Asghar Farhadi accepts the Oscar® for the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year from Iran, “A Separation”. (Photos courtesy of Academy Awards)Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge with their Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject for “Saving Face”.

AAP staff report

HOLLYWOOD — The 84th Annual Academy Awards aired Sunday evening, with a few surprises and a few noteworthy awards for Asian Americans.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the award for best Documentary (Feature) to Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for “Saving Face” the story of renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad, who left the comfort of his profitable London practice to return to Pakistan and help the victims of acid attacks, mostly women, and their battle for justice and their journey of healing.

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©2010 Bhutto Film, LLC.

“Bhutto”, the new documentary film about the slain Pakistani leader will have a one week screening starting January 28, 2011 at the Lagoon Cinema in Minneapolis. Filmmaker and political consultant Duane Baughman created this definitive account one of the most complex and fascinating characters of our time – Benazir Bhutto, the first woman in history to lead a Muslim nation.

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NEW YORK (January 4, 2011) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the assassination today of the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Salman Taseer.

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Athens, Greece (December 14, 2010) – More than 33,000 football fans demonstrated their support Tuesday for the people of Pakistan and Haiti by filling the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Greece, to watch top players reach a 2-2 draw in the eighth Match Against Poverty. As in previous years, the United Nations Development Program and two of its goodwill ambassadors, Zinédine Zidane and Ronaldo, organized the match in support of the Millennium Development Goals which seek to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods worldwide by the year 2015.

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New York (August 24, 2010) – An estimated 800,000 people affected by the catastrophic floods in Pakistan can only be reached by helicopter, the United Nations reported today, appealing for 40 additional helicopters to deliver humanitarian aid to those stranded in areas inaccessible by land.

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New York, NY (August 16, 2010) – In the aftermath of a disaster that arrives as suddenly as the flooding in Pakistan did, the immediate impact – the deaths and the injuries – is usually followed by additional health risks caused by the difficult living conditions, the lack of hygiene, and the restricted access to clean water and basic health care services the disaster leaves in its wake.

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The United States provided humanitarian relief to Pakistan shortly after July 29, 2010 flooding left hundreds reported dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. The first American military aircraft to fly into Pakistan with assistance was from the Minnesota Air National Guard. Thousands of Halal meals were delivered by a C-130H assigned to the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Aug. 1, 2010.” (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Christopher Boitz)

South Asia (August 11, 2010) – Crew Members of the 133rd Airlift Wing based in the Twin Cities, now deployed to Afghanistan, are assisting with international relief efforts in Pakistan following deadly flooding in the region that began on July 29, 2010. The first U.S. relief flight into Pakistan was on a 133rd Airlift Wing, Minnesota Air National Guard C-130H “Hercules”, filled with emergency relief supplies flown from Bagram, Afghanistan.

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Minneapolis, Minn. (August 3, 2010) – The American Refugee Committee is assisting survivors of the floods in Pakistan, which have killed more than 1,400 people and forced more than 3 million people from their homes. Health teams traveled by boat to visit medical centers in Swat, which had been made inaccessible by washed out roads and collapsed bridges. The team is also distributing critical supplies and medicines.

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By Zaid Jilani

Two weeks ago, as I traveled to my Washington office at the Center for American Progress think tank, I noticed that the Washington Post-published Express newspaper for the day had splashed the image of Faisal Shahzad, the chief suspect in the failed Times Square car bombing, across its front page alongside the sensationalist headline “MADE IN PAKISTAN.”

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Washington, D.C. (April 2, 2010) – South Asian Americans Leading Together welcomes the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement to rescind a misguided policy issued in January 2010, which applied enhanced security screening for passengers traveling from 14 predominantly Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, to the United States.

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