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Horrific Acid Attacks Target Pakistan Women - Scroll down to video.
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SAVING FACE - FILM ON DISFIGURING
ACID ATTACKS ON WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
By Nazima Walji, CBC News
A screen grab
from the documentary Saving Face showing one of the Pakistani women featured in
the film. The documentary profiles women who have been disfigured as a result
of acid being thrown on them, usually by a relative. (Shareem Obaid
Films/sharmeenobaidfilms.com)
March
8, 2012 - This International Women's Day, the U.S. cable network HBO and its
Canadian counterpart are airing an Oscar-winning documentary that aims to raise
awareness about a barbaric form of domestic violence that affects women in many
parts of the world but doesn't get enough attention: acid attacks.
The annual celebration of women
that is marked each March 8 around the world is meant to highlight women's
achievements but also to reflect on the current status of women around the
world and their ongoing efforts to achieve economic equality and freedom from
the many human rights abuses they still face.
Saving
Face, a film directed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Junge
that won
the Academy Award for best documentary short last month, examines
the practice of acid violence — the deliberate use of acid to harm and
disfigure another human being, in most cases, women. It depicts stories of the
many women in
Surgeon repairs acid disfigurement
Obaid Chinoy, a Pakistani-born
journalist who became a Canadian citizen after moving to
"I was born and raised in
The documentary follows Mohammad
Jawad, a Karachi-born, London-based plastic surgeon with the Acid Survivor
Foundation, which assists women who have been injured in acid attacks.
"Dr. Jawad has worked
miracles on women who have had acid attacks," Obaid Chinoy said. "In
Karachi-born,
London-based plastic surgeon, Mohammad Jawad, checks a mold against the face of
a survivor of an acid attack in this screen grab from the documentary Saving
Face.
"And when he heard that in
his home country of
For the many of victims of acid
violence, it is the coming to terms with their new and very different
circumstances after the attack that is the most painful and difficult aspect of
their experience to adjust to.
"Ruksana and Zakia, my two main characters in the film, spoke of how they didn't want to leave their home for months after," Obaid Chinoy told MacInnes-Rae. "They felt that they needed to be ashamed. They felt that, somehow, they had caused this, and that's what was evident in almost all the survivors that we spoke to."
Women, children targeted
It's not surprising that the overwhelming number of victims of acid violence are women and children, and their attackers often target the head and face in order to disfigure and blind them.
Acid attacks are carried out for
various reasons, but most commonly, they are committed by the victim's own
relatives as as a form of revenge for such things as refusal of sexual
advances, marriage proposals or threats of leaving the family. The effects are
always horrific: damaged skin tissue, exposure and dissolving of bones,
permanent scarring and blindness.
Plastic
surgeon Mohammad Jawad touches the face of a victim of an acid attack in
Cases of acid violence happen all
over the world and have been documented in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa,
the West Indies and the
In
"Those are documented numbers," Obaid Chinoy said. "But, of course, there are undocumented numbers, because acid violence is usually carried out by members from one's own family, and given the culture that exists in Pakistan, many are hesitant to press charges against the perpetrators. So, we believe there are dozens more that go undocumented."
Justice for victims rare
In Saving Face, viewers meet 39-year-old Zakia, whose husband threw acid on her face because she wanted a divorce, leaving the left side of her face completely melted away.
Jawad explained her condition in
an interview
with CBC Radio's The Current on March 2, 2012.
"Not only [her] eye … eye
socket, eyebrows, lid, everything was gone, and she had a severe distortion on
the left side of her face," he said.
'It's so
rare for women to get justice in
Typically, assailants who carry
out acid attacks receive minimal punishment, but Zakia's case proved unique,
and it became a catalyst for legal and political change in
"I'll never forget the look
on Zakia's face when she heard her husband would be given two life
sentences," Obaid Chinoy told Dispatches. "It's so rare for
women to get justice in
Last year, two pieces of legislation
that aim to address violence against women were passed unanimously by
The former recommends sentences of 14 years to life in prison and fines of up to one million rupees (around $20,000) for the perpetrators of acid attacks.
Step in the right direction
Obaid Chinoy notes that she can see Pakistanis' views on domestic violence changing.
"You are finding more women
who are vocal, who are speaking out against it," she said. "You're
finding women in parliament who are empowered to draft these laws and bring
them forward."
Obaid Chinoy said she applauds
"Legislation is one thing,
but there needs to be widespread education about what happens to a woman when
acid is thrown on her," she said.
The film was released in the
Obaid Chinoy remains positive and
is confident that the practice of acid attacks will eventually be eradicated,
though it will likely take a long time for that to happen.
"But if more women were
educated, then we are one step closer to putting the country back on its right
foot," she said.
Obaid Chinoy's film is one part
of that education and awareness-raising effort that could help ease the
suffering of women not just in