Saving Face

–Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy in conversation with Shoma Chaudhury

 

Shoma Chaudhury expressed her pleasure to be talking to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy

for her courageous and Oscar winning body of work. Saving Face tells the story of women whose faces have been ruined by acid attacks, and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy spoke movingly of her research into the surgery and  rehabilitation of women who had been attacked. The film follows the story of two women: the first is about Zakia whose husband threw acid on her face, and her fight for her rights until he is finally sent to jail. The second protagonist is Ruksana, who chose to stay with her attacker, and became pregnant during the course of filming. Chinoy commented that the ‘family oriented system of Pakistan resigns woman to their fates.’ She explained that the endemic sense that women are the property of men ‘cuts across social strata’ and cautioned that ‘sometimes one finds that the most educated minds are the most closed.’ Chinoy observed that unfair legal judgments in these cases further emboldened society to repeat these crimes against women. She talked of how the fear of dishonour, combined with a tradition of making an attacked woman ‘feel that it was her fault’ made both men and women violent against other women. Chinoy talked about how women are the first to be ‘preyed on when there is lawlessness’ and stated that the last decade has failed Afghani women completely. She said it was only now that women were slowly coming out in pockets to attend school, and find ways to use religion and society as arguments against being kept ‘virtual prisoners.’ Chaudharyquestioned her about the longterm impact of violence on children in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to which Chinoy replied that these ‘scarred children become either are very violent or very passive.’ She said that the isolation of children from their parents combined with a steady diet of hate ingrained a desire for heaven amongst these children that could later act motivate them to become suicide bombers. Chinoy concluded that finally ‘civil societies are waking up and realizing that the war is affecting us.’