A Bangladeshi woman has been forced to remarry her husband of 18 years after the man’s mother insisted she sign an affidavit that would ensure his release from prison. He was imprisoned after dousing the 36 year old woman with acid.
The dousing is said to have left her badly disfigured and blind and occurred 8 days after she sought a divorce from her husband pursuant to him cheating on her.
Upon dousing the woman, who goes by the name of Nurbanu, the husband went into hiding where he was eventually caught ten months later and jailed for one year.
Since being forced to remarry her husband for the sake of her sons, the husband has resumed being abusive to the wife.
Said the wife: ‘People would think a husband would take care of a blind wife. But this doesn’t happen.’
She also said her spouse continues to beat and threaten her, adding: ‘This is how my days go by.’
According to a report via the huffingtonpost thousands of women a year suffer the same horrid fate as Nurbanu, a consequence of a prevailing attitude that views women as ‘commodities.’ What makes the attacks even more horrifying is the pervasive attitude that men ‘believe they are justified in disfiguring such women and violating their rights.’
Although there are less incidents of acid dousing in the community, down from 500 such attacks in 2002 to 111 in 2011, Monira Rahman, CEO of the Acid Survivor’s Foundation (ASF) in Bangladesh believes there is much work to be done still to put a complete end to such practices.
Writes Rahman for huffpo: ‘Only by empowering women and ensuring equality we will have a society which has zero tolerance for violence against women.’
Ms Rahman goes on to note that along with visible scars as a consequence of acid attacks, victims endure psychological trauma and, in many cases, social isolation and ostracism.
And then there was this comment by a reader at huffpo that caught my attention as well:
Lots of commenters associating violence against women with poverty/third world/Islam, but bear in mind that one women every week in this country is killed by her partner or ex partner. It is so routine that most of the time it doesn’t even make the news. Domestic violence is not associated with any particular race, religion or colour.
sick! men are f’krs… and low life pieces of shit! he needs acid in his face and on his genitals!!! this is worth going to war for~!~ eliminate this religion & these men
This is disgraceful. No society should tolerate this abuse.