by: Sojung Hargis
“All the girls we have seen how have disguised themselves as boys have done it to protect themselves…When they’re on the streets as girls, men cause problems.” This is a quote from Girls Find Safety Posing as Boys on Tehran’s Mean Streets. From reading this article, it reminded me of the “acid attack”. Many people are not familiar with acid violence on women. Acid violence happens in a lot of the countries, especially in Third World nations, as a trend in sexual predation. In Bangladesh, women are usually the targets in this violence that are led by men with a purpose to humiliate women by destroying their physical appearance, therefore destroying their sexuality, chances for another marriage, and et cetera. More detail on acid violence against women can be found in this video. Acid violence should be categorized as sexual offense just like how rape and child molestation are, but because most societies do not consider this as a priority due to the fact that most corrupted authorities are consisted of men, women just have to live in fear of getting acid attacked. And because most authority figures such as the police are men, the victims of the acid attack are in fear to even ask for help. Due to lack of polices and laws for this violence, even when the perpetrators are caught, they are given the choice of paying fine in exchange for their release which puts women in a situation where there is nothing they can do about the acid violence. This will only increase the trend of acid violence women, eventually becoming normalized in some cultures.
So to change this, many victims of acid violence from Bangladesh seek help and change through nongovernmental organizations, and this activism led to the Acid Survivors Foundation in the 90s, donated by Dhaka Medical College hospital, that brought a change and development for women’s rights. More acid victims have been given the opportunity to become survivors and to live new hopeful lives due to the support and help from many nongovernmental organizations from the world. But most importantly, WE need to pay more attention to this terrible violence so that proper policies and laws can be created for the victims, the survivors, and the future victims. Without our attention and support, the acid attack against women will continue on.
This video opened my eyes to the horrific violence women are having to deal with, a violence that scars them physically and emotionally for the rest of their lives. It is so senseless and with a government not enforcing the laws against the guilty it is so frustrating. I am saddened by the fact they have only one burn victim hospital, with only a few surgeons, for a 120 million people population. I can’t imagine the grief and suffering endured by the victims and their families. They demonstrate so much strength and their courage to go on with their lives and stand up for themselves is inspiring. Not only do these women need even more organizations and supports groups that will help them in the healing process, as well as help them have a voice, the men of society also need to be educated. Programs need to be set up to diminish the belief that men have rights and control over the women. Respect, justice and love needs to be given to these victims. Thanks for sharing this video. I just shared it with a few of my friends and they were shocked. This violence should definitely get more attention from the world.
ReplyDeleteI have recently also watched a documentary about women getting attacked with acid in their eyes as a form of punishment by men. I believe that this is very in-humane and it makes me very angry that this type of punishment was legal in Bangladesh, and was just recently became illegal to do after women and men protesting against this type of attack on women. I am glad that you shared this video with the class because before i watched the documentary in HBO, i have never heard or would have thought that women were getting attacked with acid as a form of punishment from men.
ReplyDelete