Perhaps it is Allah's way of showing thru our enemies, to shame us and to show we have gone astray. Men and women both Jahal and Parlay likhay Jahal of villages and cities. Perpetrating sinful acts of injustices, heinious crimes on each other. One by physical harm and the other by not fulfilling responsibilities, not recognizing, by not giving respect, his rights by obeying. In turn not recieving it either. All due to the fact both are Jahal in error and do not practice Deen e Islam or follow Al-Quran and Sunnah. All the meanwhile enemies are pushing their evil socio-economic agenda to destory us and reap benefits. It is up to us to use our wisdom and intelligence to recognize and not be happy, proud and run to receive such awards without thinking. Her such efforts would have been far better teaching all how to practice and implment Deen e Islam, Way of Life in their daily lives with accountability to each other and finally to Allah, SWT.

Is it enough - just making a movie? What about solving the issue raised in the movie? She's getting awards but who is going to decrease the pain of victims by getting the culprits arrested? A lot of questions need to be answered. It's quoted, "One's turmoil is the source of entertainment for other one." Only God can take care of the victims as the world is all about taking advantage of their miseries.

Congrats. Pakistan need more people like you.

Excellent news. What an elegant lady. Made all Pakistanis proud.

Exploitation of Pak issues to gain fame.

What is so positive about Pakistan? PIA was in 1960's, 70's and 80's - not anymore. Same with Railways and many other institutions. One positive about Pakistan is that they are consistently inconsistent.

Sharmeen very well done ur made us even prouder :)!

Well done sharmeen-u are the true ambassador of pakistan

Brilliant women.We salute you for bringing laurels to our nation.You make us proud :)

Brilliant women.We salute you for bringing laurels to our nation and for your insightful work.You make us proud :)

Well said M.A. Hussain...most appreciated

Wow I love the fact that she is so graceful and educated. The way she carries herself shows good schooling and parenting by her parents. Kudos to her and her family. Being a proud Pakistani as well as a grammarian I wish she could share my view and use her popularity to focus on educational reforms focussing especially on government education for girls in pakistan. Proud of you miss obaid.

Outstanding achievement. She is simply fantastic.

Congratulations to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for this achievement. And many thanks to her for associating Pakistan with something creative.

It has become an honour to get awards from the west on the basis of projecting a negative view of Pakistan. We are all in the business of selling Pakistan for personal gains. No one has the love for this country to project anything positive about it.

good job

I congratulate Ms. Chinoy very heartly. I fear several negative comments base only on the fact that she is a woman. I am sure the percentage of negative and partially harsch remarks would have been very less if a "Mr. Chinoy" and Mrs. Chinoy would have won the honour. As long as the big majority of Pakistani men fear the equal right for women, Pakistan would not develop in a proper manner. Appraise the achievements of a person without looking at the gender!

I love my country and I find it my duty to criticise the negative aspects of my country. I don

Very happy for her - hope she rises even more.

A great honor for the country and for Ms Chinoy. I wish that a moment will come in our lifetime where we are judged on our abilities and civilized way of living and not as a politically corrupt, religiously fanatic and supporter of terrorism as we are portrayed in the world. Honestly speaking, we never made any efforts to remove this stigma infact we make sure to put more fuel to fire. It requires a generic change in our society which cannot be done through democratic process as the people of the country are not capable to identify, support and elect crediable people. It

Congratulations Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy! Pakistan is very proud of you and we admire your commitment to humanity, the world over. Yes, let it be a promise to Almighty Allah. Women folks in Pakistan and elsewhere need the support and recognition you gave them. Salams 2013

You are right. However, do not we have other platforms to resolve women issues?. Why run into the arms of the west to receive award or recognition? Before accepting award should not we be checking who is giving & what is their agenda? Do they give awards to Israeli women who will stand up to expose Israeli or Palestinian women sufferings by Israeli men or society? Ofcourse NO! One can only guess It is a Zionists Organization with an agenda!

She is surrounded by controversies of manipulating and betraying the poor women she made use of for her project. Doesn't that warrant some scrutiny? She is herself a part of the same ugly truth she portrayed in her documentary. How ironic

It is not an honor to be recognized by others of our problems in our society, which has gone Corrupt. As we are not following our Deen Way of life! Perhaps it is Allah's way of showing our own blemishes by others to wake us up. To mend our ways to strengthen ourselves! He adresses us and told us why He sent us. To lead, not to follow others. Yet we are blindly following blind, to be like them. He gave us system to live by, with rights, justice and with accountability to all. Yet, today, we beg and feel good to be recognized by others. How sad!

Why do you want to hide the bitter truth? A country progresses only when everything is brought to open and short comings need to be criticized. That is the way to progress and join the developed world. You don't just shout that everything is hunky dory but the facts are the opposite.

agreed

what and where is the evidence?

she used the same tools of exploitation as she tried to depict in the film. al least i cannot appericiate her work while making herself a controversial figure.

Unfortunately, another Western propaganda to degrade Pakistan, Islam and muslims trhough it's own people. What religion in the world gives more rights to women than Islam? Our women are pearls to us. We take care of them. We respect them. They are not sex symbol as in the WEST. They are our Honour and respect. Is bikini, mini skirts, butt tight jeans are the symbol of woman

Hussain Sb. that is how most documantries are made !!!

I really wonder, who is putting 'thumbs down' to this, and similar other comments. It only shows how friendly and wellwisher our neighbours are. If there is a mechanism to track IP addresses on this site, it will prove the point.

Criticism for the sake of criticism is counter-productive. But criticism with an intention to improve things is the way forward, and I believe Chinoy has done a wonderful job.

