A Pakistani filmmaker has won the prestigious student Emmy award for her documentary on an Indian Muslim woman’s struggle to break into the American political system.

Washington-based Sarah Zaman won the award for Bismillah, in the name of Allah. She made the film jointly with Jolene Pinder as part of her graduate thesis project on a shoestring budget.

The two women completed everything for the film between the two of them, except composing the music, editing the sound and title graphics, the Daily Times reported on Wednesday.

The documentary tells the story of 31-year-old Farheen Hakeem, an Indian-American Muslim girl scout troop leader who puts herself under scrutiny by running for public office. She wants to take on assumptions made about Muslims.

Hakeem, who wears a hijab but shakes hands with men, is shown to be neither apologetic about her religious beliefs nor silent about the biases she sees in her community.

She takes on a white Democrat who has held the seat she wants for 16 years. She loses but along the way she initiates a dialogue on what it means to be American in a post-9/11 world even as she guides a new generation of young Muslim girl scouts to balance their American and Islamic identities without compromise.

The film was made in conjunction with the University of Florida’s Documentary Institute in 2007 and won the Emmy in this year’s listings.