Acid Survivors
Acid. The word conjures up various images.
For some, its that discomfort in the stomach after a heavy meal. For others it is the stuff you find in science labs in school. But for a few, it is a horrible reminder of their life. Everytime they look in the mirror they see the word Acid.
In the 'developed' world, the sale of acids are severely controlled due to the simple fact that they are so dangerous. But in the developing world, such controls are not in place. So it is relatively to buy concentrated forms of acid and use them to attack whom you wish. Invariably it is women who suffer such attacks.
As UNICEF define them:
"In an acid attack, a man throws acid (the kind found in car batteries) on the face of a girl or woman. Any number of reasons can lead to acid attacks. A delayed meal or the rejection of a marriage proposal is offered as justification for a man to disfigure a woman with acid. Sulfuric acid is ubiquitous, being the basic, inexpensive ingredient for making lead acid batteries in all motorized vehicles all over the world. There does not appear to be any way of reducing its availability in any way."
To use Bangladesh as an example, 2003 saw over 400 attacks reported. Pakistan has had almost 1000 attacks reported by Human Rights Watch. But this is not simply a south asian problem. Africa is seemingly suffering the same problem with Nigeria,Uganda and other areas of sub-saharan Africa leading the field.
The Acid Survivors Trust is an organisation who work with local support groups for survivors of such attacks to give them the confidence to rejoin general society and speak out against this heinous crime.
Here are a few more linkys for articles on this issue (Warning some of the images may upset):
wasalam (Comment this)
Oh well.
Very interesting blog entry. I checked out some of those articles -- yikes. (Comment this)
Very sad about those acid victims. Last year the BSA here at Univ. of Toronto donated proceeds from their annual cultural show to the acid victims of Bangladesh. Some very disturbing documentaries came to light when the issue was first being discussed. Those who commit these crimes should be given the same punishments as rapists, murderers and drug dealers. (Comment this)
I am a bangladeshi blogger too. My site is:
http://salamdhaka.blogspot.com/
I like your topic - acid is a big problem. I'll add your blog to my links. Do the same if you like mine.
later man, (Comment this)
I wouldn''t say that society condones these actions. Its just that when it isn''t expressed in public then the public do not know. Think about the Child Abuse scandals which rocked the Catholic church a few years ago, that was only because those abused children grew up and then spoke up. Before then, the public didnt know so could not condemn. (Comment this)