Acid Attacks Against Women

Acid attacking is a form of violence so common that it now has it’s own special name- vitriolage.

Indeed, it is such a common form of assault that there are multiple organizations that assist victims who survive this abominable crime. These include The Acid Survivors Foundation in Pakistan, The Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh, the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity, the Acid Survivors Trust International, etc.

What is acid attacking? It is exactly what it sounds like- assaulting another human being by dowsing them in various corrosive acids. The results range from facial deformity to blindness to deafness to death. The psychological effects include post traumatic stress disorder, exile from community, the harrowing hell of facing others socially- you are, after all, missing your face. In addition to attacking the face, women’s breasts and genitalia are also attacked.

The attacks target all kinds of victims, but eighty percent are women. The crime is overwhelmingly committed by men punishing women for disobedience, suspected adultery, embarrassment of rejection after marriage refusal, or simply for being an unruly wife or daughter. Attacking a woman’s face assures that her beauty will not be seen again by men. Women who have not sufficiently covered themselves is one of the most common reasons. This includes punishment for women who wear pants. According to the Rand Corporation,  women in Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan have been injured “when acid was thrown on their unveiled faces by male fanatics who considered them improperly dressed.” It is also used against prostitutes, to punish them and ensure they will never make a living. Predictably, men and boys also been attacked for suspected homosexuality.

This form of violence can happen anywhere in the world, but is rampant in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Afghanistan.

While any civilized society would lock up offenders and never let them out, in many countries, it’s not really against the law even though it is against the law. Though there are thousands upon thousands of cases every year, hardly anyone is justly punished. Pakistan conservatives, for example, claim that religious law is higher than human courts, and sharia law- God’s law- does not punish men for disciplining family members. Humanitarian groups in Pakistan say there were 8000 attacks in the past decade- JUST in the Islamabad city area alone. Those are just the reported ones- most go unreported, since women must not advertise their disobedience to the law or to society at large. Most burn victims tell others it was an “accident”- the ol’ “fell down the stairs” equivalent. Fewer than two percent of the reported crimes go punished.

The only solution to this problem is to remove social stigma that victim deserved attack, regardless of how “disobedient” or “promiscuous” she was or was perceived to be. This must be done by mandating religious and secular law in all countries to punish this act with return burn. No man is going to throw acid on his ex-girlfriend or a prostitute or his child if he will lose his own face and genitalia in a painful acid meltdown. It will only take one or two such punishments around the world until the whole thing stops.

Warning:

You will find the following pictures very disturbing. I believe we need to be disturbed, to bring to light these unspeakable things, with the hope that a paradigm shift will eventually end many forms of violence in the world. More, though I love my celeb news as much as the next person and recognize the value of entertainment, beauty, and laughter, I think it also important to know what is happening outside of this protective bubble.  It is important to learn more, so that we can get to the root of why these things happen. In addition to helping the victim, we need to understand the fear of women and the religious entitlement that allows crimes like these ones to flourish. Furthermore, it is too easy to not hear the news, or to not believe it- it really can’t be that bad, that common. Out of sight, out of mind. When one sees the real people affected by these crimes, it ceases to be statistical and “other” and becomes real. I can no longer convince myself that it’s isolated or even that it’s not really true.

But  perhaps the most important thing is simply to humanize the victims of these attacks. It is easy to look at the beautiful faces in Glamour Magazine. It is easy to smile at neighbours and friends, even ugly ones. It is a much more difficult thing to look at someone and humanize someone who doesn’t have a face. The fact that the whole world finds it painful to look at you makes you invisible. I want to scurry on and look away. But these are human beings whose visual identities have been permanently seared off of them. These people are human beings who face extraordinary pain, fear, and hopelessness. There is little I can do to help, but I cannot walk on by without acknowledging the humanity of these people.

This is Shahnaz Bibi who was attacked over ten years ago. The photo was taken in Lahore, Pakistan.

This is sixteen year old Najaf Sultana, also in Lahore, Pakistan. Her father felt there were too many women in the family, and attacked her while she was asleep. Her family abandoned her after the attack. She is blind . She has undergone countless plastic surgeries to no avail.

This is Irum Saeed, a photo taken at her office at the Urdu University of Islamabad. She was harmed because she did not wish to marry her attacker. She has undergone dozens of plastic surgeries.

Dina and Peter Athanasius (El-Gowhary) have been in the news this past year. Although there are hundreds of thousands of Dina and Peters who live in fear because they have changed their religion, a capital offense under Islamic law, Dina’s case is different because this young woman has been bravely speaking up to the media and raising awareness of the plight of others like her. Dina was born in Egypt, but her father converted to Christianity. Like other apostates or infidels, they are not free to worship at a church or mosque or synagogue of their choice as we are here in North America. “I have no home, I am always afraid when I go to church or even go out in the street, I have no friends and no education.” Fatwas have been issued for the “spilling” of their blood. Recently, Dina was attacked by an acid thrower: thankfully, she was wearing a jacket that her father ripped off of her; none of the acid damaged her face. Dina and her father have reached out to their President Mubarak in a public letter begging him to let them leave Egypt since their life is in constant danger. They never go to the same church twice, and live for only a few weeks at a time in any one location.  Dina also bravely wrote to President Obama, saying that she read he said Muslims are treated with respect in America; can he help make it that Christians and others be treated with respect in Egypt? She asked Obama to help her and her father escape to America. Obama has arranged a meeting with the US Committee on International Religious Freedom this month.

