Twenty-two-year-old Ameena, an acid burns victim, regrets marrying her husband Mohammad Ali, alias Danish, who splashed acid on her face after allegedly suspecting that she had illicit relations with another man. The severe burn injuries have not only disfigured her face, but also damaged both her eyes, compelling her to hide her face behind a veil as her daughters, aged seven and two-and-a-half, are frightened by the sight of their mother’s disfigured face.

Her husband has been temporarily detained by the police, but Ameena fears he may return and attack her two daughters if the concerned authorities let him go scot-free. She has also filed a suit against her husband for dissolution of her marriage, but because Danish possesses her NIC and the couple’s marriage certificate, Ameena fears she may not be able to do so.

According to Ameena, who was addressing a press conference at Madadgaar Helpline’s office on Monday, Danish and his sisters (who also live in their neighbourhood in Federal B-area) attacked her on the afternoon of January 31, 2008 - which was a few days after they learnt that Ameena was expecting her third child that Danish claimed was not his.

“He did not even wait for the third child’s delivery so my daughter could prove that his suspicion was wrong and instead tortured Ameena in order to force her to ‘confess’ that the unborn child is not his. When she started weeping and did not answer, he became aggressive and threw concentrated acid on her face and fled,” wept Kaneez Fatima, who accompanied her daughter at the conference because Ameena was unable to speak.

Ameena cried for help but no one came to rescue her. However, she managed to walk to her mother’s house, who is also Ameena’s next door neighbour. “My daughter fainted at my doorstep following which we rushed her to Civil Hospital’s Burns Ward but by the time we reached, Ameena’s eyes were damaged, as the concentrated acid leaked into her eyes,” said the distressed mother.

Ameena alleged that her husband, who is a balloon-seller, frequently abused her physically and due to the restrictions placed by him, she barely stepped out and his allegations of illicit relations with his friends were baseless. “He is a drug addict and frequently asked me for money. On refusal to do so, he would torture me. I tried complaining about his behaviour to his sisters and family members but they ignored me and said I should get used to his behaviour,” said the mother of two daughters, aged five and two-and-a-half years old.

An FIR (11/08) has been lodged at the Joharabad Police Station, but the police officials are protecting Danish, taking the plea that he is mentally sick, alleged Advocate Zia Awan, who is also providing legal aid to Ameena. “In a majority of the cases, husbands escape punishment by showing themselves to be ‘psychologically ill’ with the help of the police, which is why an increasing number of burns cases are being reported,” he said.

However, the Station Investigation Officer (SIO), Sajid Javed, said Danish’s fate has not been decided yet as investigation is under way. “An interim challan report has been filed in the city court,” he said. Ameena’s case will be heard in the city court on Wednesday, Awan further said.

It may be noted here that the offence of permanent impairing of any organ of the body of another person (by his spouse or any of his blood relations within the prohibited degree of marriage) is defined under Section 299 of Pakistan Penal Code, known as “Ikrah-e-tam”, whereby the offender is liable to imprisonment for a period of ten years. “Since we do not have a law against domestic violence as yet, Danish should be immediately tried under the PPC,” demanded Awan.

However, Ameena says imprisonment would not be enough to ‘teach him a lesson’. “My husband should be hanged to death, so that other men like him do not take advantage of a woman’s vulnerability,” she wept. Ameena’s mother and Advocate Awan also appealed for financial support from the government’s Zakat funds and Bait-ul-Mal so Ameena’s family can be rescued from the financial straits.

By: Aroosa Masroor

4 March 2008

Source: The News

By: Raquel Evita Saraswati

Good news: Congratulations to The Hijab Blog and Hijab Style on their feature story in the Toronto Star. I’m excited about the additional coverage being given to women who are pushing the envelope. In challening expectations about Muslim women, they’re not only educating the West - but also empowering Muslim women worldwide.

Twenty-two-year-old Ameena, an acid burns victim, regrets marrying her husband Mohammad Ali, alias Danish, who splashed acid on her face after allegedly suspecting that she had illicit relations with another man. The severe burn injuries have not only disfigured her face, but also damaged both her eyes, compelling her to hide her face behind a veil as her daughters, aged seven and two-and-a-half, are frightened by the sight of their mother’s disfigured face.

