Fighting Acid Attacks in Pakistan

Naila Farhat was 13 when she became the victim of a heinous crime -- an acid attack. Her schoolteacher wanted her to marry his friend. She and her family had made the “mistake” of saying they did not want her to get married so early.

"I was coming back from school that day,” Naila remembers. “My schoolteacher and his friend crossed my path and asked me to go along with them. When I refused my teacher held me tight and his friend threw acid in my face."

Naila’s attacker was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay 10,000 euros in damages. However, he appealed to the High Court, which reduced the sentence saying the man could go free after paying a reduced amount of money.

Naila then appealed to the Supreme Court that overturned the High Court’s decision within minutes and the attacker was jailed again.

However, Naila is still not entirely satisfied. "I am grateful to God that I got justice,” she says, “but I am not happy that my teacher who was equally responsible for the crime was not punished. I hope he is also punished for his crime."

Two-thirds of attacked women do not file complaints

Not all women in Pakistan are like Naila, who fought for six years to punish her attackers. Sana Masood, the legal coordinator of the Acid Survivors Foundation in Islamabad says that around 68 percent of attacked women do not file a complaint.

In Pakistan, especially in conservative and poor rural areas, many men treat women as commodities. Women have little protection from the police and are under pressure not to disgrace their families.

"The main problem is the social stigma attached to going to a police station and to a court,” explains Masood because in our society a lot of people think that going to the court is not a classy thing."

Sale of acid has to be regulated

A draft law on domestic violence is currently being debated in the Pakistani parliament but

Masood says other measures are also necessary to curb the rise in acid attacks.

"What we need to do is to regulate the sale and purchase of acid that should not be easily accessible to the general public."

Industrial strength acid usually used in cotton processing is often used in such attacks because it is so cheap and anyone can buy it for just a few cents.

Naila, too, is from the cotton industry belt in Punjab province where these chemicals are easily available. There are many others who have been attacked but Naila is an example of somebody who has shown how women can appeal to the courts and get justice.

Campaigners say the case has raised a lot of awareness among all Pakistanis, compelling the government to think about giving proper legal support to the victims of acid attacks.

Author: Debarati Mukherjee
Editor: Thomas Bärthlein