Disney Princesses as Acid Attack Survivors: Artist Alexsandro Palombo launches new campaign to fight 'immense inhumanity'

Contemporary artist and activist Alexsandro Palombo has launched a new artwork series featuring Disney Princesses with disfigured faces to shed light on the issue of acid attacks against women.

Acid attacks are a widespread phenomenon with hundreds of women permanently injured and disfigured every year.

The practice, often carried out to disfigure people rather than to kill them, is particularly common in Asian and Middle Eastern countries such as India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan.

It is also present in some areas of South America and Africa and recent reports also suggest in some European countries.

Palombo, whose previous works feature Disabled Disney Princesses and El Chapo Simpsonised - Stop Drug War, created his latest series in a bid to curb the widespread crime and sensitise people.

Speaking to IBTimes UK, he said: "I have always been in the front line against inequality, and I always used art as a powerful means of awareness. My art is against indifference, I want to shake consciences.

"If you're not outraged and don't react, if you stay silent in front of this atrocity, then you're just like those perpetrators of these inhumane acts.

"Disfiguring a woman with acid means to erase her identity and inflict a never ending pain. It's a crime of immense inhumanity that has nothing to do with modern civilisation."

Punishments and education will curb acid throwing

Palombo believes it is time governments implemented laws that carry maximum sentences for perpetrators.

"It's unacceptable to witness this return to the Middle Ages," he said. "A life sentence is the minimum for these monsters. No half measures.

"However, we must not forget that it's through education and awareness that we can fight gender inequality and sick, mad, rampant machismo.

"In our society women are increasingly seen as an object to be possessed and not as an autonomous entity. While this kind of relationship between man and woman prevails, then no violence can be eradicated."