After watching Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s film “A girl in the river: The price of forgiveness”, Pakistan’s prime minister pledged to reform the rule on honor killing. What an impactful influence that movie had, which was directed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (born November 12, 1978) is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker, and activist best recognized for her work in documentaries that focus on gender injustice. She won two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and a Knight International Journalism Award. In 2012, the Pakistani government presented her with the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the country’s second-highest civilian honor. She is one of the world’s 100 most influential persons in Time magazine and also the first female filmmaker to win two Academy Awards before the age of 37.
Background and early years
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy was born to a Gujarati Muslim family in Karachi, Pakistan, on November 12, 1978. Saba Obaid, her mother is a social worker, and Sheikh Obaid, her father, was a businessman who died in 2010. She has one younger sister, named Mahjabeen Obaid. Obaid-Chinoy went to Karachi Grammar School after attending the Convent of Jesus and Mary. She claimed that she was not academically inclined, despite receiving decent grades. She attended Smith College after migrating to the United States, for higher education, where she earned a degree of bachelor’s in Economics and Government in 2002. Obaid-Chinoy, subsequently earned master’s degrees in Communication and International Policy, from Stanford University.
An international reputation and a successful career
Obaid-Chinoy returned to Pakistan in 2002 and began her career as a filmmaker. While a graduate student at Stanford University in 2003 and 2004, she produced two award-winning films. She subsequently began a long relationship with the PBS TV series Frontline World. She first reported “On a Razor’s Edge” in 2004 and created numerous broadcast stories, online videos, and written “Dispatches” from Pakistan over the next five years.
Children of the Taliban, The Lost Generation, Afghanistan Unveiled, 3 Bahadur, Song of Lahore, and the Academy Award-winning Saving Face and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness are among her most well-known films.
She has won multiple honors for her visual contributions, including the Academy Award for Best Short Subject Documentary (2012 and 2016), the Emmy Award for the same category (2010 and 2011), and the One World Media Award for Broadcast Journalist of the Year (2007). Her videos have appeared on PBS, CNN, Discovery Channel, Al Jazeera English, and Channel 4, among other foreign networks. Obaid-Chinoy assisted in establishing the Citizens Archive of Pakistan in 2007, whose projects focus on preserving Pakistan’s cultural and social legacy. She works as an Ambassador for Blood Safety. Obaid- Chinoy is a TED Fellow and the winner of the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s second-highest civilian award.
Time magazine’s named her on the list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2012
On February 15, 2016, Obaid-Chinoy met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad to discuss the steps needed to close the legal loopholes that allow perpetrators of honor killings to go free. The first screening of “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” took place at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat in Islamabad on February 22, 2016, opened by remarks made by Obaid-Chinoy and Prime Minister Sharif, concerning the changes needed to be made to prevent honour killings in Pakistan.
The film was also exhibited at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on February 17, 2016, as a conversation on women and peacekeeping. UN Police Adviser Stefen Feller chaired the event, and it drew a packed house, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative Masud Bin Momen. On April 21, 2016, the documentary received the Humanitarian Award at the RiverRun International Film Festival, and on May 7, 2016, it received it at the Bentonville Film Festival.
Oscars
At the 88th Academy Awards, she received her second Oscar for “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”, on February 28, 2016. This was Obaid Chinoy’s first Oscar win for her film company SOC Films and her second Oscar as director. The documentary went on to win an International Emmy Award for Best Documentary later that year. She spoke at the 47th World Economic Forum in January 2017, and was the first artist to co-chair the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering. This took place between 17–20 January 2017, under the theme “Responsive and Responsible Leadership”. Over 2,500 people from nearly 100 nations attended the conference, which featured over 300 sessions.
Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s second-highest civilian award
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy received Pakistan’s second-highest civilian award, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, on March 23, 2012, for bringing distinction to Pakistan as a filmmaker.
Sharmeen ranked 37th among the fifty coolest desis in 2009 on desicub.com. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy released the 5-part series “Ho Yaqeen (To Believe)”. In 2013, SOC Films and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy collaborated on the 13-part series ‘”Ahaz-e-Safar'” for Aaj News, which addressed issues impacting average Pakistanis, such as child abuse and marital violence, gun violence, water scarcity, and land.
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy directed and produced “The song of Lahore” along with Andy Schocken, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2015, and won the Tribeca Audience Choice Award Runner-Up. Broad Green Pictures purchased the U.S. distribution rights to Song of Lahore in September 2015, announcing the film’s release in select U.S. theatres. In October 2015, the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences academy submitted the film for consideration in the documentary feature category for the 2016 Oscars. In December 2015, the film received its Middle Eastern premiere at the 12th Annual Dubai International Film Festival.
International Journalism Award of the Knight Foundation
The International Center for Journalists presented Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy with the 2017 Knight International Journalism Award. Chinoy’s efforts to document the human toll of extremism have had a significant impact, as evident from this prize. ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan stated, “At tremendous personal risk, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and al Masri confronted terrorist head-on, going behind the scenes to document untold crimes,”. The ICFJ’s Knight International Journalism Award honors journalists who display a solid dedication to good reporting that improves people’s lives worldwide.
Chinoy, whose work and efforts in exposing a loophole in Pakistan’s practice of honor killing resulted in a legal change, is among the 2017 awardees. Obaid-Chinoy spoke at TED in Vancouver in 2018, about the impact of mobile cinema, which has been touring Pakistan, screening films for small towns and communities in all provinces—instilling critical thinking in youngsters and providing them with a broader worldview, as well as empowering women.
In 2018, she directed HBO Sports documentary “Student Athlete”, which reveals the struggles of NCAA players, who are not compensated enough, despite of generating billions for their institutions. She also directed an animated mini-series, ‘Stories for Children,’ that focuses on the relationships between local heroes and their parents. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy serves as Norway’s honorary consul general in Karachi, Pakistan.
International Collaborations
In September 2020, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy was hired to co-direct the Ms. Marvel series with Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah and Meera Menon for Disney+ to bring Marvel Studios’ first Muslim hero to the big screen. In September 2022, Patakha Pictures, founded by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, launched “Pakistan Stories” in collaboration with the Scottish Documentary Institute and the British Council. In February 2023, she introduced an international art residency program “Neela Asmaan” through SOC Films. The program provides opportunities for both emerging and established artists from Pakistan and beyond to work in the picturesque Shigar Valley of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Authored by Afifa Maryam for Fujn
