Women’s Worth in Islam

In 1973, the General Assembly of the United Nations opened for signature and ratification the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (ICSPCA). It defined the crime of apartheid as: "Inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial [religious] group of persons over any other racial [religious] group of persons and systematically oppressing them."[Italics are mine]

The declaration prohibits, “Acts such as murder, infringement on freedom or dignity, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, imposition of inhumane living conditions, forced labor, or enacting measures calculated to prevent a racial [religious] group from ‘participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country’ such as denying them ‘basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.’"

Islamic member countries of the time, such as Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are signatories to the above declaration condemning the barbaric practices of apartheid. Yet, these same countries, as well as other Islamic nations, are the most blatant violators of the declaration.

It is the discriminatory Islamic teachings that condone and even promote wanton practices in violation of the United Nations declaration. Islam is a primitive barbaric ideology for the benefit of the male believer.

Islam, by fiat, discriminates against women. Qur’an 4:11 “Allah directs you in regard of your Children’s (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females…. These are settled portions ordained by Allah.”

There are many more “directives” that for all intents and purposes make women chattel of men. Here are some of the shameful rules and practices of Islamic misogyny.

Women are inferior to men:

“Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is most high. Qur'an 4:34

Women are worth half of man:

“Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: The Prophet said, "Isn't the witness of a women equal to half that of a man?" The women said "yes". He said "This is because of the deficiency of the women's mind." Sahih Bukhari 3:48:82

Women are sex slaves:

“And now, people, you acquire certain rights over your wives, and they do you. The right you acquire over them is that they should not let someone you hate sleep in your beds, and not to commit a manifest obscenity [or adultery]. If they do [commit it], then God has given you permission to leave them alone in their beds and give them a beating, though not too hard. If they give over, they get their provision and clothing with kindness; I command you good-will for your wives, for they are your captives that do not own anything of their own. You have taken them by the faithfulness of God, and made their sexual organs lawful for you by the words of God.” Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya (Cairo, 1963), 4:251.

Women are Toys:

“Omar [one of the Khalifs] was once talking when his wife interjected, so he said to her: 'You are a toy, if you are needed we will call you.” Al-Musanaf Vol. 1 Part 2, p. 263

Women are Weak:

Narrated Anas bin Malik: The Prophet had a Had (a camel driver) called Anjasha, and he had a nice voice. The Prophet said to him, "(Drive) slowly, O Anjasha! Do not break the glass vessels!" And Qatada said, "(By vessels') he meant the weak women." Sahih Bukhari 8:73:230, See also: Sahih Bukhari 8:73:228 & Sahih Bukhari 8:73:229

Women are a Tilth for Men to Cultivate:

“Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will; but do some good act for your souls beforehand; and fear Allah. And know that ye are to meet Him (in the Hereafter), and give (these) good tidings to those who believe.” Qur'an 2:223

Women are Like Devils

Jabir reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) saw a woman, and so he came to his wife, Zainab, as she was tanning a leather and had sexual intercourse with her. He then went to his Companions and told them: The woman advances and retires in the shape of a devil, so when one of you sees a woman, he should come to his wife, for that will repel what he feels in his heart. Sahih Muslim 8:3240

Woman are Evil Omen:

Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar: I heard the Prophet saying. "Evil omen is in three things: The horse, the woman and the house." Sahih Bukhari 4:52:110

Men May Marry up to Four Women”

“If you fear you can not treat orphans (girls) with fairness, then you may marry other women who seem good to you: two, three or four of them. But if you fear that you can not maintain equality among them, marry only one or any slave girls you may own, that will be more suitable. And give the women their dower as a free gift; but if they, of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, eat it with enjoyment, take it with right good cheer and absorb it (in your wealth).” Qur'an 4:3

Violence Against Women”

“Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.” Qur'an 4:34

The Afterlife of Women:

“Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o 'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)." They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?" He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion." Sahih Bukhari 1:6:301

Women are relegated in Islam at best, to a second-class status, depriving them of many rights enjoyed by men. Thus, life goes on for the Muslim women with all the trappings of the Islamic misogyny. Such is the plight of women under Islam. There is hardly the need to provide an exhaustive list of Islamic misogyny to qualify it as a shameful, discriminatory and oppressive religious apartheid.

