Pakistan Film on Honor Killings Wins Oscar for Best Short Documentary

The documentary, “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” highlights the plight of a 19-year-old girl who survived being shot in the face by her father and uncle and thrown into a river to die in Gujranwala, Pakistan’s northern Punjab province, after being caught trying to elope with her boyfriend.

Over 1,000 women in the conservative Islamic nation are murdered annually by male relatives for perceived immoral behavior, which can include the refusal to enter into an arranged marriage, flirtatious behavior, adultery, being raped or engaging in property inheritance squabbles.

The director says she hopes the film will lead to change in society, reports Dawn newspaper.

“The most hopeful thing about this film is that it started a national discourse in Pakistan about honor killings – something we desperately needed to have,” said Obaid-Chinoy.

It is the second Oscar nomination for Obaid-Chinoy, who in 2012 won the Oscar in the same category for her documentary “Saving Face,” in which women scarred by acid attacks sought to reconstruct their faces through plastic surgery.