Sharmeen was born in 1978 and raised in Karachi, Pakistan and received a bachelors degree from Smith College

and two masters degrees from Stanford University. Sharmeens work centers on human rights and womens issues. Sharmeen is known for documentaries dealing with life in the Muslim world, she is an Emmy and Oscar award-winning Pakistani-Canadian journalist and documentary filmmaker. Time magazine has named Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy within their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2012. She has an ambition to do something for her country that was started by writing columns in newspapers about the despondent and unfortunate events happening in Pakistan. Sharmeen began her career with New York Times Television in 2002 where she produced Terror's Children, a film about Afghan refugee children, which won her the Overseas Press Club Award, the American Women and Radio and Television Award, and the South Asian Journalist Association Award. Since then, she has produced and reported on more than twelve films around the world. Sharmeen produced and reported on four multi-award winning documentary films for New York Times Television. In 2003, Reinventing the Taliban was awarded the Special Jury Award at the BANFF TV festival in Canada, the CINE Golden Eagle Award, the American Women in Radio and Television award, and the Livingston Award. In 2005, her film Women of the Holy Kingdom, which provided an inside look at the women's movement in Saudi Arabia, won the South Asian Journalist Association Award. In 2005, Sharmeen began working with Channel 4 in the United Kingdom reporting on four films for their Unreported World Series. In 2007, Sharmeen was named "journalist of the year" by the One World Media awards for her work in the series. In 2007, Obaid travelled to Afghanistan and reported for Channel 4 and CNN. Her film, Afghanistan Unveiled/Lifting the Veil, focuses on stalled reconstruction and the oppression of women in the country. In 2010, she won an Emmy Award for her documentary, Pakistan: Children of the Taliban, which explores Taliban recruitment strategies, their effect on the youth and their methods to radicalize the countrys young and often dejected populace. Children of the Taliban premiered Flumes (2011) - the largest film festival in Pakistan held annually at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. On February 26, 2012, Sharmeen became the first Pakistani woman to win an Oscar and also the first nonAmerican to win the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for the co-directed documentary: Saving Face, which she made with Daniel Junge (who started the film and titled it before she came aboard as co-director) and which records the lives of acid attack survivors in Pakistan. The film also follows British-Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Ali Jawad who performs reconstructive surgeries on survivors of such terrible attacks. Sharmeen is currently a faculty member in the media sciences department at SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and technology, Karachi). She is also the president of The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to Cultural and Historic Preservation. Sharmeen is a founding board member of the Charter for Compassion Pakistan. Sharmeen has a very ambitious social and educational reform in Pakistan. Besides her career as a filmmaker, Sharmeen is a TED fellow and a social entrepreneur. She is actively working to establish an education revolution in Pakistan Sindh province. What Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and her fellow social entrepreneurs are doing in unhealthy culture of Pakistan of the complaints is truly inspiring. Lets hope others will follow in her footsteps candles to stabbing and not just cursing the darkness.
In the 10 years since you started your career as a filmmaker, how has storytelling in Pakistan evolved, especially with the changes in the digital media landscape?

Pakistan has always had a rich history of story telling. We have a tradition of oral history and narrative driven content which is reflected in our literature, art and music. When I started my career 10 years ago, Pakistan had two state run TV channels now we have over 80 privately owned channels along with dozens of radio stations and newspapers. This coupled with a booming digital media community has had incredible results on the documentation of our culture and access to information and news. Digital media in particular, breaks barriers between the storyteller and the audience allowing for more voices in the public sphere. The fluidity and inclusive nature of this medium has been specifically beneficial for the youth of Pakistan. We have a thriving blogging community and filmmakers and artists have the opportunity to promote and distribute their work online. This is an exciting time to be part of the creative community in Pakistan. Our music is bringing people together, our literature is garnering international acclaim and our film industry is breaking boundaries and expanding. I am thrilled by the possibilities presented by an open and free media, and hope that we continue to patronize these institutions. What are some of the challenges of being a documentary filmmaker in Pakistan, especially as a woman? And what kind of obstacles did you come across while filming Saving Face?

The obstacles faced by documentary filmmakers in Pakistan have more to do with access to funding as compared to gender bias or any other forms of prejudice. We do not have a history of documentary films in Pakistan, thus TV channels and production houses are not forthcoming with investments. Pakistanis have always displayed an interest in such content, and we have a multitude of stories to tell with a community that is eager to share them. While we did not encounter any physical danger whilst shooting Saving Face, we did have to struggle with the mindset of local communities. Acid violence is most prevalent in the Seraiki belt in the Punjab province, a cotton growing region in which acid is readily available as it is used in the fields. The Seraiki belt has some of the lowest levels of education and highest levels of unemployment in the country, and this has resulted in a culture that has over time come to accept certain forms of violence against women. During the first few days of shooting we faced difficulty when trying to connect with communities and reaching out to survivors. However once we settled into the towns and began making connections we did not face any further obstacles.