Her husband has been temporarily detained by the police, but Ameena fears he may return and attack her two daughters if the concerned authorities let him go scot-free. She has also filed a suit against her husband for dissolution of her marriage, but because Danish possesses her NIC and the couple’s marriage certificate, Ameena fears she may not be able to do so.

According to Ameena, who was addressing a press conference at Madadgaar Helpline’s office on Monday, Danish and his sisters (who also live in their neighbourhood in Federal B-area) attacked her on the afternoon of January 31, 2008 - which was a few days after they learnt that Ameena was expecting her third child that Danish claimed was not his.

“He did not even wait for the third child’s delivery so my daughter could prove that his suspicion was wrong and instead tortured Ameena in order to force her to ‘confess’ that the unborn child is not his. When she started weeping and did not answer, he became aggressive and threw concentrated acid on her face and fled,” wept Kaneez Fatima, who accompanied her daughter at the conference because Ameena was unable to speak.

Ameena cried for help but no one came to rescue her. However, she managed to walk to her mother’s house, who is also Ameena’s next door neighbour. “My daughter fainted at my doorstep following which we rushed her to Civil Hospital’s Burns Ward but by the time we reached, Ameena’s eyes were damaged, as the concentrated acid leaked into her eyes,” said the distressed mother.

Ameena alleged that her husband, who is a balloon-seller, frequently abused her physically and due to the restrictions placed by him, she barely stepped out and his allegations of illicit relations with his friends were baseless. “He is a drug addict and frequently asked me for money. On refusal to do so, he would torture me. I tried complaining about his behaviour to his sisters and family members but they ignored me and said I should get used to his behaviour,” said the mother of two daughters, aged five and two-and-a-half years old.

An FIR (11/08) has been lodged at the Joharabad Police Station, but the police officials are protecting Danish, taking the plea that he is mentally sick, alleged Advocate Zia Awan, who is also providing legal aid to Ameena. “In a majority of the cases, husbands escape punishment by showing themselves to be ‘psychologically ill’ with the help of the police, which is why an increasing number of burns cases are being reported,” he said.

However, the Station Investigation Officer (SIO), Sajid Javed, said Danish’s fate has not been decided yet as investigation is under way. “An interim challan report has been filed in the city court,” he said. Ameena’s case will be heard in the city court on Wednesday, Awan further said.

It may be noted here that the offence of permanent impairing of any organ of the body of another person (by his spouse or any of his blood relations within the prohibited degree of marriage) is defined under Section 299 of Pakistan Penal Code, known as “Ikrah-e-tam”, whereby the offender is liable to imprisonment for a period of ten years. “Since we do not have a law against domestic violence as yet, Danish should be immediately tried under the PPC,” demanded Awan.

However, Ameena says imprisonment would not be enough to ‘teach him a lesson’. “My husband should be hanged to death, so that other men like him do not take advantage of a woman’s vulnerability,” she wept. Ameena’s mother and Advocate Awan also appealed for financial support from the government’s Zakat funds and Bait-ul-Mal so Ameena’s family can be rescued from the financial straits.

By: Aroosa Masroor

4 March 2008

Source: The News

William Grut, MD, Rose Charities
2008-03-06

Acid violence defies any bounds of comprehension. It is a violation born and nurtured in hell itself, a pitiless, hideous evil. It takes away both skin and flesh and the very soul of the victim. And it does so with finality that is often absolute.

As a physician, I saw my first acid violence injury around 10 years ago. I had set up Rose charities as an extension of my previous organization, Project Iris. Iris dealt with eye injury and sight restoration but so many injuries extended beyond the eye to the face and torso. Rose went beyond the eye to facial and other injuries. Word had gone around that there were “foreign doctors” helping the injured and had set up a simple operative and treatment clinic on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

My First Case of Acid Violence Against Women:

My first experience with this heinous manifestation of violence against women remains seared in my memory. I came in in the morning and she was there in the waiting area, brought in by a friend. She sat there on the hard wooden bench. I took her hand. She could not cry, she had no tear ducts since the skin fused tightly over where here eyes may or may not lie underneath. She just gazed forward; her skin mottled leather membrane, shrink-wrapped; her face no longer with any elasticity or ability to display any expression. Her name is Vanna.

