Acid attack victim suicides (Pakistan)

[DocM]

ABC Neews....

Acid Attack Victim Fakhra Yunus Commits Suicide

A woman who became the disfigured face of the shunned and forgotten women of Pakistan committed suicide, jumping from her sixth floor apartment window in Italy last week.

Fakhra Yunus was only 22 when her husband of three years, Bilal Khar, a member of Pakistan's politically elite Khar family, allegedly threw acid on her face while she slept, the Asian Correspondent reported.

When Yunus and Khar met, she had been working as a prostitute, and the two soon married in 1998.

But almost immediately, Khar began abusing her, and Yunus suffered at his hands for nearly three years before she ran away, according to reports. Khar soon allegedly located and attacked her in 2000, but he has not been arrested and maintains his innocence.

The Washington Post noted that Yunus became the face of violence against women in the country after Pakistani activist Tehmina Durrani, author of "My Feudal Lord," helped Yunus escape to Rome and get treatment for her disfigurement. Durrani is known to speak out against the injustices women face in Muslim society. Over the years, Yunus underwent 38 facial reconstructive and plastic surgeries after the attack.

Durrani wrote of Yunus in The News Daily, "I have met many acid victims. Never have I seen one as completely disfigured as Fakhra. She had not just become faceless; her body had also melted to the bone. Despite her stark and hopeless condition, the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was not in the least God-fearing. She was provided nothing...but disdain...and trashed."

Acid attacks are prevalent in certain parts of Asia. According to the New York Times' Nicholas D. Kristof, who reported in 2008 that attacks were then at an all-time high in Pakistan, they are often the work of husbands who attack their wives as a form of revenge for refusing sexual advances or other proposals.

More than 7,000 deliberate burning attacks against women were recorded by the Progressive Women's Association of Pakistan in just two Pakistani towns between 1994 and 2008, according to Kristof's report. Only 2 percent of those cases were successfully prosecuted, he said.

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[ybrett23]

thats wrong in so many ways, :crazy:

[Elliot B.]

I don't blame her :x

[Solid Knight]

Some places are just too messed up for words.

[Growled Member]

Poor lady. What an awful life that must have been.

[TheElite]

This is a big problem in that part of the world. It only happens with the ignorant but looks like even 'elite' people are now doing it.

But what does the article mean by "allegedly threw acid on her face"? Was this not confirmed?

EDIT: It looks like she was living her life like this:

Far better than the above photo would lead one to believe.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

There's too much suffering in this world, too many people live their lives in misery and pain. It's depressing to think about.

[articuno1au]

Some places people are just too messed up for words.

There are people like this everywhere.

Not to defend Pakistan, but it's not just them :\

[jerzdawg]

There are people like this everywhere.

Not to defend Pakistan, but it's not just them :\

Agreed but I am sure they were referring to this part of the article

"Acid attacks are prevalent in certain parts of Asia. According to the New York Times' Nicholas D. Kristof, who reported in 2008 that attacks were then at an all-time high in Pakistan, they are often the work of husbands who attack their wives as a form of revenge for refusing sexual advances or other proposals.

More than 7,000 deliberate burning attacks against women were recorded by the Progressive Women's Association of Pakistan in just two Pakistani towns between 1994 and 2008, according to Kristof's report. Only 2 percent of those cases were successfully prosecuted, he said."