Woman who won Pakistan its only Oscar!


Not that there was ever doubt about the misogynist nature of online trolling in Pakistan, but the attacks on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on her description of the Facebook request as ‘harassment,’ have marked a new high in online hate on women.

Some on social media posted photographs of her with other men - apparently suggesting these images made her a hypocrite for complaining about alleged harassment. Facebook pages were created encouraging people to send Obaid-Chinoy friend requests. A Facebook page posted a video called ‘Sharmeen triggered - how to trigger (harass) Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’, showing visuals of searching for her profile on Facebook and then adding her as a friend. On Twitter one user vowed to keep attacking Obaid and her sister until the suspended doctor is allowed to go back to work and declared that he was going to send friend requests to as many women as he wanted to. ‘Sharmeen is a tout and a dirty fly. She is only trying to seek fame through these tweets,’ chauvinistic comment said.
Some suggested she exemplified the phrase ‘wrong women in the wrong family’ and called her an elitist. She, however, subsequently clarified she was referring to the fact that ‘women in my family are strong’ and had not meant to ‘suggest a sense of privilege or power.’

Unsurprisingly, Facebook and YouTube got flooded with videos, particularly of Pakistani men, condescendingly explaining what exactly constitutes harassment to Obaid and through her, to Pakistani women. Others accused her of harassing the doctor by tweeting about the incident.
Reading the comments and tweets online, one could feel the exasperation with which Pakistani men were trying to explain how this friend request could possibly be a consequence of an ‘informal conversation’, a ‘misunderstanding’ or something initiated by the woman; how the man was not given a chance to even breathe and explain himself. I wonder how many men hearing the story got scared that their own immoral behaviour could be punishable. That their ‘innocent’ comments and actions towards women at work, in the streets, in public transport, in bazaars, etc could indeed be harassment. And in realising that, rushed to their phones and laptops to defend their ‘right’ to do all this without any consequences?

One of the widely circulated comment of a journalist on his Facebook page said that comparing a social media request to harassment was ‘ridiculous.’ He added ‘What’s next, asking for a pen is harassment… Looking at someone for three seconds will be harassment?’ In his post, he also said that the claim ‘is actually taking away from real victims of harassment.’
Sharmeen has been accused of being a ‘traitor’ to Pakistan in the past as well, in relation to her work that exposes violent and misogynistic cultural traditions prevalent in certain parts of Pakistani society. Her tweet storm renewed those criticisms and she was repeatedly accused of having harmed the country's international image. Her Oscar-winning short documentaries tackle the topics of acid attacks and honour killings of women.

One popular video with tens of thousands of views has a gentleman schooling Obaid on how not to abuse her influence as a celebrity while, of course, belittling her professional achievements: ‘making 2 to 4 documentaries is not a big deal at all … and it is the doctor who is being harassed.’
In a subsequent statement, Obaid-Chinoy revealed that the doctor in question had conducted a ‘very private examination’ of her sister before going online and ‘leaving comments on photographs & trying to add her as a Facebook friend.’ She clarified she regularly receives ‘unsolicited friendship requests from strangers’ but that she considered this episode a ‘serious breach of patient-doctor privilege.’

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council referred the BBC to their ethical guidelines, which don't specifically mention social media but do state that a ‘professional position must never be used to pursue a relationship of an emotional or sexual nature with a patient, the patient's spouse, or a near relative of a patient.’

Bushra
1850 hours
Friday 3 November 2017


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