Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus, whose face was disfigured after her ex-husband poured acid on her face committed suicide in Italy.http://www.facebook.com/photo.
Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus, whose face was disfigured after her ex-husband poured acid on her face committed suicide in Italy.http://www.facebook.com/photo.Belgian woman Patricia Lefranc was left disfigured when her ex-lover Richard Remes sprayed sulphuric acid all over her head and upper body in 2010. Patricia was kept in a coma for three months and had 86 operations. She is blind in one eye and the acid continues to eat her nose. Her spurned ex-lover was sentenced to 30 years in prison last weekReutersAnna Zarkova, chief of the criminal news department of Trud Daily in Bulgaria, listens 0n 28 October 1998 as an interpreter translates her story of how she was attacked with acid as she stood at a bus stop in Bulgaria. Zarkova was honored with the International Women's Media Foundation's "Courage in Journalism" award on 27 October 1998, in Beverly Hils, USReutersAmeneh Bahrami was blinded in both eyes in 2004 in an acid attack by her suitor Majid Mohavedi for turning down his marriage proposal. She spared him at the last minute from being blinded too as punishment for his crime.REUTERSFormer model and television presenter Kate Piper is also a victim of acid attack. Her ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch poured acid on her face. She suffered severe facial burns and was partially blinded. But she has now regained the vision in her left eye after undergoing a stem cell surgerytwitterSurvivors of acid attacks attend a rally in Dhaka on 12 May 2009. The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) of Bangladesh, which provides help and support to victims of acid violence, hosted an international conference to mark its10th anniversary in 2009. About 600 acid victims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Cambodia, Uganda and Nepal participated in the conference.REUTERSFormer garment factory worker Channa Prak (L), 20, who is an acid attack victim passes the time at a secure shelter run by non-profit organisation "Cambodia Acid Survivors Charity" outside Phnom Penh on July 7, 2010. Prak was attacked by unknown perpetrators over what she said was a love affair.Reuters
Pakistan acid attack victim Fakhra Younus committed suicide by jumping from the sixth floor of a building in Rome where she was taking treatment. Fakhra was allegedly attacked by her ex-husband Bilal Khar in 2000.
Her death has caused an international outcry and sparked protests against the plight of Pakistani women who face such atrocities. Fahkra Younus is just one among millions of women who still fall victims to such brutal attacks.
From rape to domestic violence, women around the world become victims of male domination. According to a 2011 report by the Aurat Foundation in Pakistan, acid throwing in Pakistan has increased by 37.5 per cent.
In most cases, acid attack is used as a form of revenge by a jilted lover for rejecting his love or marriage proposal, spurning sexual advances and demands for dowry. Acid attacks leave the victims horribly disfigured since the attacks are mostly directed at the face, damaging the skin and leaving a permanent scar on the victim. The attack also destroys her physical appearance, often leaving her blind.
A poll conducted by TrustLaw, a Thomas Reuters Foundation Service, in 2011 identified five countries as the most dangerous ones to be a female. These are: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Somalia. Apart from key issues like female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking, acid attack has become a key issue of violence against women.
Although many countries have organisations and groups that help women victims and ensure justice, violence against women still continues. Fakhra Younus is no more, but the fight for women's justice continues.
Take a look at other acid victims who survived the attacks and bravely fought for justice
