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Reporter went to Pakistan to document a common form of punishment for women: acid thrown in the face. What he found was not pretty, but the story needs to be told and pressure put on those who would allow this to continue. Sadly, in Pakistan, as in much of the Islamic world, women are seen as having little value other than as sex toys and baby machines.
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11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 1 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
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Terrorism that's personal (12 images)
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EDITOR'S NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Text by Jim Verhulst, Times' Perspective editor | Photos by Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press
We typically think of terrorism as a political act.
But sometimes it’s very personal. It wasn’t a government or a guerrilla insurgency that threw acid on this woman’s face in Pakistan. It was ayoung man whom she had rejected for marriage. As the United States ponders what to do in Afghanistan — and for that matter, in Pakistan — itis wise to understand both the political and the personal, that the very ignorance and illiteracy and misogyny that create the climate for theseacid attacks can and does bleed over into the political realm. Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times op-ed columnist who traveled to Pakistan lastyear to write about acid attacks, put it this way in an essay at the time: “I’ve been investigating such acid attacks, which are commonly used toterrorize and subjugate women and girls in a swath of Asia from Afghanistan through Cambodia (men are almost never attacked with acid).Because women usually don’t matter in this part of the world, their attackers are rarely prosecuted and acid sales are usually not controlled. It’sa kind of terrorism that becomes accepted as part of the background noise in the region. ...
“Bangladesh has imposed controls on acid sales to curb such attacks, but otherwise it is fairly easy in Asia to walk into a shop and buy sulfuric orhydrochloric acid suitable for destroying a human face. Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are themost voiceless in these societies: They are poor and female. The first step is simply for the world to take note, to give voice to these women.”Since 1994, a Pakistani activist who founded the Progressive Women’s Association (www.pwaisbd.org) to help such women “has documented7,800 cases of women who were deliberately burned, scalded or subjected to acid attacks, just in the Islamabad area. In only 2 percent of thosecases was anyone convicted.”
The geopolitical question is already hard enough: Should the United States commit more troops to Afghanistan and for what specific purpose? AsAmerican policymakers mull the options, here is a frame of reference that puts the tough choices in even starker relief: Are acid attacks a sign ofjust how little the United States can do to solve intractable problems there — therefore, we should pull out? Or having declared war on terrorism,must the United States stay out of moral duty, to try to protect women such as these — and the schoolgirls whom the Taliban in Afghanistansprayed with acid simply for going to class — who have suffered a very personal terrorist attack? We offer a reading file of two smart essays thatcome to differing conclusions.
• In August, Perspective published a New York Times Magazine piece that followed up the story of Afghan sisters Shamsia and Atifa Husseini,who were attacked with acid simply for attending school. If you wish to refresh your memory, you may read the original article here.
• Two very smart, informed observers come to opposite conclusions on the proper U.S. course of action in Afghanistan. Here are excerpts fromarguments that each of them has recently made:
Here are excerpts from Steve Coll’s “Think Tank” blog at NewYorker.com, in which he argues why we can’t leave — “What If We Fail InAfghanistan?” (Read it in full here.)
In an essay entitled “The War We Can’t Win” in Commonweal (also reprinted this month by Harper’s), Andrew J. Bacevich makes the case thatwe are overstating the importance of Afghanistan to U.S. interests. Bacevich is a professor of international relations at Boston University and theauthor, most recently, of The Limits of Power. A retired Army lieutenant colonel, he served from 1969 to 1992, in Vietnam and the first PersianGulf War. He was a conservative critic of the Iraq war. Several of his essays have run before in Perspective. To read this one in full, go here.
• See the Sunday November 22, 2009 Perspective section in the St. Petersburg Times But be forewarned: Those photos are even harder to lookat than this one.
To read the original story by Nicholas Kristof, please go Here.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 2 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Irum Saeed, 30, poses for a photograph at her office at the Urdu University of Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, July 24, 2008. Irum was burnedon her face, back and shoulders twelve years ago when a boy whom she rejected for marriage threw acid on her in the middle of the street. Shehas undergone plastic surgery 25 times to try to recover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 3 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Shameem Akhter, 18, poses for a photograph at her home in Jhang, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 10, 2008. Shameem was raped by three boyswho then threw acid on her three years ago. Shameem has undergone plastic surgery 10 times to try to recover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 4 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Najaf Sultana, 16, poses for a photograph at her home in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. At the age of five Najaf was burned byher father while she was sleeping, apparently because he didn't want to have another girl in the family. As a result of the burning Najaf becameblind and after being abandoned by both her parents she now lives with relatives. She has undergone plastic surgery around 15 times to try torecover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 5 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Shehnaz Usman, 36, poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Shehnaz was burned with acid by a relative due to afamilial dispute five years ago. Shehnaz has undergone plastic surgery 10 times to try to recover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 6 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Shahnaz Bibi, 35, poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Ten years ago Shahnaz was burned with acid by a relativedue to a familial dispute. She has never undergone plastic surgery.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 7 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Kanwal Kayum, 26, adjusts her veil as she poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Kanwal was burned with acid oneyear ago by a boy whom she rejected for marriage. She has never undergone plastic surgery.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 8 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Munira Asef, 23, poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Munira was burned with acid five years ago by a boy whomshe rejected for marriage. She has undergone plastic surgery 7 times to try to recover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 9 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Bushra Shari, 39, adjusts her veil as she poses for a photograph in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, July. 11, 2008. Bushra was burned with acid thrownby her husband five years ago because she was trying to divorce him. She has undergone plastic surgery 25 times to try to recover from herscars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 10 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Memuna Khan, 21, poses for a photograph in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. Menuna was burned by a group of boys who threw acidon her to settle a dispute between their family and Menuna's. She has undergone plastic surgery 21 times to try to recover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 11 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Zainab Bibi, 17, adjusts her veil as she poses for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008. Zainab was burned on herface with acid thrown by a boy whom she rejected for marriage five years ago. She has undergone plastic surgery several times to try to recoverfrom her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 12 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
Naila Farhat, 19, poses for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008. Naila was burned on her face with acid thrown by aboy whom she rejected for marriage five years ago. She has undergone plastic surgery several times to try to recover from her scars.
11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
Page 13 of 14http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11/terrorism-thats-personal.html
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Saira Liaqat, 26, poses for the camera as she holds a portrait of herself before being burned, at her home in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 9,2008. When she was fifteen, Saira was married to a relative who would later attack her with acid after insistently demanding her to live withhim, although the families had agreed she wouldn't join him until she finished school. Saira has undergone plastic surgery 9 times to try torecover from her scars.
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11/25/09 9:01 AMTerrorism that's personal (12 images) | Reporting with a camera
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