Will Muslim women ever break out of their bondage and claim their rightful place among emancipated non-Muslim women? It is the long sub-humanized Muslim women who must discard Islam and claim their equal human rights. Muslim men will resort to every means to maintain their privileged position and their cruel dominance over women, citing the Quran as justification. Any document that consigns one half of the human race to second-class status is null and void.

Its constitutional sub-humanization of women aside, Islam has a raft of beliefs and practices that violate fundamental human rights of non-Muslims in general. A few cases should suffice to fully substantiate the contention that Islam is religious apartheid. And there is no need to draw cases from the repugnant “extremist” Islamic groups such as the Taliban to make the case. Even the most “mainstream” and “peaceful” Islam is guilty of systemic apartheid. Just a couple of examples should suffice for now.

* On December 16, 2006, Egypt’s Highest Administrative Court decreed that in order to receive an Identity Card, only Islam, Judaism, or Christianity must be entered on the application. No one of any other religion or no religion at all is permitted to list his belief or even leave it blank. Without the identity card, just about all the rights of citizenship are denied to minorities such as Baha’is, Hindus, and Buddhists. People are forced to choose between falsely claiming an approved religion and depriving themselves of just about all rights of citizenship such as jobs, education and medical care.

* In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic law denies dyyeh to any and all people who are not Muslims or members of the only other three recognized religions. Every one of the 500,000 members of the Baha’i Faith can be murdered without the family receiving justice or compensation. As a matter of fact, the Islamic government itself has executed Baha’is for the sole “crime” of being Baha’is and has demanded that the innocently murdered person’s family reimburse it for the bullets they used to execute him.

* The Islamic Republic of Iran’s President’s repeated threat to wipe out Israel from the map is ignored by some as an empty rhetoric of an unhinged fanatic. Yet, Ahmadinejad’s threats are far from the baseless saber-rattling of a zealot. Ahamadinejad’s government has recently ordered the comprehensive gathering of data regarding the Baha’is and all their activities. This order is deeply troubling, since it is almost a replica of what another fascist, Hitler, did before launching the genocide of six million Jews and some four million other “undesirables”. Ahamadinejad is an Islamofascist whose aim is to have a practice run on the Iranian Baha’is before embarking on destroying the Jews and other “undesirables,” following in the footsteps of the German fuehrer.

Islamic societies shamelessly practice all the sanctioned injustices listed in the U.N. charter on apartheid (see paragraphs 2 and 3, above). Islam is religious apartheid. And apartheid, by universal agreement, is an inhumane, unjust and condemned practice.

Islam cruelly practices its oppressive dogma on minorities in its lands; it is in clear violation of the provisions of Universal Human Rights. Ominously, Islam is encroaching in the traditionally non-Islamic parts of the world and doing all it can to impose its horrid doctrine on others.

It is for this present and imminent danger that the free people of the world must rise and do all they can to preserve their birthright of liberty. Muslims in the non-Islamic lands may seem harmless, and many of them indeed are harmless. Yet, Islam compels its leaders to uphold and promote its tenets at any and all costs to anyone. It is for this reason that on the one hand the Islamic governments sign the U.N. Charter that condemns apartheid, and on the other hand, these governments violate every provision of it when they are in power.

Islamofascism, the enemy of liberty, is already inside the gate. It is the duty of every free human to defend freedom by defeating the enemy.

Islamic Barbarism: Disfiguring Women by Acid Attack, Part 2

Destruction or disfigurement of the facial beauty of a woman, the natural gift she is endowed with, is a horrible crime, worse than murder. So, the acts of throwing acid, intended to deface a girl, should be condemned as a worst kind of criminal act and the perpetrators must be dealt with exemplary punishments.

It has been mentioned in the previous article that, in 2002, the Government of Bangladesh enacted new law to deal with the menace of acid attack. The new law calls for death penalty for acid-throwing crimes and strict vigilance on trading as well as use of acids.

