Acid attacks

Is it possible for a person to literally "melt", to dissolve? To have your beauty, your future, your life melt away is what literally happens to thousands of (mostly) girls and women, who are doused with acid... in their sleep... by men.

Like Nobisa, a 15-year old, who made the mistake of telling a boy she didn't love him. Or Nasima, who was just 12 when she turned down a marriage proposal by her 27-year old uncle.
Or the heart-wrenching case of the young mother who arrived at a clinic with her 10-month old baby. Her husband had been brutal and violent even during the pregnancy, had raged and demanded the outstanding rest of the dowry, had hit and beaten his young wife. After the child had been born, he had attacked it no less than five times with acid, once even forcing the baby to swallow some. Finally, the mother was able to flee with her child.

A small amount of sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, readily available even to the poorest, can disfigure within minutes. The substance not only eats into the skin on face, neck and shoulders but also the underlying muscles and nerves, sometimes even the bone. Immediate help is essential, yet 80 percent of such attacks occur in remote rural areas, where the trip to the next doctor or hospital is at best an adventure. And even if you have found a doctor who knows how to treat the terrible, disfiguring wounds, the damage to the spirit and the soul is harder, if not impossible to repair.

Not only do the victims suffer almost unbearable pain and anguish, their lives are also thrown off course, with love and marriage now a near impossibility. Education is cut short, with all physical and financial resources now poured into trying to recover.

"It's difficult to tell what it is that goes through the mind of someone who throws skin-burning acid over another human being," said Dr Ron Hiles, a British plastic surgeon who recently travelled to Bangladesh to treat acid attack survivors. "There are all sorts of motivations, one of the prime ones being jealousy. But I don't think people realise before they carry out the attack quite what horrific injuries they will cause."

I'm not ashamed to say that tears ran down my face as I read about the plight of these women, whose lives have been ruined by cowardly, evil attacks. And I salute them for their strength and power of will, and their refusal to let the attack destroy their identities. As it happens, Monira Rahman, who works to help the victims will receive the Human Rights Prize from Amnesty International here in Berlin March 19th . Her organization is www.acidsurvivors.org and I hope some who read this will be moved to pledge some financial support for that cause.

Yes, we need to acknowledge that different cultures have different norms and traditions. But, much as the practice of genital mutilation, the reprehensible tradition of acid attacks needs to be stopped. Sadly, however, it appears to be spreading, as this news report from Iraq says http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=7197