Pakistan’s first Oriental award…
I certainly did not intend to write an Op-ed on the matter when I shared a friend’s Facebook status on Sharmeen Obaid’s Oscar win on the documentary ‘Saving Face’, addressing the deeply troubling subject of acid attacks on women in Pakistan.
Amongst all the front-page news and glamour and ‘raised Pakistan’s name around the world’ that was being screamed across media channels, Facebook and Twitter (from what I hear), a radical Marxist-feminist friend of mine who goes by the name Heer Heer had rather innocently asked: “Ironic that Pakistan is celebrating its first Oscar for the movie the subject of which can put any nation to shame.”
Re-shared on my wall, ‘likes’ and comments began to float it. A debate began between ‘cynics’ and ‘patriots.’ The argument, simplistically, from the patriots was, ‘A Pakistani won an Oscar, we must celebrate.’ When the question of, ‘but does the subject deserve celebration was asked?’ The answer was, ‘but we must celebrate the recognition of Sharmeen’s bravery in telling such an important tale.’
First, the original comment was not about the content of the documentary, but the unreflected screening of Sharmeen’s Oscar winning speech, again and again. Second, it was being projected that the politics of who the documentary had spoken to, and its internal ‘politics of representation,’ were beyond questioning.
The laurels for Saving Face were independent of the questions of: who was giving the award? How was the subject depicted?
In absence of the asking of these questions, a commentator like myself felt vindicated in saying, it is either sheer ignorance or sheer laziness that allows our elite classes to receive laurels from the West without engaging in seminal work in the study of Orientalism and neo-Orientalism. The question being asked was based on the understanding that accepting the award meant reifying ‘Empire’s discourse on gender’.
This is, of course, not to deny the reality of the crime of throwing acid on women in Pakistan. Only a week ago, acid was thrown at four women in Faisalabad. The question to ask is one of the fundamental questions asked by postcolonial feminists – Gayatri Spivak to name one: what is the value of a feminist value reified by white men (Oscar judiciary) to a brown woman (Sharmeen and the acid attack victims represented)?
The Oscars, if it be remembered, are greatly contested within the Unites States. Over 70 percent of the voting academy are white males. When Halle Berry became the first black woman to receive an Oscar for ‘Best female actor,’ questions were asked by the American black community over why the first black woman to receive an Oscar had to film an explicit sex scene in order to secure the award. It is a similar question that can be asked in this context: why does the first Pakistani documentary to receive an Oscar have to present brutality against women?
Again, one is not critiquing the importance of the documentary itself here, but asking why, indeed, we are either celebrating the entire matter or are expected to be doing so.
In terms of the debate on Facebook, another friend had shared a tweet from the Oscar winning lady from June 2011 where she said, “Employees of #KESC on strike I have zero sympathy for you – you facilitate kunda connection, slow meters etc,” which he used to legitimately ask: “she received an award from a bunch of white men for her sympathy for acid attack survivors but fails to recognise that unions are a basic democratic right?” The earlier friend shared an interview of her from 2004, where she said, “Pakistan is not ready for democracy yet.”
This raises the point again: that Pakistan’s liberals suffer from selective consciousness. This is not to take away from the important step that the acid attack documentary indeed is – but rather a plea that we allow our understanding of social contradictions to expand. Sharmeen’s work in the Citizens Archive Pakistan is work I appreciate in its ability to offer nuanced histories and focus on speaking to local audiences.
The larger point is that the Oscar to ‘Saving Face’ is not located outside politics. And a celebration of it is a celebration of the particular politics that the award is about.
“Acid attacks brought Pakistan recognition. A toast is due,” as crude as it sounds, is what those celebrating are saying. The real celebration will come when PTV decides to air the documentary and Radio Pakistan decides to run its voice over.
The writer is a member of staff, a researcher at LUMS and a member of the Workers’ Party Pakistan. He blogs at voiceamidstsilence.blogspot.com and can be reached at hashim.rashid@pakistantoday.com.pk