Time Asia recently published a horrifying account of a young Pakistani woman who left her husband and was subjected to an apparently all too common punishment — her husband doused her upper body in acid, severely disfiguring her.
Writer Hannah Bloch describes how Fakhra Yunas rose from rather humble beginnings to marry the son of a wealthy politician. But after several years of unhappy marriage in which she claims he regularly beat her, she left him to live with her mother.
In April, while Fakhra was napping at her motheouse, her husband entered the house, pushed her mple, Bloch reports that “the acid burned the hair off Fakhra’s head, fused her lips, blinded one eye, obliterated her left ear and melted her breasts.”
As with Honor Killings in some countries, such acid attacks are apparently rarely prosecuted. In fact, when Fakhra tried to obtain a passport to travel outside Pakistan for reconstructive surgery, she was initially refused on grounds that the story might harm Pakistan’s reputation abroad. And, so far, Fakhra’s husband has faced no punishment for his actions.
Source:
The evil that men do. Hannah Bloch, Time Asia, August 20-27, 2001.