Volume I Issue 2


should have awareness programs against these crimes.” By teaching the populace about acid attacks, Uddin explains, they will be wary, and vigilant in shunning those who conduct the attacks. Sen, the consultant plastic


surgeon and the Director of the Plastic Surgery and Burn Unit in the DMCH, agrees with Kamal Uddin. “Social awareness can do things that law or police can nev- er do.”


Even with all these ideas


and suggestions floating around, for acid attack victims, the prob- lems persist. Unable to stop acid attacks, doctors like Sen and ad- vocates like Azad are shifting their focus from curing victims to fully rehabilitating them. Women (and in some cases,


men) that are disfigured by acid incur permanent facial scarring and in many cases even blind- ness. “In most of the acid attacks, patients lose their eyesight per- manently because attackers have targeted the face, especially if the victim is a woman,” explains Sen. Why the face? “Attackers


aim to give a message to the entire female population that terrorizes them back to submission. By dis- figuring a woman’s face, attack- ers ensure that she will encoun- ter social stigma and will be not able to get married.” This makes them doubly unemployable: few employers want to associate with people who carry such stigma and have apparent enemies, while oth- ers are reluctant to bring crippled


individuals into their businesses. “The physical disfigure-


ment of the women makes it dif- ficult for them to get a job,” says Sen. The Acid Survivors Founda- tion, on the other hand, makes sure that women who have been disfigured by acid attacks get em- ployment opportunities at ASF centers all over Bangladesh. “By giving employment opportunities for acid victims we want to be an example to other institutions,” says Azad as he looks at his dis- figured hands, which are scarred from an acid attack many years ago.


Grameenphone, the lead-


ing telecommunication services provider in Bangladesh, is also supportive of acid attack vic- tims. Currently there are six fe- male acid attack victims working at Grameenphone centers – few on the whole, but relatively more than any other major company. With that said, the attempts of Grameenphone and ASF are clear- ly not sufficient for all of the em- ployable acid attack victims in Bangladesh. Back at the hospital, I am


standing next to the bed of Fahmi- da Priya, the woman who was at- tacked by jewelry thieves not long ago. She keeps looking at my face before deciding whether or not to tell me the story of how she was attacked. At the front of her mind is whether it is even safe for her to reveal what most people hold back – the identities of the men who have disfigured her. After a


99


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104