THOSE criticising film-maker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy for ‘damaging Pakistan’s image’ in her Oscar-winning documentary on ‘honour’ killings in Pakistan ought to watch the movie that won the award for best picture.

That movie, Spotlight, is about the Boston Globe investigation that unearthed the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, which became such a big affair that it was compared to the Reformation as the single largest challenge faced by the Church in centuries.

Yet nobody argues that the movie should not have been made because it damaged the image of the Church or of the countries where the abuse took place.

Artists and intellectuals are under no obligation to project any ‘image’ of the country deemed acceptable by anybody else. Their only obligation is to be truthful to their own conscience.

This preoccupation with projecting the ‘right’ image of the country betrays a shallowness of mind that prizes appearances over the truth.

The image of the country is not as important as its reality. Artists and intellectuals cannot be expected to choose their subject matter with an eye to promoting anything other than the truth as they perceive it in their hearts and minds.

The unfortunate fact is that honour killings, and all other forms of violence against women find widespread acceptance in our culture and need to be highlighted vigorously in order to be countered.

By raising the issue, Ms Chinoy’s work has put momentum behind efforts to pass legislation that would give the victims of these crimes greater protection and more options to deal with their distressing circumstances.

The higher profile also raises general awareness of the problem and helps people understand that despite the ‘justifications’ that are presented for these criminal acts, the latter can and should be countered.

In that sense, the work of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, and of many others like her, contributes towards diminishing the scale of the problem. And that is far more important than projecting a favourable image.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2016