AFP, ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Pakistan would eradicate “evil” honour killings as he congratulated director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on her Oscar nomination for a harrowing documentary on the practice.
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”, which follows the story of a rare survivor, was nominated in the documentary short category of the Academy Awards on Thursday. Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistan each year on the grounds of defending family “honour”. Their male murderers are then “pardoned” by relatives under the country’s controversial Islamic blood money laws that allow murderers to escape
punishment.
A statement from the prime minister’s office late Thursday offered Chinoy, who made history in 2012 when she won Pakistan’s first Oscar for the another documentary, Sharif’s congratulations.
“Honour killings, the theme of the film, afflict several segments of Pakistani society,” it quoted Sharif as saying.