honour does exist in this country.
On the invitation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sharmeen screened the documentary at the PM House in Islamabad, which was attended by many lawmakers of the country. Grabbing the attention of PM shows the extent to which the documentary impacted the societal mindset in general. The documentary eventually led to legislation in laws related to honour killing.
The Senate of Pakistan passed the Anti-Honour Killing Laws Amendment) Bill 2014 and Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2014 along with two other bills. The bill was tabled in the Senate by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Sughra Imam in February 2014. The bill asked for amendments in Pakistan Penal Code 1860, Qanoon-e-Shahdat Order 1984, and the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 to ensure that such crimes be reported and culprits be brought within the ambit of law.
However, a number of critics countrywide opposed Sharmeen’s documentary, saying that she always depicts a negative image of Pakistan. Whatever the circumstance are, the government needs to take concrete initiative in order protect women.
A woman tells the abysmal tales of women and asks for justice is really both motivating and worrying. Motivating in the sense a woman is spreading awareness about women’s issue and worrying because women continue to suffer at the hands of society.