The moment Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's film "Saving Face" won the Oscar in the Best Documentary Short category, thousands of congratulations poured in from all over Pakistan, and from Pakis living abroad, through the websites, Facebook and Twitter. However, it is hard to know if people were excited because the award was the most coveted film award, the Oscar, and the glamour attached to it or because it won for the country some positive fame or simply because most of us do nothing but love to live in reflected glory.
The film is about British plastic surgeon Dr Mohammed Jawad returning to Pakistan, the country of his origin, to perform reconstructive surgery and literally save faces of acid attack victims. The victims are women, in the majority of cases wives, but there are also numerous cases of indiscriminate acid attacks on women by fanatics who thought they could thus force women to cover their faces in public.
Like the atrocity of karo-kari or honour killing, acid attacks have been treated as justified punishment of women not willing to accept the authority or discipline of their menfolk. This despicable victimisation of women was treated as an assault by the law and not a crime. This reflected the attitude prevailing in our patriarchal society. The perpetrator of the attack, therefore, received a light punishment than that he deserved.
Legislation to change the status from assault to crime was slow. But even when the change was effected, the law's title tacitly avoids mention of the word Acid, as if the legislators were afraid of ruffling patriarchal feathers. It is well-known acid attacks are popular among the poor and the powerful in our society. Originally presented as the Acid Control and Acid Crime Bill 2010 it was signed into law at the end of last year by the President as the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2011.
Everyone has suddenly turned hopeful that acid attacks will be history in the near future. The optimism is generated solely by the Oscar Award. The reality is that neither the law that makes acid attacks a crime nor awareness created by Saving Face will change male attitude. Hear what Zakia, one of the two women attacked by their husbands who played central roles in the documentary has to say. She, and the other woman Rukhsana and Dr Mohammed Jawad have denied requests to speak to the media out of fear of further victimisation. In short the women think they could be victims of acid attack again. Zakia's family is not pleased about her role in the documentary, and her brother insisted she leave the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF). Rukhsana is living in fear of her husband discovering her role in the documentary. She said she had agreed to play a part in Saving Face on the assurance that it would only be shown abroad. But now the Oscar Award has changed the film into one that will be shown in Pakistan on public demand.
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and the others involved in making the film cannot be accused of betraying Rukshana's trust and exposing her to danger of another acid attack or some other form of domestic violence. Saving Face would not have got must attention beyond a short mention in the local media but for the fact that the documentary won the world's most prestigious award, the Oscar. Now everyone wants to see Saving Face.
When the film was shortlisted for the Oscar the family of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and even persons who are involved in the film and television, actor-director Javaid Shaikh for instance, thought Saving Face did not have a chance to win. Everyone was taken by surprise.
It is quite possible that now the ASF and other activists working to alleviate the plight of women and the crimes allowed to be perpetrated against them, will exploit the film as a means of creating public awareness. The fear is that they are likely to mishandle the publicity, just as they mishandled the Mukhtara Mai rape case in their attempt to create awareness at the injustice of settling feuds by allowing the male accused in a crime to go scot free while a female relative was punished through rape.
In short, nothing changed in Pakistani culture because of the publicity. Nothing will change to shame or reduce the acid attacks. Changes will come about only when the feudal-cum-patriarchal mindset is obsolete.
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