A STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE HEARD : "SAVING FACE"

There are problems with award ceremonies like Oscars®. I mean, I’m not going to go through the entire list right now, but one thing I’m thinking of is categories like Best Documentary. The “big” categories get so much attention that some rather brilliant things are being awarded, yet completely ignored. I bumped into “Saving Face” when I was lazily switching channels one evening. “Oscar Winning Documentary” it said. To my embarrassment, I had never heard of it. I was embarrassed for two reasons, firstly because I’m supposed to be a film expert of sorts. Secondly, the story the documentary tells us is simply so tragic and so serious that I just felt that, you know. I should have known about it. Maybe I can make up for that by putting it up on the blog. Hopefully I can.

The documentary follows Dr Mohammed Jawad, one of the top plastic surgeons in the UK. He heads to Pakistan, where every year over 100 people (and that’s only the ones we know about) are victims of acid attacks. Acid is readily available in Pakistan as it is one of the products used to work with cotton, one of the most important agricultural products of the country. This means that it is the weapon of choice for violent husbands or other family members to use on women. These women suffer terrible facial scarring from the acid which is in itself debilitating and very hard to cope with, but the disfigurement also gives them physical pain and health issues. Dr Jawad, and the audience, follows some of their stories.

I cannot begin to accurately describe how difficult it is to watch this documentary. There were bits I could barely watch from crying. I feel it is incredibly important for documentaries like this to be made. The first step in tackling this kind of problem is raising awareness. And I mean, I knew acid attacks happened in Pakistan.  But in this matter, I have the slight advantage of having lived in a more eastern country for most of my life. And even there, it rarely makes headline news. The further west you come, the less you hear about it. But even the concept of “they have acid attacks in Pakistan” isn’t enough to describe the horrors that these attacks produce. And the victims of the attacks are fighting back, they’re trying anyway. Laws significantly punishing the perpetrators of these attacks significantly are relatively new. The victims of these attacks often have to fight great social stigma, not least because of their looks that have been drastically altered. Slowly, a few brave women are taking the attackers to court, trying to get them convicted. Then there are people like Dr Jawad who do wonderful things for the victims they can reach. But there is still so much to be done. Especially considering these are just the ones we know about, and most of them still go unreported.

I feel that we really owe it to these women to at least listen to their story. Who knows maybe you might be motivated to actively do something, even if it’s just a small donation? But even if you don’t, at least knowledge of what is going on is spreading. Awareness and education is the one way to fight this. And just because it may well be the other end of the earth from where we live, well… That is no reason not to care…