Acid throwing: terrorism that's personal

// added December 07, 2008 // 10 comments //
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ProfessorFunk

more from News and Politics:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/30/opinion/edkristof.php

This piece looks at the alarming rise of acid attacks on women in the middle east.

Men are known to throw acid in the faces of their wives and daughters as a form of punishment. The injuries are horrific and the number of attacks are astonishing.

This article brought a tear to my eye and exposed me a form of brutality I was completely ignorant of. Well worth your reading time.

--------------------- Excerpts------------------

'This month in Afghanistan, men on motorcycles threw acid on a group of girls who dared to attend school. One of the girls, a 17-year-old named Shamsia, told reporters from her hospital bed: "I will go to my school even if they kill me. My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies."


'Since 1994, Bukhari has documented 7,800 cases of women who were deliberately burned, scalded or subjected to acid attacks, just in the Islamabad area. In only 2 percent of those cases was anyone convicted.'


'Azar had earned a good income and was supporting her three small children when she decided to divorce her husband, Azar Jamsheed, a fruit seller who rarely brought money home. He agreed to end the (arranged) marriage because he had his eye on another woman.

After the divorce was final, Jamsheed came to say goodbye to the children, and then pulled out a bottle and poured acid on his wife's face, according to her account and that of their son.

"I screamed," Azar recalled. "The flesh of my cheeks was falling off. The bones on my face were showing, and all of my skin was falling off."

Neighbors came running, as smoke rose from her burning flesh and she ran about blindly, crashing into walls. Jamsheed was never arrested, and he has since disappeared.'
  1. groups:
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  2. tags:
    News and Politics,  Women,  Terrorism,  Opinion,  2 more

10 comments // Acid throwing: terrorism that's personal

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