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http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/People/2014/08/08/Pakistan-women-face-acid-attacks/
Pakistan – Punished for Alleged “Dishonour,” Women Face Acid Attacks
Not safe:
A recent spate of acid attacks in a region of Pakistan has forced more women to
stay home. - AFP
BY MAAZ KHAN –
August 8, 2014
This
horrific crime casts a pall of fear among women in the Baluchistan province.
A
RECENT spate of acid attacks in a region of Pakistan previously untouched by
the crime has sparked an impassioned debate about rising Islamisation that is
forcing an increasing number of women to stay at home.
The
horrific crime, which disfigures and often blinds its overwhelmingly female
victims, has long been used to settle personal or family scores with hundreds
of cases reported every year.
But
two fresh attacks on consecutive days in the restive southwestern Baluchistan
province last week, where until a few years ago such assaults were unheard of,
suggests a new pattern is emerging.
Last
week, two men on a motorcycle sprayed acid using syringes on two teenage girls
who were returning from a market in Mastung town, 40km from the provincial
capital Quetta.
The
day before, four women aged between 18 and 50 had suffered the same fate in
Quetta, in the market area of Sariab. They were partially burned.
“In
accordance with our Baluch traditions, they were wrapped in big shawls as well
as covering their faces. That... saved (them) from severe injuries,” said Naz
Bibi, mother of two of the victims.
Asked
about the attackers, she said: “I can only request that they should not treat
women in such a cruel way.”
In
most acid attack cases around Pakistan, the majority of victims know their
attackers. When caught, relatives found guilty speak of punishing their victims
for having sullied their “honour” or that of their family with “indecent”
behaviour.
But,
in these latest cases, the victims had no known connection to their assailants
– which has led campaigners to suggest the attacks are part of rising religious
extremism in the province.
Vast
and sparsely-populated but rich in resources, Baluchistan has long been racked
by a separatist insurgency that has staunch leftist secular elements –
including strong participation by women – and which reveres Communist icons
like Argentine revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.
Separatists
say the attacks on women are the latest battlefront in an ideological war
between the rebels, who are fighting for a greater share of the region’s
mineral and gas wealth, and state-backed Islamist proxies who want to terrorise
the population into acquiescence.
“The
aim of these inhuman acts is to prevent women from participating in education,
as well as social, political and economic aspects of life by creating a climate
of terror,” said Jahanzaib Jamaldini, vice-president of the Baluch National
Party, which is fighting for greater autonomy.
This
week, three more women suffered injuries to their legs and feet in yet another
attack – though police and senior officials have so far said the latest
incident was a case of a “family feud”.
Mohammad
Munzoor, a brother of one of the victims, lamented that the attackers were
still at large. “They roam the area on motorcycles and the local people have
spotted them,” he said.
In
the Sariab district of Quetta, the scene of one of last week’s attacks,
Islamist groups like the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal-Jammat (ASWJ), are increasingly
coming to the fore.
Dressed
in Arab garb, they are able to roam the area armed with automatic weapons
without fear of molestation – leading many to believe they are given tacit
state backing.
“ASWJ
controls the area with dozens of armed men,” said one young resident, standing
under the group’s flag as it fluttered in the breeze, adding that their
presence scared families into preventing women from being out in public.
The
group said the accusations were “without any basis”.
“We
condemn these attacks,” Ramzan Mengal, the group’s leader in Baluchistan said.
The
acid attacks also fit a wider pattern of a steady erosion of women’s rights,
especially in separatist and erstwhile relatively secular strongholds.
Al-Furqhan,
an obscure militant group, recently appeared in the one-time separatist rebel
stronghold of Panjgur district, which borders Iran, threatening private schools
over the teaching of girls, according to residents.
In
an atmosphere rife with fear, no suspects have so far been arrested and no
group has claimed responsibility.
The
first recorded acid attack in Baluchistan came in 2010, with two more reported
in 2012.
Leading
English-language daily newspaper Dawn said in an editorial the
identity of the attackers last week and over the past few years “were not
difficult to gauge”.
“In
fact, after the Dalbandin attack an obscure religious group had claimed
responsibility, warning women to stay away from public places if they were not
accompanied by male members of the family,” it said, referring to the 2010
case.
“Baluchistan
has been steadily radicalised over the years, and a plethora of shadowy,
extremist religious groups increasingly exercise their malign influence over
society, diligently seeking to restrict women’s agency, and deprive them of
their rights,” the paper added.
Mohammad
Aslam, a women’s tailor in Sariab, has seen sales drop by three-quarters since
the market attack. “Women are afraid to step out of their homes or their men
stop them from going,” he said.
Shopkeepers
in Mastung reported a similar decline in sales.
“We fear
that such incidents could increase and leave no space for women in an already
male-dominated society,” said human rights activist Saima Jawaid. – AFP