Several comments here seem to favour brushing and hiding the bitter realities of our society under the carpet. However, to solve a problem the first step is to acknowledge the very existence of the problem, then only a solution can be found. I feel Chinoy has done a great job, and we should address other similar issues as well, such as a widespread, rather rampant cases of Child abuse in and outisde madrasas, etc

Such awards are given as a propaganda tools to perpetuate the myth that all non western societies are savages- do crimes against women not occur in the West?? Were not Texan men until 1974 acquitted for murdering their wives if found with other men for "acting reasonably"- acid throwing incidents are far more common in India and remain as "un-punished" as they are in Pakistan. Though the plight of the victims portrayed in Sharmeen's movie is sad and deplorable but is the occurrence of such crimes widespread in Pakistan?? show me some statistics.

Fully agree with Saghir and M. A. Hussain..... What an equality.....Mens gets fully covered....women show her body parts exposed.....No math.. can prove such equality. However, thru "Media Investments" = "Buying journalists - NGO workers" thru "$$$$s" and try to prove that "False = Truth".... Come on, this universe is created based on "True Concept" how come, "Falsehood" can ever prevail over Truth......Regardless of any belief or Ideology....

To all those saying that her work is propaganda, think for a moment that you were fathers or brothers of those unfortunate women. You would feel like crying on top of your lungs to tell the world how your sister/daughter suffered. Instead of blaming Sharmeen for projecting the truth, try to do something to stop this ugly crime......

No wonder why the real services of real people of Pakistan are not recognized and awarded for their outstanding human services, but instead, only those people are picked, recognized and awarded internationally who fit in the criteria of needs and wants of the those international institutions who are eager to propagate any thing against certain countries of the world. I wont' say that Ms. Chinoy does not deserve any appreciation for exposing one of the odds of our society, but she contradicts her own project by using, manipulating and betraying poor women's hard work who made her able to obtain this award. I believe smart opportunity seekers like Sharmeen Chinoy are hungry of recognition, overnight fame and fortune, that is why they choose to pick certain aspects of our society to defame their own country. This award is no different by design in my opinion than the Medal of Freedom Award blessed to CJ by Harvard University which was not even given to most suitable candidates like Gandhi and Jinnah. Now the question is: Has CJ truly and independently served the cause of true justice or not? Did he really deserve this award, is our judiciary independent now? Is it not the modern form of colonization? It is unfortunate that we are always divided into schools of left and right when analyzing issues to please our internal and external masters. Let us ask ourselves a question honestly and independently, instead of leaving at the will and mercy of others to judge what is wrong and right in our society, that is: if we have to choose between the one time filmic shot of Mrs. Chinoy which bore no fruit and Mr. Edhi's whole life time true and outstanding service for the community/humanity, who, we should/will choose and why? and why some international institutions are not able to recognize the true servers of humanity and what it takes to see the positive side of Pakistan instead of highlighting its negatives all the time? Why people like Chinoy won't make documentaries on people like Edhi and those influential women politicians of Pakistan who are caught stealing and beating the men serving at polling stations? Why the West has to pick and award certain breed of ladies who can be used as women activists to defame Pakistan? What about courageous poor rural/urban women of our society who live day by life under difficult circumstances, do not have luxuries and means like Ms Chinoy, but still do not sell our values and defame Pakistan. Ms. Chinoy and her plastic surgeon must be asked what is their true contribution towards serving Pakistan and humanity before and after making this film, besides seeking overnight fame and fortune for themselves. It takes conscience besides... zafarsyed40@uyahoo.com

Congrats!! Finally some good news!!

She reported the ugly truth which is incubating in our society. From this man to Ms. Chinoy..... Keep up the good work. 3 cheers for the lady, Hats off.

She DID NOT exploit. She just showed the ugly side of our society. You have to identify a problem first if you want to fix it. That's exactly what she did, acknowledged the problem.

All she did was to show Pakistan a mirror. I wish more Pakistanis can follow her foot steps. Awards like this are to motivate her and others.

excellent work, we proud that you raise the Pakistani flag.

What you are saying about Islam is correct. Is it practised in the muslim world? NO. So it is not just propaganda, it's reality.

Do you live in a bubble? Perhaps you are judging the West based on what you see in movies, or television. I lived in Karachi for 12 years and in USA for 17 years now. I would not want to raise my daughter in Pakistan. She has more opportunities and respect in the USA than in Pakistan.

Lakin Mujhe Dar Hai Keh Yeh Awaza-e-Tajdeed Mashriq Mein Hai Taqleed-e-Farangi Ka Bahana

What a shame to represent our country on such an issue !, Chinoy should use her creativity in a more positive way to benefit us and not the west. She should be ashamed to produce such a film.

What impact has or will the film in reducing the plight of these women? Films never change societies laws do. Pakistan's issue is lawlessness and getting awards from the West can uplift Ms. Obaid's image but not the battered image of women of Pakistan.

Saghi I think it is you who is hung up on the west. your hatred for it is having you turn a blind eye to our own misery. In our country little girls get shot for just going to School. Sorry but your ignorance doesnt help our country in any shape or form. There is a reason why any pakistani would like to move to West on a drop of a hat. There is no Islam in Pakistan, only blind ignorance and hatred lives here.

Thanks Nabeel, unfortunately there are many people like Akil who believe that hiding our dirty laundry would make our country a better place. What he doesnt understand that it is people like Shirmeen that the world thinks that Pakistanis can think for ourselves and are creative people.

Congratulations Ms Chinoy!!!!!!!