According to the “Qisas” law of Islam (eye-for-eye law, often applied in Pakistan), the perpetrator is made to suffer the similar fate as the victim. For the crime of causing blindness of the victim, the culprit may be punished by blinding him pouring drops of acid in his eyes. “But this law is not binding and is rarely enforced”, says a report in the New York Times. Iran also has a similar law.

In Iran, “Qisas” law was applied to a perpetrator, named Majid Movahedi, in 2004. He was sentenced to be blinded for causing blindness to Ameneh Bahrami. At that time, Bahrami became the focus of international controversy after demanding that her attacker be punished by blinding in similar manner.

After Ms. Bahrami rejected the romantic advances of Majid Movahedi, a fellow student at the University of Tehran, he threw a bottle of acid on her face in October 2004. She underwent 17 surgeries in Spain and regained some of her eyesight, thanks to transplanted eyes, but later on lost her sight completely due to an infection. The Iranian government has paid £22,500 towards her treatment.

Regarding the physical and psychological trauma of an acid-attack victim, the Wikipedia says, “There is a high survival rate amongst victims of acid attacks. Consequently the victim is faced with physical challenges, which require long term surgical treatment, as well as psychological challenges, which require in-depth intervention from psychologists and counsellors at each stage of physical recovery.”

“Depression and anxiety are common amongst all patients with large burn injuries; however for victims with acid injuries the physical scarring can lead to feelings of shame and embarrassment, resulting in the survivor living a life in hiding due to fear of prejudice and stigma from their peers and the community. Many survivors continue to have vivid memories of the incident which cause great levels of distress, especially when they know their attackers are free to attack again”, Wikipedia adds.

Non-Muslim victims of acid attacks

Acid attacks by non-Muslims outside South Asia occur on rare occasions. The Wikipedia describes a few such events. One such famous victim was the British model and TV presenter Katie Piper, who was attacked with sulphuric acid on the street near her home in Golders Green, London, by Stefan Sylvestre, an associate of her vengeful ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch. She suffered severe burns on her upper body and hands. Piper recently launched the Katie Piper Foundation, with Simon Cowell as its patron. Her plan is to set up a special therapy centre to help victim of similar crimes.

A high-profile acid attack on a non-Muslim woman occurred in Delhi in October 2007. Thirty-six-year old Tarveen Suri, a Delhi-based small-time fashion designer, was attacked in her Greater Kailash home by two unidentified men. The men threw acid at her, poured kerosene over her body and attempted to set fire upon her. The attack, it appears, was a crime of passion carried out on the instructions of Rachna, a colleague of Tarveen’s husband Navin. Rachna and Navin were rumoured to be having an affair.

MUSLIM VICTIMS

An incident in Kanpur, India

According to a recent report in The Times of India (Jul 8, 2010), a woman was badly injured in an acid attack in the Ompurwa locality under the Chakeri police station in the outskirts of Kanpur on Wednesday, July 7. The police identified the victim as Farzana Begum, who was rushed to the Ursala Horsman hospital, where the doctors stated her condition to be stable.

The police claimed that the incident was the result of a dispute between the victim and the son-in-law of her landlord, identified as Mohammad Arif. Mohd Arif threw acid on Farzana while she was busy doing household chores, and suffered serious burn injuries on her neck and forehead. Her husband was away at work at the time.

Acid attacks on Pakistani wives at all-time high

The incidence of acid attacks in Pakistan is said to be at an all-time high. The attacks are usually carried out by husbands against wives who are judged to have behaved 'dishonourably'. Many are left with horrific injuries and campaign groups say that much tougher punishments are needed to deter the horrible crime.

Story of three sisters Saima, Fatima and Sakina of Balochistan

According to a recent BBC report (April 30, 2010), two unidentified men on Thursday, 29^th April, threw acid on the faces of three sisters—Saima Bibi (16), Fatima Bibi (20) and Sakina Bibi (14)—in Kalat, some 200 km southeast of Quetta. The culprits escaped the scene after committing the crime. The injured girls were rushed to Civil Hospital Kalat and one of the victims was in a serious condition.

