Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is a talented woman from Pakistan. She is a director in the film industry and has created many documentaries. Her work includes,  Reinventing the Taliban (2003), Afghanistan Unveiled/Lifting the Veil (2007) and the recent Pakistan: Children of the Taliban.

Sharmeen has done her country proud as she is the first Pakistani Oscar nominee for her documentary ,“Saving Face”.

Sharmeen was born in Karachi and availed her elementary education from Karachi Grammar School (KGS). She always intended to move abroad and look for good opportunities outside the Asian region. She was the first woman, in her family, who settled in the West. Sharmeen did her bachelor degree from Smith College, with the degree of arts and economics. For advance studies she went to Stanford University for Double master degrees in International Policy and Communication.

Her career in filmmaking began when she got inspired from one of her articles about the Afghan refugees. Sharmeen was getting interested and compiled all the notes to make a good story board. She decided to come to Pakistan and make the film about this topic. She needed funds for this project, so she got help from  Smith College and also New York Times. Both organizations were glad with her idea and were ready to give funds.

Sharmeen is also known for doing projects on the Muslim world. She started off from doing her filmmaking in 2002. She produced one film called “Terror’s Children”, which was done by the New York Times. This film got her an Overseas Press Club Award, the American Women Award, Radio and Television Award, and the South Asian Journalist Association Award.

In 2003 “Reinventing the Taliban”, was awarded the Special Jury Award at the BANFF TV festival in Canada, the CINE Golden Eagle Award, the American Women in Radio and Television award, and the Livingston Award. In 2005, her film “Women of the Holy Kingdom”, about the women movement in Saudi Arabia, won the South Asian Journalist Association Award. Sharmeen had started working for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom the same year.

Later on in 2007, Sharmeen was named: journalist of the year” from One World Media. She went as a reporter for Channel 4 in Afghanistan. She also made a film there called, “Afghanistan Unveiled/Lifting the Veil”. This film was basically about the reconstruction of women in their society. In 2010, she won an Emmy award for her documentary, Pakistan: Children of the Taliban. This whole film showed how the Taliban are practicing their strategies for the terrorism.