STORIES FROM HER CAREER AS AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND A FILMMAKER, THE OBSTACLES SHE FACED IN PAKISTAN AND ABROAD AND HOW SHE HAS BEEN ABLE TO OVERCOME CRITICISM AND ACHIEVE GREAT SUCCESS IN HER FIELD OF WORK. What was the motivation behind choosing investigative journalism as a career choice? Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy: I began writing investigative pieces at the age of fourteen as a way to contribute to critical conversation in Pakistan. I was always interested in telling stories of marginalized communities; people whose voices were never heard and whose compelling stories needed to be shared. I continued to pursue journalism while I was at Smith and wrote for a number of Canadian and American publications. I was a senior at Smith College when the tragic events of September 11th occurred, and like everybody else I was glued to the television. I watched as reporters who were unfamiliar with the dynamics of Central Asia were sent to cover the Afghan War, and instantly knew what I wanted to do: I needed to bridge this gap by telling stories from the East in a way that was easily understandable to the West. That December, I returned to Pakistan and spent time in refugee camps and went back to the US with a documentary proposal in hand. At the age of twenty two, with no prior experience, I sent letters to eighty news companies and

organizations in the US, and was declined by all of them. Eventually, my luck turned; I found the contact information for Bill Abrams, the president of New York Times Television and emailed him right away. Fifteen minutes later, he wrote back and asked me to take a train to New York to pitch my proposal to him and other executives. A few days later, I left New York with training, funding, and the scary challenge of making my first film. What has been the worst criticism you have faced in your journalistic career? And how did you deal with it? SOC: In 2004, I worked on a documentary film called Re-inventing the Taliban; I travelled through the tribal belt of Pakistan tracking the emergence of the Taliban. When the film was released, many Pakistani's felt that it exaggerated the presence of the Taliban in Pakistan; I was told that the Taliban were an Afghan phenomenon not a Pakistani one. There was a prevalent ostrich mentally in Pakistan about our failing state of affairs and unfortunately people were soon proven wrong. Terrorists started attacking Pakistan indiscriminately around the same time as the films release. My film was meant to be a wakeup call, and I wouldn't have minded the criticisms if I was wrong, and in this case I wish I had been wrong. However, I was right; The Taliban were Pakistani, they were in Pakistan and had a Pakistani agenda - they were ready to take on the state and its people. There are presently a lot of young and budding film makers in Pakistan, with promising scripts in hand but lack of funds to take projects forward. What would be your advice to them? SOC: There is a common misconception about the cost and capital needed to make films; you can now make a film with an iPhone! I feel a lot of young filmmakers are waiting for their big break to fall into their laps, and that is never going to happen. I would advise filmmakers to pursue their passion regardless of the fact that they are working with a budget: use what you have, tell your story with whatever tools you have available to you and don't be afraid to take risks. Put your work online, experiment and be open to positive criticism. Make a film, make another film, practice, and surely the break will come.
In 2001 the global view of terrorism and Muslims changed forever and like the millions of people affected post 9/11, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, an aspiring journalist turned to the medium of visual storytelling, with a decision to work as an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her vision has been to connect global audiences with the everyday lives of alienated and marginalised communities across the world. To date, Sharmeens work has taken her to over ten countries around the world where amongst other things she has had the opportunity to connect with refugees, womens advocate groups and human rights defenders. Sharmeen started her career in journalism while enrolled at the prestigious Smith College where she read Economics and Government, while freelancing as a writer for newspapers in the United States and Canada. She later completed her post graduate degrees inInternational Policy Studies in 2003 and Communication (Journalism) in 2004 from Stanford University. Her work as an international documentary producer and correspondent progressed in 2002 when she started working at New York Times Television while she was still enrolled at Stanford. Since then, Sharmeen has worked as a producer, director & reporter at Channel 4(2004-2009), a director & reporter at PBS Frontline World (20042009) and at Al Jazeera International (2006-2007). Indeed Sharmeen was one of the first Muslim women to be broadcast on mainstream Western media. A multi-faceted entrepreneur, Sharmeen started her eponymous film production companySharmeen Obaid Films in Toronoto in 2006 and recently opened a sister company in Karachi. Sharmeen has produced sixteen critically acclaimed films, all of which have been aired across international channels to global audiences including networks such as CNN, CBC, Channel 4, PBS, Al Jazeera and HBO. Sharmeen is also the co-founder of Pakistans leading non-profit organization dedicated to cultural and historic preservation, The Citizens Archive of Pakistanand continues to serve as the companys President and leading cultural preservationist since its founding in 2007. As a senior fellow at TED 2011 international, Sharmeen has also been one of the driving forces behind the locally organised Tedx Karachi events in both 2010 and 2011 where she reached out to iconic personalities such as Imran Khan and Mukhataran Mai, to share their stories of inspiration . In September 2011 Sharmeen spoke at Google Zeitgeist in Arizona alongside the likes of Ted Kopple & Ariana Huffington. She was also selected as one of eleven rising young leaders from Asia by the Asia Society in 2011. and participated in the Asia Societys sixth annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit, which was held in New Delhi India in November 2011. Over her career, Sharmeen has received diverse international and national awards and accolades for her intrepid filmmaking and to this end, she has been the recipient of the esteemed International Emmy Award for her documentary Pakistans Taliban Generation (2010) and is still the first non US citizen to have received the coveted Livingston Award for Best International Reporting under the age of 35 in any medium, print and broadcast. She was also the proud recipient of the YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction

award for her services in the field of Communication, making documentaries that touch upon the lives of women in extraordinary situations, from the refugee camps of Afghanistan, to the plight of aboriginal women in Western Canada. Her ongoing projects include: Saving Face, a documentary chronicling the work the work of acclaimed British Pakistani plastic surgeon, Dr Mohammad Jawad as he travels to Pakistan and performs reconstructive surgery on survivors of acid violence. Pakistani plastic surgeon aiding victims of acid attacks in Pakistan, which she is co-directing with acclaimed international director Daniel Junge. The film will air on HBO on March 8th 2012, Saving Face has won an Academy Award [Oscar] for the Best Documentary, Short Subject as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; Transgender: Pakistans Open Secret is another more recent film with Sharmeen at the directors helm the film was released in the UK in December 2011. The film explores the lives of transsexuals in Pakistan who exist on the fringes of society. Sharmeen is also producing an animated television series for children in Pakistan for national broadcast which endeavours to explore issues in identity, history and culture in Pakistan.