The New Nation - Internet Edition

Md. Abdul alim

I never wanted to look into a mirror again." "Why do people think it is my fault?" "The pain was unbearable, and I wanted to die." "I am afraid to go home because the person who did this to me is still roaming free." "I am only 15, and I want to go back to school." Such are the words of girls and young women who have been victimized with acid.

Acid violence is a particularly vicious and damaging form of violence in Bangladesh where acid is thrown in people's faces. The overwhelming majority of the victims are women, and many of them are below 18 years of age. The victims are attacked for many reasons. In some cases it is because a young girl or women has spurned the sexual advances of a male or either she or her parents have rejected a proposal of marriage. Recently, however, there have been acid attacks on children, older women and also men. These attacks are often the result of family and land dispute, dowry demands or a desire for revenge.

While acid violence is treated here as a specific, isolatable human rights violation, it is part of a broader type of brutality and cruelty prevalent beyond Bangladesh. Despite the growing number of male victims, the majority of acid violence and certainly its historical roots are seen as a component of a broader phenomenon of gender violence. The attitude of the male-dominating society towards women has to be changed first to put a stop to acid pouring.

What makes a man so vindictive though that he must throw acid on a person in order to seek revenge? Are there any socio-cultural factors that affect the male members of society to such an extreme that acid violence is the only way in which to resolve a dispute? Why is it that in a group of friends only one will think of throwing acid? Although there is no concrete evidence as to what compels a person to throw acid, if we look at the tool used, we see that it is comparatively cheaper than a knife or gun, it can be thrown from a distance - thus avoiding proximity and giving the perpetrator time to flee the scene - and the result is painfully permanent. The perpetrators are primarily unemployed, frustrated youth whose idle minds, due to a lack of recreational facilities in rural Bangladesh, sometimes become the "devil's workshop." If such a youth is rejected by a young woman, this refusal might be construed as an insult to his masculinity, and this moment is when acid may seem to be the most effective means to make the girl remember her "mistake." The fact that the perpetrator has the time to buy the acid and make a plan on how to administer it shows the cold-blooded nature of the crime.

Unfortunately, acid is readily available as it is openly sold in chemist and homeopathy shops and local medicine dispensaries and can be found in goldsmith workshops and shops selling and repairing car batteries. It is also openly sold near tannery factories. Despite the law, there are no regulatory checks on the trade in acid and other corrosive substances, and those selling the liquid ask no questions. There is even allegedly a good trade in cross-border smuggling in acid, which may contribute to the high rate of acid violence in the border districts.

The president of Bangladesh approved the Acid Crime Control Act of 2002 and the Acid Crime Control Act of 2002 on March 17 of that year. The laws were promulgated to meet the demands that acid crimes be controlled and perpetrators receive swift punishment and that the trade in acid and other corrosive substances be regulated by legal checks and balances to prevent their easy accessibility.

According to the Acid Crime Control Act, acid crimes are rigorously controlled by mandating stringent punishment ranging from between three years and 15 years and a hefty fine to life imprisonment and even capital punishment. The variations of punishment depend on the gravity of the crime. For example, if the victim dies due to the crime or totally or partially loses their sight or hearing or both or "suffers disfigurement or deformation of face, chest or reproductive organs," the punishment is the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Interestingly enough, the act provides that if the Acid Crime Control Tribunal feels that the investigating officer has lapsed in his duty in order to "save someone from the liability of the crime and did not collect or examine usable evidence" or avoided an important witness, etc., the former can report to the superior of the investigating officer the latter's negligence and may also take legal action against him.

Many of the above findings are applicable to other sectors where the inability or unwillingness to implement the law causes serious damage in matters pertaining to violence against women, such as rape and dowry-related violence. Why then are steps not being taken to rectify the matter? Issues of violence against women still remain in a medieval-like era in the country. NGOs are creating awareness against acid violence and the social and legal repercussions it has. The government is now legally bound to act under the 2002 Acid Laws. A great deal of power has been given to the National Acid Control Council, and it must boost its activities and not wait for NGOs to prompt it into action. Until these measures bear more visible results, the people of Bangladesh, and especially its women, will continue to suffer from acid violence.