HOLLYWOOD: A documentary about a Pakistani girl shot in the face by her family won an Oscar on Sunday, after helping persuade the government to commit it would fight `honour killings` in the country.

`A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness` won the Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the star-studded ceremony in Hollywood.

The Oscar win was the secondfor director Sharmeen ObaidChinoy, who recently called on Prime Minister Nawaz Shariffor director Sharmeen ObaidChinoy, who recently called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifamid the growing global spotlight on the film.

`This is what happens when determined women get together, Chinoy said as she accepted thegolden statuette.

Chinoy praised `all the brave men out there, like my father and my husband, who push women to go to school and work and who want a more just society for women`.

The film follows 19-year-old Saba, a survivor of an attempted honour killing who was beaten up, shot and thrown into a river by hergolden statuette.

Chinoy praised `all the brave men out there, like my father and my husband, who push women to go to school and work and who want a more just society for women`.

The film follows 19-year-old Saba, a survivor of an attempted honour killing who was beaten up, shot and thrown into a river by her father and uncle for marrying a man without their approval. At the last moment, she tilted her head, meaning the bullet grazed her cheek instead of shattering her skull.

In a rarity for such attacks, Saba not only survived but went to police.

But under a law in Pakistan, men who kill female relatives escape punishment if they are `pardoned` by relatives through blood money.

After meeting Chinoy recently in Islamabad, Prime Minister Sharif in a statement vowed to `rid Pakistan of this evil by bringing in appropriate legislation`.

`That is the power of film,` Chinoy said at the Oscars.

She earlier had said thatfather and uncle for marrying a man without their approval. At the last moment, she tilted her head, meaning the bullet grazed her cheek instead of shattering her skull.

In a rarity for such attacks, Saba not only survived but went to police.

But under a law in Pakistan, men who kill female relatives escape punishment if they are `pardoned` by relatives through blood money.

After meeting Chinoy recently in Islamabad, Prime Minister Sharif in a statement vowed to `rid Pakistan of this evil by bringing in appropriate legislation`.

`That is the power of film,` Chinoy said at the Oscars.

She earlier had said thata victory at the Oscars would build momentum for change.

`I think if the film were to win an Academy Award, then the issue of honour killing, which doesn`t just affect women in Pakistan but affects women around the world, would really gain traction,` she said.

Chinoy in 2012 won Pakistan`s first Oscar for `Saving Face`, a 40-minute documentary on the horrors endured by women who suffer acid attacl(s.

It focused on two women, Zakia and Rukhsana, as they fight to rebuild their lives after being attacked by their husbands, and British Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad who tries to help repair their shattered faces.Agencies