And how to end crime against women
That Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy won a second Academy Award is in itself a big achievement. Equally important is that both her award winning films deal with the highly relevant issue of crimes against women. Chinoy refused to be cowed down by the harsh criticism she had to face in her own country from the reactionary fringe for her first film “‘Saving Face” focusing on the all too common acid attacks on women that change their lives forever. The critics included a motley crowd comprising extremists, hypocrites and pseudo-patriots who are eternally in a state of denial about any dirt found in the ‘land of the pure’. Her second award winning film “A Girl in the River” follows the life of an 18-year-old girl who is a survivor of an honour killing attempt, another common crime in Pakistan that reportedly takes toll of hundreds of lives every year.
Chinoy is one of the several outstanding Pakistani women from different walks of life that the country is rightly proud of. They include Fatima Jinnah, Benazir Butto, youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai, child computer protégé Arfa Abdul Karim and Mount Everest climber Samina Baig. There are others who have fought for human rights, led trade unions, won elections against men, served as fighter pilots and chaired institutions like the State Bank of Pakistan. Many more have done wonders in other fields preferring to be remembered as unknown soldiers. They give a lie to the myth that women are by nature unsuited to working shoulder to shoulder with men and must remain confined to their homes.
Terrorism cannot be countered without eradicating extremism in all its forms and manifestations, discrimination against women being one. The government needs to remove from the statute book all laws that allow oppression against women to continue. To start with, it has to plug loopholes in legislation that allow practices like Karo-Kari to perpetuate. A parliamentary commission needs to be appointed to suggest changes in laws that discriminate against women.
Thanks for making Pakistan proud twice Sharmin. The Editorial has listed quite a number of Pakistan women with distinctions. Despite all those achievements, little has changed in the society and this has to be done at the Parliamentary level like says the Editorial. The society deserves to be changed and it has to start from the head. So far the corrupts and most corrupts rule this country, nothing is going to change. The Education system has also to be revised because the future citizens of the country are influenced – first from the home atmosphere and then schools. The Society must change and change for the better.
US has more honor killing than Pakistan every year. It is good that Pakistan is opening up about it's issues unlike India which tries to portray everything is fine.
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