Adil Najam and Faris Isam
ATP had first written about Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy back in January 2007 when the Toronto Star had named her as “Toronto’s Top 10 to Watch.” We had ended that post with the words, “Congratulations, Sharmeen… ATP will also be watching you in 2007 and beyond!” We have been doing exactly that. And we are delighted to report that Sharmeen has just won an Emmy Award for her gripping Frontline Documentary, “Pakistan: Children of the Taliban.“
Congratulations, again, Sharmeen.
Amidst a sea of bad news and pessimism, the news of Sharmeen’s Emmy has come as a very welcome breeze of freshness. This is hardly the first milestone of Obaid-Chinoy’s career, as the journalist and filmmaker is also a TED Fellow and the first non-American winner of the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. (Watch Sharmeen’s Emmy winning documentary here).
Her documentary – which has only played to limited audiences in Pakistan because of security concerns – explores Taliban recruitment strategies, their effect on the youth and their methods to radicalize the country’s young and often dejected populace. (Visit Sharmeen’s website with details of this and other documentaries by her, here; watch Children of the Taliban, here).
But Sharmeen’s achievement also comes as a moment of grave personal loss and challenge for Sharmeen. TeethMaestro reports the details on his blog:
In a very touching moment, the day before, her father died of cancer in the UK where he was undergoing chemotherapy. Her message following the news of the death of her father on Facebook, posted practically 10 hours before the Emmy award ceremony, where she was in attendance, read “Only the good die young- you always said aba…love you” and later following the victory she dedicated her Emmy to her father by saying “Tonight’s Emmy win is dedicated to you aba…”
We are moved by Sharmeen achievement, but even more by her loss. Our condolences to her at her father’s loss. We are sure her father was immensely proud of her. And we are proud of her too.
Our prayers are with you and your family in this time of loss. And our fond wishes to you for your achievement. As we had promised back in 2007, we will keep watching you and your work!
Thank you, Sharmeen.
My prayers are with you Sharmeen. And my best wishes.
Sharmeen Obaid is an outstanding artist and journalist. I have now seen a number of her documentaries and all are very real and heartfelt portraits of tough subjects.
Congrats to Sharmeen for her award and my condolences also for her loss. Her father would certainly be very proud of her today.
@Baasim.
You can watch the full documentary here: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan 802/video/video_index.html
Guys!
Please don’t fight. I am just waiting to see when Mr. Adil is going to write something about DRONE ATTACKS. I ask all the readers of ATP just go and see for yourself how many articles are written condemning drone attacks in 2010. NONE by Adil bhai.
Let me quote Adil bhai again “The Violence We Condone Breeds The Violence We Condemn”.
I’m not sure why you have brought Aafia into this discussion but since you have, I would like to point out that she had her day in court. She had the opportunity to defend herself in front of a judge, jury and the media. She chose this opportunity to say “Jews are behind all of this.” If you were accused of a crime and you had a chance to defend yourself, is this what you would say?
You and I both don’t know whether she is guilty or not, her behavior suggests that she is. However, she is lucky because the government of Pakistan is trying to bring her back to the country and she has thousands of people protesting for her. If she were gangraped, buried alive, or assaulted within Pakistan, no one would protest for her and no one would care about her. Maybe a minister or two would come out to defend burying her alive but that would be it. Or maybe the president would come out and say that getting raped is an easy way to get a visa to the west. But there would be no protests for her and she would not be discussed. There are many very religious Muslims in the United States who are hafiz haji etc who do not go through this. There are masjids, Islamic centers, Islamic schools being built all over the US which vary from fairly liberal to conservative. Why would the US arrest one woman for being religious (as you are stating) then allow all of this other activity. You represent what is wrong with Pakistan by deluding yourself by hyping up anti-US sentiments (FYI, Pakistan would not and could not function right now without US aid) while ignoring extremism and militancy which is destroying the country.