The sisters were on their way to meet their relatives when two unknown men on a bike intercepted them and threw acid on their faces. No group claimed the responsibility for the brutal act, although Tehrik Rah-e-Nijaat, an unknown group, had distributed a pamphlet in the city a couple of weeks earlier, warning the women to remain indoor and avoid ‘wandering’ the in the shopping centres without the blood relatives. In another incident a few weeks earlier, unidentified people had thrown acid on two girls in Dalbandin town of Balochistan, but no arrests were made as yet.

Members of the Baloch National Front (BNF) that organized protest demanding immediate arrest of the culprits informed that nearly 50 incidents of acid-attacks take place every year in Balochistan and 150 incidents every year in Pakistan. The tactic of acid-throwing at women’s faces not wearing hijab is common practice used by Muslim militants, they say. The tradition started during to the Islamic revolution in Iran. Unveiled women were systematically attacked with acid splashed on their faces. This led to women being forced to wear hijab, which gave the appearance that the entire population is Islamist and in support of the Islamic revolution.

The Story of Fakhra

Fakhra’s mother was a sex-worker and resident of Napier Road, a seedy red-light area in Karachi. She took up her mother’s profession when she started menstruating. A customer bought her virginity for US$2,000, a set of gold jewelry and a Rado watch. At 18, she was already the mother of a 3-year-old son. Then she met Bilal Khar, son of a very rich man Ghulam Mustafa Khar, at a party. At the start, Bilal impressed Fakhra by paying US$340 for simply staying with her and chat with her.

Gradually intimacy deepened and Bilal, 36, took her as his second wife. But after the marriage, he started abusing her–beat her mercilessly on a regular basis. After tolerating his violence for 3 years, she went back to her mother’s place.

One day Bilal went there, when Fakhra was asleep. He aroused her, pushed back her head and poured liquid on her face. She thought he was forcing her to drink something. Fakhra wiped her eyes and saw her husband run from the room. Immediately she noticed that her clothes dissolving into her skin. Suddenly she felt burning sensation over her body and started to scream. The acid burned Fakhra’s hair, fused her lips, blinded one eye, obliterated her left ear and melted her breasts.

More than a year after the attack, the once full lipped, large-eyed, long-haired beauty was unrecognizable. She breaths with difficulty. “I don’t look like a human anymore”, she laments. Her son Nauman, when met her in the hospital after the tragedy, he ran away crying: “This is not my mother.”

After the incident, Fakhra’s family lodged a complaint with the Karachi police, but no arrest was ever made. Bilal Khar was trying to bribe Fakhra’s family to withdraw the complaint. Fakhra was then moved to Italy for surgery and was planning to live the rest of her life in that country. (Time, August 27, 2001)

Story of Naziran Bibi

Naziran Bibi knows exactly what she would consider justice for the person who hurled acid in her face, burnt out her sight and disfigured her beyond recognition: an eye for an eye. "If someone burns a face with acid, his face should also be burnt with acid. If someone blinds someone's eyes, his eyes should also be blinded," says Bibi at a charity's office in Pakistani capital.

"Yes, I want it done... my life is over now." Bibi is locked in a complicated legal tussle over the attack and is fighting for custody of her young children, while learning how to live without sight and struggling with surgeries to rebuild her ruined face. She is only 23 years old, but with no upper lip, a barely reconstructed nose, scar tissue where her right eye should be and a raw red socket where her left eye once was, her youth is impossible to discern.

Married off against her will as a second wife to her brother-in-law after her husband died, Bibi says she was treated abysmally. Then one night last year, someone poured acid over her as she slept, causing horrendous burns. Confused, in pain and fearing for the safety of her two daughters, she was coerced by her husband into blaming a man she believes was innocent, and is now trying to retract her initial statement.

