An average of 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called "honor killings," according to estimates used by many women's rights groups in Pakistan. Most often, men who kill female relatives are not prosecuted, because Pakistani law allows relatives of the victim to forgive the killer, a provision based in Islamic law. Since in these cases the killer is also a family member, the relatives almost always forgive him. In 2012, Obaid-Chinoy won an Oscar for her documentary "Saving Face," depicting the suffering of victims of acid attacks — women disfigured by acid thrown in their faces, usually by men they have spurned or refused in marriage. Saba's bravery — and the sweetness of their relationship — plays out on screen even as she recovers in the hospital, her face deeply gouged by the bullet fired by her uncle. "Because they had sworn on the Quran, I had no fear in my heart," Saba says in the film. [...] the camera shows him, revealing a stocky officer wearing the long, unkempt beard and no moustache style that is the hallmark of a conservative Muslim. Obaid-Chinoy, who lives with her two daughters and husband in the southern city of Karachi, says she marvels at Pakistani women's rights activists. Some have paid with their lives, including her close friend, Sabeen Mahmoud, who was shot and killed last year in Karachi, reportedly by Islamic State group loyalists. At 17, she wrote a cover story for a local magazine about rich kids bullying other children.