Acid Attack on Woman in Ethiopia leaves her disfigured beyond recognition

[Adi]

Acid attack on woman shocks Ethiopia
By Amber Henshaw
BBC News, Addis Ababa






Kamilat Mehdi, 21, had a bright future ahead of her. She dreamt about doing a degree and becoming an air hostess.


Kamilat Mehdi knew her attacker

All that changed one night when she was walking home from work with her two sisters and a stalker threw sulphuric acid in her face.

She is now lying in hospital disfigured beyond recognition.

Her skin is red raw, her eyelids have almost been entirely destroyed and her hairline has been burnt back.

"I feel very sick now. Every day they need to do something without anaesthetic so it is hard to accept and it is very painful," says Kamilat.

Her sisters, Zeyneba and Zubyeda, escaped with lesser injuries but their faces were also burnt by the acid.

Shockwaves

"We were on our way home from our parents' shop. I was with my sisters," Kamilat says.

He gave her a hard time but she didn't tell the family for fear that something would happen to them

Kamilat's brother Ismael

"One guy came and he looked like a drunkard but he wasn't drunk. He forced us to go down a dark alley and then someone came and threw acid in our faces."

Kamilat fell to the floor unconscious while her sisters tried to get help. She lay there until her brother Ismael arrived.

Ismael says his sister knew her attacker.

"He bothered her for a long time - at least four years," he says.

"He gave her a hard time but she didn't tell the family for fear that something would happen to them. He was always saying he would use a gun on them."

This incident has sent shockwaves through the community in the capital, Addis Ababa, and amongst Ethiopians abroad.

Ismael says he has received calls from Ethiopians living around the world saying how angry and shocked they were about the attack.

Two men have appeared in court in Addis Ababa in connection with the attack.


Sexual harassment

"I hope the court will impose a proportional penalty within a short period of time," Justice Minister Assefa Kiseto says.


"That could make others learn from this and refrain from committing this crime. I think this kind of crime is a crime against the whole nation not just a crime against Kamilat."

Attacks like this are rare in Ethiopia but women's groups in Addis Ababa say that stalking and sexual harassment are common problems.

The Ending Violence Against Women report published by the United Nations at the end of last year said almost 60% of Ethiopian women were subjected to sexual violence at some point in their lives.

Mahdere Paulos from the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association says they would like to see a specific provision in Ethiopian law that tackles stalking and harassment so that there is better protection for young girls like Kamilat in the future.

"The problem starts with stalking - the end result is something else," she says.

"It might end in grave bodily injury, it might end in death and it might end in different difficult situations and that's why we want it to be taken seriously."


Following the uproar at Kamilat's attack, the Supreme Court announced that it has put in place procedures to help pass verdicts on such cases within two days.

And Ms Mahdere says some progress has been made by the government over the last few years in tackling violence against women.

There is a newly established ministry of women's affairs; there was a push before the 2005 election to get more women into parliament and there has been a complete overhaul of the penal code to beef up laws to protect women.

But in some rural areas, the traditional practice of abducting young girls and forcibly marrying them remains common - in one region it accounts for some 92% of all marriages, according to the most recent figures from 2003.

Kamilat and her sister have now flown to Paris for medical treatment, which is being financed by businessman Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6498641.stm

Saw this in the paper and had to post.
Now this is a crime fit for punishment by death or hanging or something equally horrible. Sadly this acid violence is quite popular in some areas not just Africa, I remember going to this mall and two days later this jealous man threw acid on his wife and it burnt off her breasts, as in it melted on the ground according to the news and onlookers. Plus, some of the acid splashed on some of the people in the mall and one woman's skirt actually split right down the middle in the melee. Well the onlookers did their vigilante justice and killed one of the guys (it was the husband and his friend who did the attack); they killed the friend. Husband is in jail, the wife survived one day after the attack and died.

Now if I were in that girl's position I would be praying for death.

Totally horrible.

[RandomTimes]

Originally posted by Adi
Now this is a crime fit for punishment by death or hanging or something equally horrible. Sadly this acid violence is quite popular in some areas not just Africa

You are absolutely right, Adi, on both accounts.
It's spreading.

