Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy Features On Named One Of Time Magazine’s Annual List Of The 100 Most Influential People In The World

SHARMEEN OBAID CHINOY FEATURES ON NAMED ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S ANNUAL LIST OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

[Lahore: 18 April 2012] Time Magazine has named Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy within their 2012 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes will appear in the April 30 issue of TIME. It will be available on newsstands on Thursday, April 19, and can be viewed at TIME.com: www.time.com/time100

The list, now in its ninth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. As TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel has said of the list in the past, “The TIME 100 is not a list of the most powerful people in the world, it’s not a list of the smartest people in the world, it’s a list of the most influential people in the world. They’re scientists, they’re thinkers, they’re philosophers, they’re leaders, they’re icons, they’re artists, and they’re visionaries.  People who are using their ideas, their visions, their actions to transform the world and have an effect on a multitude of people.”

As a member of the TIME 100, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has been invited to attend the annual TIME 100 Gala on Tuesday, April 24, 2012  at the Lincoln Center in New York City where many current and former TIME 100 members are brought together including the world’s leading figures in politics, technology, science, philanthropy, media, business and entertainment. Past guests have included Elton John, Oprah Winfrey, Carlos Slim, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Warren and Kathryn Bigelow. Other select personalities also featured in the magazine’s 2012  list of the 100 most influential people in the world are: Barack Obama ,Harvey Weinstein, Hillary Clinton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Adele.

On being featured in the TIME 100 list Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy said, “It is a privilege and an honor to be featured on such a prestigious list; I am grateful to be recognized for my work and would like to extend my gratitude for being selected. Women are telling examples of the ways in which Pakistani’s are stepping up to support their fellow citizens and I am proud that their work is being recognized and commended”

ABOUT SHARMEEN OBAID CHINOY

In 2001 the global view of terrorism and Muslims changed forever - and like the millions of people affected post 9/11, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, an aspiring journalist turned to the medium of visual storytelling, with a decision to work as an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her vision has been to connect global audiences with the everyday lives of alienated and marginalized communities across the world. To date, Sharmeen’s work has taken her to over ten countries around the world where amongst other things she has had the opportunity to connect with refugees, women’s advocate groups and human rights defenders.

Sharmeen started her career in journalism while enrolled at the prestigious Smith College where she read Economics and Government, while freelancing as a writer for newspapers in the United States and Canada. She later completed her post graduate degrees in International Policy Studies in 2003 and Communication (Journalism) in 2004 from Stanford University.

Her work as an international documentary producer and correspondent progressed in 2002 when she started working at New York Times Television while she was still enrolled at Stanford. Since then, Sharmeen has worked as a producer, director & reporter at Channel 4 (2004-2009), a director & reporter at PBS Frontline World (2004-2009) and at Al Jazeera International (2006-2007). Indeed Sharmeen was one of the first Muslim women to be broadcast on mainstream Western media.

A multi-faceted entrepreneur, Sharmeen started her eponymous film production company Sharmeen Obaid Films in Toronto in 2006 and recently opened a sister company in Karachi. Sharmeen has produced sixteen critically acclaimed films, all of which have been aired across international channels to global audiences including networks such as CNN, CBC, Channel 4, PBS, Al Jazeera and HBO. Sharmeen is also the co-founder of Pakistan’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to cultural and historic preservation, The Citizen’s Archive of Pakistan and continues to serve as the company’s President and leading cultural preservationist since its founding in 2007.  As a senior fellow at TED 2011 international, Sharmeen has also been one of the driving forces behind the locally organised Tedx Karachi events in both 2010 and 2011 where she reached out to iconic personalities such as Imran Khan and Mukhataran Mai, to share their stories of inspiration.

In September 2011 Sharmeen spoke at Google Zeitgeist in Arizona alongside the likes of Ted Kopple & Ariana Huffington. She was also selected as one of eleven rising young leaders from Asia by the Asia Society in 2011. and participated in the Asia Society’s sixth annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit, which was held in New Delhi India in November 2011.

Over her career, Sharmeen has received diverse international and national awards and accolades for her intrepid filmmaking and to this end most recently, she has been the recipient of the esteemed International Academy Award for her documentary Saving Face, a documentary co directed by Daniel Junge chronicling the work of acclaimed British Pakistani plastic surgeon, Dr Mohammad Jawad as he traveled to Pakistan and performed reconstructive surgery on survivors of acid violence. Airing on HBO USA on March 8th 2012, Saving Face won an Academy Award [Oscar] for the Best Documentary, Short Subject as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy was most recently awarded the highest civilian award (Sitra-e-Hilal) by the President of Pakistan for the services she has rendered to the Nation with her Academy Award win.

Sharmeen has also been the proud recipient of an Emmy Award for her documentary Pakistan’s Taliban Generation (2010) and is still the first non US citizen to have received the coveted Livingston Award for Best International Reporting under the age of 35 in any medium, print and broadcast. She has also received the YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction award for her services in the field of Communication, making documentaries that touch upon the lives of women in extraordinary situations, from the refugee camps of Afghanistan, to the plight of aboriginal women in Western Canada.

One of her most recent projects was a film entitled Transgender: Pakistan’s Open Secret which witnessed Sharmeen at the director’s helm – the film was released in the UK in December 2011 and explores the lives of transsexuals in Pakistan who exist on the fringes of society.

Sharmeen is also producing an animated television series for children in Pakistan for national broadcast which endeavors to explore issues in identity, history and culture in Pakistan.

For more information on Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy Films visit http://sharmeenobaidfilms.com