Bibi thinks her husband was responsible, but he remains free. "I was in a terrible condition. I had psychological problems. I was not normal mentally... I simply want punishment for him. I want to throw acid on him. Not only on him, but on everybody who throws acid on others," she said. The uneducated woman from Pakistan's cotton belt in rural Punjab province may want brutal justice, but activists are pressing for a change in the law to help prevent such attacks.

Thanks to a struggle in the highest court in the land by another acid attack victim - Naila Farhat - campaigners are hopeful that this devastating form of violence can be curtailed. Pakistan is a conservative Muslim country, where women - especially in poor, rural areas - can be treated like commodities with little protection provided by the police and under pressure not to disgrace their families.

"Their families will say 'it's the wrong thing to go to the courts, what will society think about you?'" said Sana Masood, the legal coordinator with Pakistan's Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF). The nation remains without a domestic violence law. It has been drafted, but lawmakers say it is still under debate because a senator from a hardline Islamic party raised objections and sent the bill back to parliament.

Acid attacks are rising, with ASF recording 48 cases in 2009 and Masood says countless more probably go unreported because of social stigma. That is up from about 30 cases in 2007, a rise that Masood says could be blamed on increased stress in people's lives as the country's economy deteriorates.

Farhat was just 13 years old when a man threw acid in her face in 2003 because her parents refused to let him marry her. The attacker was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay 1.2 million rupees (£8,882) in damages, but on appeal a high court reduced the damages and said the man could go free once the money was paid.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry took a personal interest in the case, and recommended that the government pass new legislation to control the sale of acid and increase punishment for acid attacks.

"Because of easy accessibility of acid to the general public, for very stupid domestic issues they will just throw acid on each other," she said. "It does not only destroy a person's face but it destroys a person's life." He would also like the introduction of a law requiring the attacker to pay for their victim's painful and expensive treatment and counselling.

We hope to come with many other tragic incidents acid attack in Pakistan in another article.

Islamic Barbarism: Disfiguring Women by Acid Attack

Women are sexual slaves of men in Islam. So when women refuse to follow that holy order by refusing sexual advances or marriage proposal etc. by Muslim men, the latter engage in acid attacks to disfigure the women in order to make them aware of their place in Muslim society...

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One would be shocked to know that Dina el-Gowhary, a tender Egyptian girl of 15, has fallen victim to acid attack by Islamic fanatics. Her offence is: she was born to a father, who deserted Islam and embraced Christianity 35 years ago (Islamic Barbarism in Action: Acid Attack on Muslim Egyptian Girl for Converting to Christianity).

Wikipedia describe the phenomenon of acid attacks as thus:

“Acid throwing (acid attack or vitriolage) is a form of violent assault. Perpetrators of these attacks throw acid at their victims (usually at their faces), burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. The consequences of these attacks include blindness and permanent scarring of the face and body. These attacks are most common in Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Asian countries. Nearly 80% of victims of these acid attacks are females and almost 40% are under 18 years of age.”

It adds: “There is a high survival rate amongst victims of acid attacks. Consequently the victim is faced with physical challenges, which require long term surgical treatment, as well as psychological challenges, which require in-depth intervention from psychologists and counsellors at each stage of physical recovery. Depression and anxiety are common amongst all patients with large burn injuries; however for victims with acid injuries the physical scarring can lead to feelings of shame and embarrassment, resulting in the survivor living a life in hiding due to fear of prejudice and stigma from their peers and the community. Many survivors continue to have vivid memories of the incident which cause great levels of distress, especially when they know their attackers are free to attack again.”

In South Asia, acid attacks have been used as a form of revenge for refusal of sexual advances, proposals of marriage and demands for dowry. Scholars Taru Bahl and M. H. Syed say that disputes over land and properties are another leading cause. In Bangladesh, where such attacks are relatively common, they are mostly a form of domestic violence.

Fewer cases of acid attack also occurs amongst Hindus in India to enforce the caste system in India, where upper caste individuals often attack Dalits for supposedly violating the order, while in Cambodia, wives are reported to attacks their husbands' lovers with acid. According to the New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof, “Acid attacks are at an all time high in Pakistan and increasing every year. The attacks are typically the work of men against their wives who have dishonored them." In India, the number of acid attacks have been rising. There had been 68 reported acid attacks in the state of Karnataka since 1999.

