Acid attack

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A woman after being murdered in an acid attack. Caption of this photograph reads: A woman raped by an entire platoon and then murdered, acid poured on her face to reveal death's hideous skull. Photgraph taken by Rene of Casa El Salvador
A woman after being murdered in an acid attack[1]. Caption of this photograph reads: A woman raped by an entire platoon and then murdered, acid poured on her face to reveal death's hideous skull. Photgraph taken by Rene of Casa El Salvador

Acid attacks are a violent phenomenon that primarily occur in parts of certain South Asian countries and are often perpetrated by males against females. Perpetrators of these attacks throw acid at their victims, burning them. The consequences are multiple: permanent marks on the body, disfiguration and potentially blindness.

The chemical agent used to commit these attacks is either hydrochloric acid, widely available in South Asian countries as a toilet cleaner or sulphuric acid from batteries. Because the chemical causes severe disfigurement, not death, this easily accessible chemical has become the popular weapon for attacks against women who refuse sexual advances and offers of marriage made by men. Acid attacks are not often classified as domestic violence, because they usually originate outside of the home[citation needed].

On the other hand, there is a protective attitude that declares this perception of acid attacks as inherently Western, another example of Western ethnocentrism that characterizes "other" Eastern countries as “barbaric” and/or “backward.”[citation needed] Supporters of this stance often claim that these practices, their prevalence and their significance are taken out of context by the Western media and greatly exaggerated.[citation needed] As evidence, it is alleged that acid attacks are frequently the subject of Lifetime original movies, and have been referenced by primetime television shows such as Family Guy and The Simpsons.[citation needed]

However, there have been several culturally local voices, joining what was once a primarily Western discourse on the subject of acid attacks, deeming them horrific acts of violence. On March 8, 2002, many men and women in Bangladesh marched against acid attacks.

Contents

[edit] Victims

Although acid attacks mainly target women, there has been a case in which a man was deliberately attacked by a woman, another where a man was attacked by a male and several other situations where men were inadvertently harmed due to their proximity.

In the first case, a man who divorced his wife was targeted by her with acid on two occasions [2], permanently losing sight in one eye in the first assault. She was arrested after chasing him in the streets, when police discovered that she was carrying acid, intending to attack again. In the second incident, a Muslim cleric in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, was accused of attacking a male student with acid because the student refused his sexual advances. [3] Female attacks on males are comparatively rare.

[edit] Acid Attacks around the world

Such attacks are not unknown in various parts of the world.

[edit] Cultural issues

Certain unspecified groups of people[citation needed] consider these attacks to be evidence of deep-rooted misogyny present in these societies. The stance that these people take is aggravated by the lenience of punishment for these crimes—convictions peaked in 2002 at 87 out of 410 attacks [10] — and the attitudes that characterize the perpetrators as victims—spurned suitors whose revenge qualifies as “poetic justice.” Another unspecified group of people, possibly overlapping with the previous group, deems acid attacks to be another manifestation of social structures that demand women and girls unquestioningly submit to male authority.[citation needed]

[edit] Related Social Problems

Acid attacks are differentiated from dowry harassments, where women are harassed for increasing dowries after marriage, and punished (often with death) for failure to obtain the requested amounts of money or goods. The method of killing these brides is typically by fire, due to the notorious instability of oil cookstoves that are then blamed for the attacks. Although these deaths are often deemed accidental, the incidence of dowry burnings has only recently subsided, due in large part to the penal and preventative legislation introduced by the Indian Union. Unlike acid attacks, these dowry-related assaults and murders are orchestrated most often by the mother-in-law, and represent a spin on the traditional view of misogyny as male-perpetuated.

Other practices, perceived to be misogynistic problems by certain people[citation needed], that occur within parts of South Asia are child marriages and sati. Moreover, there is a prevalence of abandoned female: children, widows, aged parents, mothers, as well as the method of female foeticide, that attest to the misogynistic overtones still common within sections of South Asian countries.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Multi-Death Corporations
  2. ^ Scorned wife blinds husband with acid
  3. ^ Acid attack on boy who 'refused sex with Muslim cleric'
  4. ^ Addict admits acid attack contract killing
  5. ^ Living in the Shadows: Acid Attacks in Cambodia Report
  6. ^ Hospital offers surgery to victim of acid attack
  7. ^ Multi-Death Corporations
  8. ^ [1] (restricted)
  9. ^ 6 teens hurt in acid attack
  10. ^ Acid Attack record

[edit] External links

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