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/pakistan/forms.htm

Acid Throwing
Sakina, twenty-two years old, and her fifteen-year-old sister, Shahina, were scarred for life after Sakina’s husband,Zahid Nawaz, poured acid over them after an argument over his gambling and drinking habits. 70 percent of Sakina’s body was burned, while Shahina was hit in the face and blinded. Police have made no attempt to arrest Nawaz, and the sisters live in fear of another attack.

Nearly 280 women were killed and 750 were injured in 2002 from acid attacks. Acid burns rarely kill but result in serious disfigurement and suffering which confine women to their homes leading to social isolation and depression. Although women have protested the open sale of acid, it is still easily available.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5133410.stm

Acid throwing remains a major problem in Bangladesh.

There is even a special hospital and rehabilitation centre for victims in the capital, run by a charity called the Acid Survivors’ Foundation.

Although some of the patients are children and men, most are young women, like Asma Akhtar.

She has scarring on the side of her face and is blind in her left eye.

“When I was… 12 years old, a boy from my village wanted to marry me but as I wanted to study my family refused his proposal,” she said.

“And a year later he threw acid on me out of anger. On that fateful day I was sleeping on my bed and my father went to pray and the culprit took his chance and threw the acid on me.”

http://www.countercurrents.org/gender-joseph160804.htm

Nearly 280 women were killed and 750 injured through acid attacks in Pakistan in 2002, according to Human Rights Watch. The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) in Bangladesh recorded 485 such attacks in 2002 alone; it is estimated that at least 864 women, 412 men and 14 children had acid thrown on them there in the four years up to 2003. In both countries, cases appear to be increasing at a rate of 40 to 50 per cent every year.

There are no comparable nationwide figures for India. However, the largest and most populated nation in the region, with a high prevalence of various forms of violence against women, is unlikely to get left behind in the race.

The Bangalore-based Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW), for example, has investigated 35 cases of acid attacks over the past five years in Karnataka alone. And this does not include the latest incident, which took place in the State capital in mid-July 2004, partly because the victim and her family have opted not to go public with their trauma. According to CSAAAW activists, with many cases remaining unreported for fear of further violence as well as social stigma, the number probably represents no more than the tip of the iceberg.

[Adi]

Randomtimes, everytime I see or hear about these things I get pissed and sad.

What is wrong with people, I swear if that were my child I would kill the guy that did that myself.

Total madness, when will people realize that God is not asleep?

Do people really think they can get away with acts of wickedness, im so mad right now.

Some of these people cant afford guns and dont have the connections to or cant sit around and wait through all the red tape to get one, so they go to store and pick up battery acid, draino type acid (dont know what exactly its called) to do their damage.

Governments have tried some acid selling regulation policy but it failed.

Not that it could have really worked.

[fat mike]

this is a crime fit for punishment by death or hanging or something equally horrible

qft..

[SpabSFW]

Originally Posted by Adi

Randomtimes, everytime I see or hear about these things I get pissed and sad.

What is wrong with people, I swear if that were my child I would kill the guy that did that myself.

Total madness, when will people realize that God is not asleep?

Do people really think they can get away with acts of wickedness, im so mad right now.

Some of these people cant afford guns and dont have the connections to or cant sit around and wait through all the red tape to get one, so they go to store and pick up battery acid, draino type acid (dont know what exactly its called) to do their damage.

Governments have tried some acid selling regulation policy but it failed.

Not that it could have really worked.

this is what happens when some men impose some arbitrary moral standard on women and feel women deserve to be 'punished' for being provocative by whatever standards they set: being disinterested in their courtship as in this case, not wearing a veil in muslim countries for example, or by being a dancer in the west or whatever.

if some men think any female or general group of females should be raped or mutilated or killed because those men desire them and can't have them, they are scumbags, whether it's an individual attack like this or those nutzos that target random women of a particular group.

that's why, in part, rulings like that of the German judge that the Koran entitles men to beat their wives are not acceptable. tolerance shouldn't override the rights of the victims. most of the muslims in Germany were totally appalled by the German woman judge's opinion. they came to Germany to get away from that kind of culture, not to recreate it in German courts.

of course, these nutcases can be found all over. the reasons are all the same though - powerlessness in real life, deep-seated hatred and fear of women coupled with narcissism, the idea that they somehow have a right to damage another human being because only their own warped needs and opinions count.

disgusting.