According to a Rand Corporation (a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company) commentary, hundreds of women in Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan have became blind or maimed "when acid was thrown on their unveiled faces by male fanatics who considered them improperly dressed." Attacks or threats of attacks on women who failed to wear hijab or were otherwise "immodestly dressed" have been reported in other countries as well. In Afghanistan, in November 2008, extremists also targeted schoolgirls for attending school. It is to be noted that during the Taliban's rule, girls in the country were banned from attending school.

The chemical agents most commonly used to commit these attacks are hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid. According to Mridula Bandyopadhyay and Mahmuda Rahman Khan, who are fighting to end this menace, it is a form of violence primarily targeted at women.

Dina el-Gowhary with father Maher el-Gowhary

As per the attack on Dina el-Gowhary is concerned, her father was a Muslim, but nearly 35 years ago, he left Islam and embraced Christianity. According to Egyptian law, apostasy or leaving Islam is a crime that calls for death sentence. Several Fatwas were issued calling for the spilling of his blood, which put his own life and of his family members in constant danger. In February, this year (2010), when Dina ventured out from their hiding place in Alexandria with her father to buy some bottled water, acid was thrown upon her, which set her jacket instantly on fire. “My father quickly took my jacket off before the fire could reach my arms. After this incident, I am terrorized to go out to the street, with or without my father,” said Dina.

Dina wrote a letter to the Egyptian President Mubarak seeking his intervention to save her life and the life of her father and allow them to leave Egypt. “She had previously written to President Obama, who got her message and responded to it. It was reported that the el-Gowharys met with the US Committee on International Religious Freedom on their last visit to Egypt in January, 2010, and they have asked for asylum in the US”, writes Mary Abdelmassih. But she is not confident whether she will get a similar treatment from President Mubarak. “Will he listen to us and lend us a helping hand?” asks Dina.

In her letter to Obama, Dina narrated her another encounter with Muslim fanatics. She wrote: “I was threatened many times before. Once while I was coming back from my school, a bearded young man stepped out of a car, lifted me through my clothes from the ground and warned me that if my father and myself do not go back to Islam, both of us will be killed.”

The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were, however, told that the order came from a higher authority without disclosing which this authority was. “It is only due to the grace and protection of God, that we are still alive”, said Dina.

The Story of Kulsooma of Kashmir

On August 6, 2000, Kulsooma, a ninth-grade student from Srinagar, Kashmir, was going for tuition with her cousin Fauzia. On the way, 4 boys appeared from nowhere and threw a bottle of acid on Kulsooma’s face (Valley of Fear, The Statesman, June 2, 2005).

“These were the times when Kashmir was gripped by fear as the Lashkar-e-Jabbar, a lesser known militant group which, with the support of Kashmir’s only woman militant organization Dukhtaran-e-Millat was enforcing the Muslim dress code – veils, covered head and no cosmetics. Kashmiri women and girls were asked to quit studies and stay at home”, says Ms Suri. “An attempt to talibanise education in Kashmir was started in 1991-92, when the Allah Tigers and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat had issued diktats on the dress code. The Lashkar-e-Jabbar cadres had also thrown acid on Gazala and Rubia, the teachers of government schools, for not wearing veil and for wearing make-up. The incident took place at Rangers’ Stop near Khanyar in Srinagar”, adds the Statesman story.

Just after the attack, Kulsooma’s cry rent the air. She cried to onlookers to come to her rescue and take her to a hospital. But, in fear of the fanatics, nobody came forward to help her. Fauzia, her cousin, threw water on her face to alleviate the pain and took her to the Srinagar Hospital.

Nearly ten years after the tragedy, Kulsooma is still terrorized. She rarely speaks. She talks only with her mother and that too in monosyllables.

