Women’s life at risk because of acid attacks in Ethiopia

Kamilat Mehdi, a twenty one year old girl has been stalked by a person in Eithiopia. While she was on her way back home, the person came from the shadows and threw sulphuric acid on her face. Not only the acid distorted her face but it also disfigured the faces of her siblings as well who were walking next to her. Dr Elaine Rocha, a professor at Addis Ababa University’s Institute of Gender Studies, said It is only the most extreme cases like this that ever come out into the open. A woman is taught to tolerate abuse from a very, very early age. We could be talking about beating, abduction, harmful traditional practices like genital mutilation. The only time she might talk about it is when her life is at risk. Why it happens? The victims are attacked for many reasons. In some cases, the attack takes place because a young girl or woman has spurned the sexual advances of a male or has rejected a proposal of marriage. Recently, however, there have been acid attacks on children, older women and sometimes also men. These attacks are often the result of family or land disputes, dowry demands or a desire for revenge. Is it a Rising trend? According to the British charity Women at Risk acid attacks against women have been accounted in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, three cities in Britain and Uganda. Although laws have been initiated in safeguarding women but there is still a problem with enforcing these new laws. Emotional trauma The offenders succeed in putting an end to the normal life of women. It is an extreme form of revenge on women. The families hesitate to go ahead with legal battles to punish the offenders who come out on bail easily due to imperfections in the prosecution statements. Once they come out, they threaten the victim’s family with further damage. Hence, the conviction rate for this crime is very low. Sometimes I think the perpetrators in question should be given acid showers to understand what they put the women through.