[SpabSFW]

Sheriff: Slain student burned on grill
Sun Mar 25

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070325/...tudent_slain_8

HOUSTON - "A 19-year-old Texas A&M University student was killed by her ex-boyfriend, who then dismembered and burned her body on a patio grill, authorities said Saturday..."

and there was one today too:

2 shot to death on U. Washington campus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070403/...QiCDyXZO5H2ocA

"SEATTLE - "A University of Washington researcher was shot to death in her office Monday morning by a former boyfriend who then turned the gun on himself, police said...."

[SwiftSloth]

Cut off his eyelids and penis. Lock him in a hole in the ground, with no light. Give him piss for water and throw live rats down for food.

Im against the death penalty. I'd much rather make people actually suffer appropriately for their crimes.

[SpabSFW]

Domestic Violence is a Serious, Widespread Social Problem in America: The Facts

http://www.endabuse.org/resources/facts/

"Domestic Homicides

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner.

Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.

Pregnant and recently pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause, and evidence exists that a significant proportion of all female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners.


another site:

http://www.letswrap.com/dvinfo/stats.htm

"Prison terms for killing husbands are twice as long as for killing wives.

93% of women who killed their mates had been battered by them. 67% killed them to protect themselves and their children at the moment of murder.

25% of all crime is wife assault.

70% of men who batter their partners either sexually or physically abuse their children.

[SpabSFW]

Originally Posted by SwiftSloth

Cut off his eyelids and penis. Lock him in a hole in the ground, with no light. Give him piss for water and throw live rats down for food.

Im against the death penalty. I'd much rather make people actually suffer appropriately for their crimes.

I was thinking they should throw acid in HIS face. let him live out his life the way he has forced her to live out hers.

[SwiftSloth]

Yea, but he might die. I'd rather keep him alive as long as possible, ala Se7en.

[SpabSFW]

Adi or Random.

If either of you knows of a charity that collects for plastic surgery for victims of these acid attacks, get me a site and I will contribute to it.

[86Dude]

Well, there is always the bag over the head trick.

[EMTrue]

That is just horrible and should be punishable by death or HARSH prison- not this catered to crap we have.

[optimus]

Damn, that's f-cking horrible. She was so beautiful too.

I had no idea this acid throwing thing was becoming so common. What worthless pieces of shit, I'd have an absolute field day beating the living piss out of these ghouls.

+1 to swifts suggestion. I'd add make it public and televised, so everyone can see what happens to you when you get caught.

[soylentgreen]

Originally Posted by optimus

I had no idea this acid throwing thing was becoming so common. What worthless pieces of shit, I'd have an absolute field day beating the living piss out of these ghouls.

I'm right there with you, brother. Lemmie know when you're ready to kick some ass.

[86Dude]

Blowtorch to the eyeballs Hostel style for the perp.

[bradadair]

this is a crime fit for punishment by death or hanging or something equally horrible

I say hang them by their wrists above a big basin filled with acid and lower them very slowly like just the tips of their toes then a little more toe etc. Make sure it lasts at least 24hrs and just keep lowering them until they disolve and they can see what it feels like. People that do things like this have no business continuing to walk the earth.

[BadNews88]

I harbour NOTHING but *EXTREME* HATRED AND CONTEMPT for ANYONE who does ANY despicable act of violence like **THAT!!!!**

And *IF*....I were the one that made a CITIZEN'S ARREST in this case....

I would take the pleasure of taking a collapsible metal baton and striking you soundly about the head, and face, and back, and shoulders, until the baton was slippery with your putrid blood...until you collapsed onto the ground, and then loading a 44 Magnum with hollow point bullets...and pump round after round after round after round into your fat, greasy legs...your arms....reloading appropriately as I did so...and then your face....but taking care not to hit any brainstem or vitals, just to see your filthy visage rip and shred apart....just as you did to that poor girl....and joviallly laugh at you as you writhe in agony....and you BETTER not pass out as this is happening.....just before I pull the tigger one last time and see your stupd, brainless, lard-livered, fat, filthy, degenerate, greasy head splatter all across the ground..

I WOULD....IN FACT ERASE YOU FROM YOUR UNWORTHY AND UNDESERVED EXISTENCE!!!!

Just to let you know who's BOSS!!!!!

You don't want to f*** with ME....

The Retired Badge # 88 (C.P.D.) has SPOKEN!!!!!!