Vanna had been beautiful, and for many poor, oppressed Cambodian women it is their only possession of value. Before becoming a victim, she had a low paying job in a restaurant. She had a boyfriend. The story goes: One day Vanna refused the advances of a much older man, a government official of some importance. Later that evening two men were waiting for her. They held her down and slowly poured the acid on her beautiful face. And then they continued to hold her while it did its work.

That’s the thing. Simply throwing acid in someone’s face might give the person time to rush to water and prevent much of the damage. But when the victim is held, the acid will continue working. It can be poured onto specific areas; the eyes, the genitals, the breasts and there are cases where large quantities, like a bucket-full, of acid is simply flung at the victim. If the victim can then get to a source of water very quickly she can limit the amount of damage – though it may still be severe, irreversibly damaging her eyes.

It is hard even now, even as a physician who has seen many physical horrors in a lifetime to think back on Vanna’s face and body. It was as though the world had brought out a being so alien, so mutated that no one would ever recognize it.

What We Know About the Problem

Now, some 10 years later I have seen so many victims of acid burn attacks at our Rose Charities Surgical Rehabilitation or Eye Centers. Although statistics are scanty and subject to the inaccuracies of translation (Khmer is a notoriously difficult language to translate into English with the same exact retention of meaning) it would seem that around 50% of attacks are the consequence of real or perceived extramarital affairs or other aspects of life leading to seeking of revenge. This is an extreme and tragic consequence of men seeking to control women.

And there are more victims. An additional 15% are secondary victims, usually a child, who have gotten in the way of thrown acid. The rest, not the result of gender-based violence but rather arise from civil disputes, such as over land and other property. Cambodia’s history of conflict and succession of imposed governments has ensured an enormous uncertainty in land ownership, resulting in claims and counter claims.

Historical Influence

Cambodia’s conflicts of the last 50 years have been extreme and brutal. Despite attempts to keep neutral, the country became heavily involved in the Vietnam war, its people first being hit by both sides, before eventually succumbing to one of the most genocidal regimes of human history, that of the Khmer Rouge. In this period, some 2 million persons were slaughtered, tortured, starved, or worked to death. Women were forcibly married to strangers, forced to watch as their children were taken away or their babies bayoneted in front of them.

The injury and illness of conflict and post-conflict can be discussed in three broad categories; primary, secondary, and tertiary. There is ‘primary’ injury that is mostly associated with wars; bullet wounds, blast injuries, etc. Then there is ‘secondary’ victimization, which is the disease or untreated trauma caused by the conflict and the induced breakdown of infrastructure. Third, there is the ‘tertiary’ category, perhaps the most pernicious, the most long-term, and an injury of the mind where the control of others is linked with violence, fear, and terror. While sadly, as we know from global prevalence data, the control and abuse of women is not only restricted to post-conflict scenarios, however, it may well be one reason why it remains rife in Cambodia.

The throwing of acid is particularly linked with the second and third categories above. A very weak and corrupt legal and law enforcement system means that the control by physical abuse is rarely punished, or prevented. The direct injuries can be inflicted with almost no fear of being apprehended by the legal authorities, and in the event that this does occur, it is easy to buy immunity with an appropriate payment to the right person.

Long-term Consequences and How Rose Charities is Helping

Rose Charities has been dealing with the results of violence against women in Cambodia since 1998. Over this time the range of acid injury has been very wide indeed, from a few superficial injuries covering one or two isolated areas to up to 60% or more of the body covered with deep penetration, even down to bone. The eyes, ears, and nose may be partially or entirely burned away.

Acid burns create a spectrum of disabilities for the survivor ranging far beyond the terrible disfigurement and physical disability. Livelihoods are ruined; there is social stigmatization, and breakup of families, marriages and relationships. Full time care is often needed and in a country such as Cambodia, this care is not provided in any way by the state. If the victims have no family or friends to look after them then they will be utterly outcast. So often the attack takes from the victim the only real asset owned in a quagmire of poverty, her physical beauty, which in many societies is the only way for a woman to advance. So the damage is also both psychological and social.

To read the original article, go to: