Acid attack

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An acid attack is an attack on people or things with acids or other caustic substances.

Attacks on people

Victim of an acid attack

Acid attacks against people involve serious bodily harm in which acid is poured onto the victim's body, usually in the face. The chemical burns produce extensive scarring, often blindness and often lead to death if there is insufficient medical care. Surviving victims can suffer from pain and disfigurement for life. Depression and increased suicidality have been statistically proven.

Occurrence

Worldwide

There are no clear figures on the spread of acid attacks. There are figures of 1,500 cases annually, but the estimated number of unreported cases is much higher. Most of the victims are female and the perpetrators are mostly male, but this crime is also committed by women. Aid organizations and self-help associations speak of gender-based violence, of violence against women in traditionally patriarchal structures with few rights for women.

South asia

This crime is more common in misogynous societies, especially in the Muslim communities of South Asia . It is most common among the Muslim populations of India and Pakistan, as well as in Bangladesh . There it is a form of "punishment" for women who make up over 80% of the victims. The perpetrators are often offended, (abandoned) husbands, fiancés / friends or ex-partners who are injured in their vanity and who do not necessarily kill the woman, but rather disfigure them, brand them for life, make them unattractive to others and want to take her face away.

However, according to the Acid Survivors Foundation founded by Monira Rahman , the most common cause in around 50% of the documented cases is a material one: disputes over money and property. Other motives include jealousy , marital disputes, sexual rejection by the woman, disputes among families, an “inadequate” dowry .

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the acid attack has been punishable by death as a crime with the introduction of the Acid Crime Control Act since 2002. However, charges rarely arise because the victims shy away from reporting, the perpetrators go into hiding or are covered in family disputes. The number of known assassinations was around 80 in 1997 and 487 in 2002. Since then, the number of cases has fallen continuously to 69 in 2013. According to a study by the United Nations in 2003, nowhere in the world were crimes against women more common than in Bangladesh.

Pakistan

It is estimated that 8,500 acid attacks take place in Pakistan every year. The life of Fahkra Yonous, who accused her husband Bilal Khar, a member of an influential political dynasty, of dousing her with acid while she was sleeping, sparked social debates about women's rights. Yonous committed suicide in 2012, 13 years after her attempted murder. At the time, no one was convicted and her face continued to be destroyed, despite numerous operations abroad.

South America

"La Vitrioleuse" by Eugène Grasset , 1894

In Colombia , according to the Colombian Institute for Forensic Medicine, 80 acid attacks were publicized in 2012, 25 more than in 2010. Many perpetrators were charged with assault, but convictions were rare. Either evidence was missing or the act was already statute-barred. The Internet portal Feminicidio.net considered Colombia to be the country with the most attacks, measured by the number of inhabitants. In July 2013, a law came into force punishing such crimes with up to 20 years in prison.

Europe

While acid attacks were known in Europe from the Middle Ages until well into the 19th century, this form of violence almost disappeared in the 20th century and was, if at all, practiced by mentally disturbed perpetrators or political fanatics.

Great Britain

For example, Britain has seen an increase in acid attacks since the turn of the millennium. London alone has recorded more than 1,800 acid attacks since 2010, the number of cases rose from 261 in 2015 to 454 in 2016, and such attacks now occur every day. Great Britain is by far the hardest hit industrial nation. The attack on Katie Piper in 2005 generated a lot of media and public interest. The client of the act and his henchman who injected the sulfuric acid were sentenced to two times life and life imprisonment. After more than 100 operations and a largely restored face, Piper can go back to a job in the media industry.

Germany

In Germany, the case of Vanessa Münstermann became known in 2016, who was showered with sulfuric acid by her ex-boyfriend Daniel F. and suffered life-threatening injuries. She founded the association EXCELLENT to help victims and to work politically. In 2018, the court awarded her a compensation for pain and suffering of 250,000 euros. She described her life before and after the acid attack in an autobiography.

Known victims

(in alphabetical order by last name)

documentation

The US-Pakistani documentary Saving Face presents the fate of some women seriously injured by their husbands and their relatives. The efforts of the London plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammed Jawad was shown to help women who have been disfigured by burns or chemical burns back to life by reconstructing their faces. The film, inspired by the sensational case of Fahkra Yonou, won an Oscar for best short documentary.

Damage to works of art

Damage to property with acid in works of fine art such as B. Oil paintings , sculptures or sculptures are committed. Here, the motivation to act can often be traced back to a psychological disorder , a religious fundamentalist attitude (see also iconoclasm ) or political extremism . Acid damage to works of art as a mere form of protest is rather rare. The destruction of works of art out of a desire for recognition is known as herostratism . The most famous case in Germany was Hans-Joachim Bohlmann , who damaged over 50 works of art.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Rabindra Nath Karmakar: Forensic Medicine and Toxicology . Academic Publishers, Kolkata (Calcutta) 2006, ISBN 81-87504-69-2 .
  2. ↑ http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/03/losing-and-saving-face
  3. ↑ Mridula Bandyopadhyay, Mahmuda Rahman Khan: Loss of face: violence against women in South Asia . In: Lenore Manderson, Linda Rae Bennett (Eds.): Violence Against Women in Asian Societies . Routledge Shorton, London 2003, ISBN 0-7007-1742-0 .
  4. ↑ Statistics - Motivation of acid attack - 2006. Acid Survivors Foundation, 2007, archived from the original on December 17, 2007 ; accessed on December 26, 2014 (English).
  5. ↑ Statistics - Motivation of acid attack - 2013. Acid Survivors Foundation, 2014, accessed on December 26, 2014 (English).
  6. ↑ Statistics - Acid Attack Statistics (1999-2013). Acid Survivors Foundation, 2014, accessed December 26, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Uchatius : In the cycle of a thousand sewing machines , Die Zeit 02/2003
  8. ↑ spiegel.de: Acid attacks in Colombia: cowardly revenge of offended men
  9. ^ Sharp rise in attacks involving corrosive fluids in London . In: BBC News . March 20, 2017 ( bbc.com [accessed July 24, 2017]).
  10. ↑ http://www.ok-magazin.de/saeureopfer-katie-piper-nach-110-ops-kaum-wiederzuerkennen-313u18.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ok-magazin.de
  11. ↑ Andrea Maestro: The value of their suffering . In: The daily newspaper: taz . August 17, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 25 ePaper 21 North ( taz.de [accessed on August 17, 2018]).
  12. ^ Acid victim Vanessa Münstermann shows face ( memento from February 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), t-online from February 15, 2017
  13. ↑ The court speaks “acid sacrifice” 250,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering to welt.de on October 2, 2018
  14. ↑ “I don't want to hide” spiegel.de from February 18, 2019
  15. ↑ Sarah Nägele, Sonja Gillert: India: A man burned her face - now she is a model. In: welt.de . January 16, 2016, accessed October 7, 2018 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Acid attack  - explanations of meanings, word origin, synonyms, translations