PESHAWAR: Four female journalists from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have brought laurels to the country by winning international awards in Film Making on women empowerment and religious freedom.
The four journalists of KP surprised all by bagging top positions in the international awards sponsored by Empower Media Women.
The winning journalists are Zeenat Bibi who clinched the first position and won the grand prize. The second position was bagged by Khalida Niaz of Tribal News Network.
Jamaima Afridi of Khyber District submitted a film titled as `A Helping Hand Across Faith and Countries’ which received the `Inclusion Award’ and Fatima Nazish’s film also obtained the first position.
The grand prize winner received a $3,000 cash prize, 1st runner-up $1,500, and 2nd runner-up $500, says a press release of Empower Media Women.
The media projects submitted to the film competition came from thirty women who took part in Empower Women Media’s Pakistan Media Training Fellowship.
This is the fifth annual Religious Freedom Film Competition sponsored by Empower Women Media in association with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.
“We were amazed to witness the tenacity and creativity of the Pakistani women filmmakers,” said Shirin Taber, Director of Empower Women Media.
“Their films have the potential to change lives and shift the culture at large,” she added in the press statement.
Zeenat Bibi from Peshawar who won the grand prize submitted her film titled `She stood against religious extremism’.
The film tells the story of a young woman in a war-torn region of Pakistan who starts an initiative to counter religious extremism and sectarian violence by holding dialogue sessions with youth from different beliefs and religions.
Empower Women Media invited nine highly respected judges to review the short films, including Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation; Dr. Brian Grim of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, Ed Brown, Secretary General of Stefanus Alliance International, and other leading voices for religious freedom.
The winning films were screened before civil society and faith leaders at the IRF Film Festival and Roundtable in Islamabad. While selected films are showcased at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, DC on June 28-30.
