These female Pakistani directors are revolutionising the media industry

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Internationally lauded and the recipient of two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, including a Knight International Journalism Award, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a powerhouse in the media industry. As a journalist, filmmaker and activist, her visual contributions to social activism are unparalleled, especially through her two internationally acclaimed documentaries, ‘A Girl in the River’ and ‘Saving Face’. The former followed the stories of two women subjected to acid attacks and their struggle for justice and healing, and the latter focused on the horrific narrative of honour killings in Pakistan.

She holds two masters and a production house that was involved in producing Pakistan’s first computer-animated feature film, 3 Bahadur. Obaid has successfully reached several feats in our nation’s male-dominated media industry amongst directors.

Mehreen Jabbar

Almost all of us may have seen the film Dobara Phir Se, the highly acclaimed love story starring Sanam Saeed, Adeel Hussain and Hareem Farooq. But do we all know of the woman behind this project – Mehreen Jabbar, one of the most renowned directors with a longstanding prolific career in the industry through several short films, dramas and movies.

Her first feature film, Ramchand Pakistani, was inspired by true events about a boy who inadvertently crosses the Pakistan-India border which initiates a grievous onslaught of events for his family, which went on to win several awards including best film at Pakistan Media Awards and Lux Style Awards.

While her other theatrical release Dobara Phir Se was contextually a much lighter movie, but it still pushed boundaries as it focused on a divorced woman living in New York and her attempts to reconcile with her mother and find love, the latter being quite taboo in a society where the title of divorce automatically makes one an outcast, even more so for a woman.

Iram Parveen Bilal

Iram Parveen Bilal is a Pakistani-American filmmaker, activist and entrepreneur. Her film, Josh, tackled several relevant issues in Pakistan including feudalism, poverty, and unequal women’s rights, and went on to win Best Screenplay and the Best Feature Film at the South Asian Film Festival 2014. Not only this, but the project was Pakistan’s first film to be on Netflix and find a place in the permanent selection at the US Library of Congress.

Apart from her directorial work, she heads Pakistan’s first professional script-writing lab and mentoring institute called Qalambaaz, which aims to nurture young artists and aspiring cinematographers, part of her efforts in building a sustained cinematic industry in the region. Her latest film, I’ll Meet You There, based around a Muslim cop and his teenage daughter, was selected out of thousands of entries to compete in the South by Southwest Film festival 2020.

Sultana Siddiqui

No less than a media mogul, Sultana Siqqiqui has attained remarkable feats in the entertainment industry including being the first woman in Pakistan to have found what went on to become one of the nation’s leading media channels. She was recently awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the president of Pakistan for her countless contributions to our country’s media landscape.

It was at her behest that one of Pakistan’s best drama serials came to our screens; Zindagi Gulzaar Hai, which has seen unmatched success and still holds up today as one of the most holistically directed and emotionally charged dramas that were viewed across the entire Indian subcontinent.

Momina Duraid

Literally, every other drama on our TV screens would be attached to the name Momina Duraid. This woman has actively revolutionised the entertainment industry with her numerous works and accolades, pushing boundaries left and right. Apart from being an established Pakistani director and producer, she also heads her own production company known as MD productions.

Named amongst the 100 most influential women in 2015, her creative trajectory has seen many leading drama serials and a co-direction title for the film Bin Roye, the highly acclaimed romance/drama film that featured Mahira Khan and Humayun Saeed. Her involvement in mega-hit serials like Humsafar, Shehr-e-Zaat, Diyar-e-Dil, Mann Mayal, Udaari, Yaqeen Ka Safar, and Ehd-e-Wafa positions her as an immensely prominent and inspiring figure in the media industry.