In February 2012, Pakistan celebrated its first Oscar winner, the Karachi-born and raised Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, whose documentary “Saving Face” won the Academy Award for Documentary (Short Subject). The documentary follows two survivors of acid attacks, Zakia and Rukhsana, highlighting the challenges they face in recovery and in achieving justice. In March, Pakistan received a somber reminder of the depth of these challenges with the suicide of Fakhra Younas, a Pakistani woman grievously wounded in a May 2000 acid attack, for which her ex-husband was acquitted.

On May 22 USIP hosted a special screening of “Saving Face,” followed by a conversation with filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on the documentary, and more broadly on the state of Pakistan’s women and how acid attack violence presents an opportunity for a greater role for women in addressing Pakistan’s challenges.

Featuring:

• Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
  Oscar and Emmy-winning Documentary Filmmaker; and
  Co-Director, "Saving Face"
• Kathleen Kuehnast, moderator
  Director, Gender and Peacebuilding Center, Centers of Innovation
  U.S. Institute of Peace

Explore Further

• Read a News Brief on this event
• Learn more about USIP's work in Pakistan
• Learn more about USIP's Center for Gender and Peacebuilding
• Read a USIP On the Issues with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• Read the Special Report, "Moving Forward with the Legal Empowerment of Women in Pakistan"
• Read the Peace Works, "Gender, Conflict and Peacebuilding"

 Related Academy Courses

• Gender and Peacebuilding
• Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
• Pilot: Cultural Adaptability: Advanced Applications