Pakistan celebrates documentary Oscar win

Saving Face, a short documentary about acid attacks on women and those who help them recover.

The film by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy follows survivors among hundreds of people attacked every year, and focuses on Mohammad Jawad, a British Pakistani plastic surgeon who returned to his homeland to help restore their faces and lives.

The attacks are often carried out by angry husbands or spurned lovers.

In 2010, at least 8,000 acid attacks, forced marriages and other forms of violence against women were reported.

Because the group relied mostly on media reports, the figure is likely an undercount.

Mistreatment of women is widespread in Pakistan, a nation of some 175 million where most people are poor, only half the adults can read, and extremist ideologies such as that of the Taliban are gaining traction.

A new law mandates that convicted attackers serve a minimum sentence of 14 years, and pay a minimum
fine of about $11,200. It also criminalises other common abuses, such as marrying off young girls to settle tribal disputes and families preventing women from inheriting property.