Story of Haseena Hussain

“Haseena Hussain was an attractive, upwardly mobile woman in Bangalore, India, with everything going in her favour. But it all changed in 1999, when she turned down her former boss' marriage proposal and he sought revenge by pouring two liters of concentrated hydrochloric acid over her body”, wrote Scott Carney in his article Acid Attacks on Women in India Prompt Protests.

“Hussain now works with the 'Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women' (CSAAAW) to fight the surge of acid violence against women. Since 1999, the group has documented 61 such attacks. In the most recent case, a 22-year-old mother of four children was doused with acid, and forced to drink a deadly concoction of a corrosive chemical and alcohol by her abusive husband in the city of Mysore”, adds Carney.

CSAAAW has had some success in persuading the courts and the police into taking acid attacks more seriously. In a recent ruling, the sentence of Hussain's attacker was increased from five years to 14. But even that measure of justice rings hollow to Hussain, who had burns over most of her body and lost her nose and eyesight.

In that ruling, the judge also demanded that the government set up a fund of about US$250,000 to cover the costs of reconstructive surgery that many of these women need. Survivors of the attacks say that the fund is only enough to care for two women, far short of the needs of the more than 60 survivors.

Even with excellent medical care, the best that most of these women can hope is survival. If not treated immediately, they can lose their eyesight and get into depression. Many commit suicide.

Acid violence seems to be almost unique to South Asia, with most incidents occurring in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Part of the reason is that acid is cheap and widely available. Many Indians use concentrated acid to sterilize their kitchens and bathrooms, as Americans would use bleach.

Perhaps the most dangerous thing about acid attacks is the fear that they create amongst target group, mainly beautiful young girl. With just a few rupees, anyone can buy a weapon that can ruin another person's life in just a few seconds. CSAAAW activists are currently demanding the government regulate the trading and use of acids.

ACID ATTACKS IN BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh, acid has emerged as the new weapon for disfiguring women. “Wives, daughters, girls are punished by having acid thrown on them, permanently disfiguring them. The government prohibits the sale of the corrosive liquids, but they are easily found on the market. The phenomenon is spreading. The victims now include children and adult males”, says a report, Acid is the new weapon for disfiguring women.

“Women in Bangladesh suffer marginalization. And the violence against them, at home and outside, continues to grow. Recently, a new weapon has been added: acid, which disfigures their faces and bodies”, the report adds.

Story of Parul and Nasima

Parul's husband, 30, disfigured her by throwing acid into her face in 2000, because her relatives failed to pay up the agreed dowry. The victim's mother had lodged a complaint with local police regarding the oppression and constant torture on her daughter by her husband and his kin a few months ago, but did not get justice. Even after the acid attack, her husband, the culprit, was not arrested.

Nasima has an 11-year-old mentally retarded daughter, who was raped. She accused the attackers two years ago, and since then she had been receiving continual threats. Then the acid attack took place. The attack left her torso and back devastated. She has now been forced not to press charges against her daughter's rapist, and withdraw her previous accusation.

Domestic and international awareness and pressure led the Bangladeshi Government to pass a strict law in 2002 against the practice of acid-throwing on of young women for economic reason, jealousy, or refusal of sexual advances. The new law saw a temporary reduction in such attack cases, but they are on the rise again.

There were 1,428 cases during 2002 to 2007; 116 cases from January to August 2007; and it rose to 125 in the same period this year (2008). Since 2002, there have been only 190 trials, in which 254 defendants have been sentenced: 11 to death, 89 to labor camps. Authorities are unable to say how many of those sentences have been carried out, or how many of the sentenced culprits are in prison.

Most recent victims have not only been young women, but also children, attacked out of vengeance against their parents, as well as men, attacked over land disputes and romantic rivalries.

“The only way to stop this horrendous crime against innocent girls is for ordinary people to realize that Islam is false, shot down the mosques and imprison the hate spewing mullahs, just as Ataturk did in Turkey and Reza Shah did in Iran, more than eighty years ago. But that would be the first step. The most important thing is to detoxify Muslims from Islam. Islam is the poison that is causing all these insanities”, says a social activist.