In 2007, Ethiopia’s Kamilat Mehdi and both of her sisters were pushed into an alley and attacked with acid by a man who had been stalking Mehdi for four years. Reuters’ Andrew Heavens reported in EthioNews that all girls were injured, but Mehdi suffered the brunt of the damage. Her eyelids were burned off.  Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi, the world’s 64th richest man according to Forbes 2010, is an oil and real estate tycoon known for helping Ethiopian businesses, arts, and charitable causes. Heroically, he flew Mehdi to a hospital in France and paid for all of her medical expenses, so she survived. Her sisters were also treated with his generosity. Women’s human rights groups in Ethiopia say such attacks are thankfully rare in Ethiopia, but that most women suffer other forms of violence against them by intimate partners or hopefuls. Mehdi has been described as heroic, refusing to let this horror dampen her dreams for the future. But heartbreakingly, during treatment she described some of the pain. “It’s hard because every day they do something, and there’s no anaesthetic,” she said. Since she cannot close her eyes, she must sleep with a bandage on her face.

Nurul Dahyatul Fazlinda Mat Haizan of Malaysia was injured along with an elderly woman and a male adult during a family dispute last summer. Today she is back at school, and school authorities have made it clear they will not tolerate teasing of the eight year old victim. Nurul was afraid of going back to school, and asks frequently when her face will go back to normal.

“Donations are desperately needed to finance the medical costs and rehabilitation of Samar (31) and Juwariya (25) Atique whose young lives and hopes were brutally crushed in October 2009 by two men who threw a jug of acid on their faces as the women were returning home from a day’s work in a rickshaw. Their crime – Juwariya had turned down a marriage proposal from one of the men,” states British charity Southall Black Sisters, who are fundraising fees for medical care, surgeries, and counselling for these women. Please help if you can. http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/

UK model and television host Katie Piper was attacked by Stefan Sylvestre, hired by ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch. Katie was always interested in beauty and fashion and modelled in pageants, newspapers, and magazines. She decided to show herself publicly in order to raise awareness about acid victims.

Shamsia Husseini was 17, walking to school in Afghanistan when she was attacked because girls who go to school are whores. The literacy rates for Afghani women have hovered between ten and fifteen percent- yes, that’s ten percent who know HOW to read, not ten percent who don’t know-but now thousands and thousands of girls are attending school thanks to the American intervention and liberation. Many girls are attacked and their lives are threatened simply for attending class. Husseini has bravely stated that she will continue school even if the religious police keep trying to kill her.

Iran’s Ameneh Bahrami was harassed repeatedly by Majid Movahedi, who pushed himself against her at every opportunity and constantly asked her to go out with him. She begged him to leave her alone, telling him that she was already married. He threatened to kill her. Finally, he attacked her with acid. “I decided to splash acid on her face so her husband would leave her and I could have her,” Movahedi told the courts. Article 209 of Iran’s constitution states that a woman’s life is valued only half as much as a man’s, in accordance with religious law. While similar crimes frequently go unpunished under court systems that recognize women as men’s property or consider women’s testimony only half the worth a man’s, sometimes sharia’s eye for an eye mandate is fulfilled. In this case, Movahedi was sentenced to have acid dripped in his eye. The victim declined total retribution of having acid splashed in her attacker’s face. “That is impossible and horrific. Just drip 20 drops of acid in his eyes so he can realise what pain I am undergoing.” Ironically, human rights groups have been up in arms about Iran’s cruel and inhumane punishments. In Iran, crimes against women are seldom recognized. In this instance, they got it right, and so instantly the international rights community forgets about the women and all the other women like her.

Sokreun Mean is a Cambodian woman who was attacked by her ex husband’s new wife. Cambodia’s population is primarily Buddhist, usually considered the least patriarchal religious group. Cambodia’s acid attack epidemic is interesting because the phenomenon usually takes place between jealous women fighting over a man. Cambodians are nearly all powerless in a lawless society where human life can be snuffed out for a twenty dollar bill. Women have the least power and their husband or boyfriend is often the only “stability” they have. In an absolutely reprehensible display of jealousy, the phenomenon of burning off another woman’s beauty is rampant. The philandering husband is seldom the victim of such attacks.

Zafar Iqbal is a eunuch in Pakistan, pejoratively called hjiras. Hjiras are an ancient mix of Hindu devotees married to the gods; of modern day intersex or transgendered folk; of men who were castrated for one reason or another in childhood or puberty. They have been considered blessed and close to god, since they were perceived as related to both genders. Hence, dancing “ladyboys” have been traditionally more than entertainment- they have been ways for an audience to be nearer the divine. It has never been an easy life, since prostitution and begging have been the few methods a hjira can earn a living, whether or not s/he was castrated or gender-crossed of his/her own choice, biology, or childhood. Iqbal earns 2.50 when his clients actually pay for their services. It is far more than s/he could earn in other work. Nonetheless, eunuchs were long seen as something holy, despite the social stigma, in South Asia as well as in the words of Christ in the New Testament. But in today’s Pakistan, homosexuality is punishable by death, and so ladyboy fans blame the dancers for their own desires, much as men blame women for their desires. Wo/men like Iqbal are often raped, robbed, and beaten with no protection from the state or from society. Last year, Pakistan’s top judge ordered rights for hjira, putting into motion the intention to accept them as “other” or a third gender as opposed to nothing, as neighbouring India has recently done.