Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Oscar and What it means for Women in Pakistan

Every year many women in Pakistan are a victim of brutal acid attacks, most of the incidents go unreported and the culprits are never convicted. Women who are a victim of such brutal torture never receive proper medical care and access to first aid, the result of which is a plethora of skin related diseases and problems.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy winning the Oscars

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy‘s oscar, apart from the glamorous hustle and bustle, would do one thing, it will create more and more awareness about such a huge issue. It’s only because of her achievement that the issue which never made news has come to the limelight and is being discussed on every platform.  In Pakistan, Law making related to such important issues and human rights are both neglected areas.

Before this Oscar almost 50 percent of Pakistanis on Facebook and Twitter must have been completely alien to this issue. after the Oscar now everybody is talking about this issue and discussing it, which is the most important step in removing this menace from our society. Firstly it will create awareness and draw attention of the masses, secondly it will pave way for new laws and legislations to stop crimes of this sort and  thirdly it will create urgency in non-profit sector organizations to start working for this cause.

After the winning the Oscar Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy launched anti-acid campaign which shows her determination to get the society rid of this menace. And it’s not just her duty to work for this cause but the whole nation should stand up to atrocities of every sort. The media should also play its part by encouraging such film makers. None of the Pakistani News channels would have bought such a documentary before it won the Oscars  but now all of them must be already in queue to buy this film. If our News Channels can show Sheila, munni and other Bollywood news in their headlines so why can’t they highlight such problems?

Saving-Face

Apart from helping the survivors of these incident, film making would get a huge boost in a country where film industry is dying fast. it would encourage young film makers to come forth. It’s high time that we collectively pledge to remove this and other such problems and encourage people who stand for such causes.

A Tribute to Benazir Bhutto Shaheed-Daughter of The EAST

Do watch this video.

Singer: Abida Parveen

Title: Alvida Benazir Bhutto Shaheed

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Indian Media a tool for war propagation

I thought Indian media would change its stance on the Mumbai terror attacks and instead calm down their nation and give a message of peace and tolerance to their nation but they are going to every limit to prove Pakistan as a culprit. In fact they have created a very tense situation. The very role of media is to come up with investigative reporting, but in case of Indian media reports they have completely ignored this sinewy feature in their news.

If we compare the Medias of India and Pakistan so their is a great difference in their Agendas. Pakistani media mostly criticizes its own country for everything that is going wrong but the story is entirely opposite if we talk about Indian media. They blame everyone for anything and everything that is going wrong in India. Instead of criticizing their security agency’s failure to stop a group of few people from taking their business hub as hostage, they started criticizing Pakistan from the word go with out even trying to remove the black curtains off their eyes to at least investigate first.

A so called mature media, Mature in a sense that it has been nurtured in a democratic environment, it still showed an unexpected level of immaturity. They created a big hype of this incident and exaggerated things up to the extreme level.

I would give credit to Pakistani Media for calming down the nerves of Pakistanis in response to such irresponsible behavior of Indian media but at the same time i would severely criticize the Pakistani Media for not presenting our case to the world in the true sense.

Yesterday i was watching News eye with Saima Mohsin on DAWN NEWS and Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed my favorite politician from Muslim League Q was the guest. I was quite impressed with his profound thinking on this issue. He rightly termed down the Indian media as a tool for war propagation.

The need of the hour is that whether its any media it should focus on realities instead of over exaggerating a situation to their advantage. they should base their news on investigative reporting instead of hypothetical scenarios and assumptions that’s the only way media can contribute towards the prosperity and transparency in their own particular countries.
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India-Encircled by Illusions

In the aftermath of Mumbai attacks the Indian media and GOVT is in a very aggressive mood. This is not something unusual for us keeping in mind their past record. Since the inception of Pakistan the Hindus are reluctant to accept the very existence of Pakistan.

The Indians are so used to blaming Pakistan, no matter  what happens in their country so Pakistan is blamed for it. We the Pakistanis are used to blaming our own self no matter what happens but this thing is completely opposite in the case of Indians they blame others for anything that goes wrong. If somebody attacks Indian parliament Pakistan is blamed for the attack, if a train which is carrying most of the Pakistanis is bombed in India (Samjhota Express) so Pakistan is blamed for it. there are 16 freedom movements in India and Pakistan is blamed for all of them, even if Manmohan Singh sneezes so they will say that the virus has come from Pakistan.

I was surprised to see that during the first few hours of the Mumbai blasts the Indian were blaming Pakistan without any investigation, evidence and proofs. Indian media is used to presenting their Police’s perspective and over reacting. they are used to presenting their army, Police and country above anything in the universe. That’s why it was quite hard for them to accept the intelligence failure on their part. Every hour they were denying whatever they earlier. Once you lie, you will always have to lie to protect your lies that’s what the Indian did. their media kept on lying. Everybody was expecting that the India media will show maturity because they have spent all their time in a democratic environment unlike ours. There are some examples where Indian media has done some good job but this one is not the greatest of examples.

The first reason the Indian GOVT attacked Pakistan is that elections are round the corner. The BJP has already accused the Manmohan Singh GOVt to be softer when it comes to terrorism, the other accusation is that Congress is eyeing on Muslim votes, so to acquit itself from these accusation and get away with its failure to stop the terror attacks the Indian GOVT opted for the traditional recipe that was to throw everything on Pakistan’s shoulders.

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Tentative Media

Media is the first and foremost front in any war in today’s globalized world. if we talk about our media (Pakistani) so it is believed to be one of the most outspoken media in the region.

sometimes back there were blasts in mumbai, what we saw after that attacks was in instant uproar in the media about the condemnation of the those bombings. All the politicians and celebs were decrying and calling down the bombings. There was an immediate campaign against those attacks, keeping aside indian media’s silence on other issue like Babri Masjid, Gujrat etc.

But that uproar in Indian media about the 7-11 bombing was a perfect example how media can play its part when it comes to condemning the terrorist attacks.

Now if we talk about Pakistani media, i haven’t seen a single media campaign except ” ye hum nahin” which appears on TV once in a week. The media is tentative in its stance to deprecate such attacks in Pakistan. None of the anchors is ready to launch an aggressive campaign to boost the morale of the nation. Every now and then we just see a new bulletin that a bomb blasted.

What ever we are watching on tv these days about these attacks is “NEWS”, only information. There is no investigative reporting which is the very essence of sinewy media. But what we get to see on TV are the so called intellectuals, who present and propagate what ever they think is right rather than talking about things which are of national interest. But because of the mushroom growth of media we have a dearth of Intellectuals and anchors who can talk people.

The anchors should support and set the agenda according to the national interest instead of talking fun, and delivering information instead of knowledge. That’s how they can help the nation and will be thanked for their services.

What we need to do is to combine as a nation, be it the media, politicians, celebs or be the ordinary man to save our coming generation from this menace.