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Americans and Spaniards help Acid Burn Victims from Bangla Desh
READ AND CRY FOR THESE GIRLS
By Connie Chung ABCNEWS.com
Nov. 1 ? When I first began researching this story, I had heard about barbaric acts of violence against women the third world, but I had no idea that hundreds of young women in Bangladesh were being attacked with sulfuric acid simply because they dared to say no to men.
Acid throwing has been called the barbaric crime of the century. Experts say three to five women a week are
being burned with acid in Bangladesh, and the numbers are increasing at an alarming rate.
"In 1996 there were perhaps 50 cases. There were 100 cases a year after. And 200 cases last year. So it
appears to be doubling? And therefore there?s a need for urgent action," says John Morrison,
executive director of the newly formed Acid Survivors? Foundation.
Many of the victims are teenagers from very poor families. Often, they are attacked with acid because they
reject a young man?s advances or refuse a marriage proposal. It?s as if the men are saying: "If I can?t have her, no
one will." By throwing acid, the men not only destroy a woman?s face but her chances of getting married. Acid
victims are viewed as pariahs; usually they are even blamed for causing the attack. Sulfuric acid literally melts away skin and muscle ? often down to the bone. All the victims are scarred for life.
Many of them are blinded and lose their hearing. Some of them die. In the early stages of my research, I saw a portrait of one victim that was truly extraordinary. It showed a woman?s head completely covered by a veil, except for one eye staring out. (It was taken by Shafiqul Kiron , whose photographs of acid victims won the World Press
Club Award for People in the News this year.) The woman behind the veil was a 17-year-old named
Bina Akhter, and the more I learned about her, the more I realized that we had to tell this story through her eyes.
Bina is one of those rare people you meet who is really larger than life. She has been terribly injured, yet she has
incredible courage and spirit. And she?s already making a difference in how her country views acid victims, and how they view themselves. Ironically, Bina was one of the first acid survivors to take off her veil. Most of the victims are too ashamed to show their faces, so they hide behind closed doors and curtained windows. But Bina was different. This teenager has been inspiring other victims to step out of the shadows. For the first time in Bangladesh, a girl burned by acid was demanding justice. She was even marching in protests and speaking at rallies.
Just before we headed for Bangladesh, we learned that Bina was coming to America. An organization called
Healing the Children had arranged for Shriner?s Hospital in Cincinnati to donate surgery for two acid survivors. We timed our trip to arrive in Dhaka a few days before she flew to Cincinnati ? and then we flew back with her to America.
Bina?s Story When I first met Bina, she greeted me with a big smile and a hug. She?s so warm, you almost forget the scars on her face and her badly damaged left eye. She told me that she was once an accomplished sprinter, and that she even hoped to compete in the Olympics.
All her dreams were shattered in an instant on August 26, 1996. Bina says she was awakened when a local thug
called Dano broke into the house at 2:30 in the morning: "He was wearing a black mask. He lit a torch and that?s
what woke me up. I started screaming. He was about to pour something on my cousin and I knocked it out of his
hand. It fell on the floor. Then he picked it up and threw it at my face."
Medical Care Bina was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, which is the only public hospital in all of Bangladesh that has a burn unit. Her family couldn?t afford to pay for the extensive surgery she needed to repair her damaged face. (It would have cost more than $10,000.) She did have eight operations, but her uncle had to sell almost everything he owned to pay for medicine, bandages and blood.
When I visited the burn unit, all I could think of was just how fortunate we are in America.
The hospital has only eight beds for female patients ? not nearly enough to care for all the acid burn victims.
There is almost no modern equipment, few trained nurses, and even clean sheets are in short supply. The patients are all bathed in the same bathtub; their dressings are often changed by maids who clean the floor. The doctors can do only the most basic reconstructive surgery. A one-hour operation costs several hundred dollars in
a country where the average income is about $25 a month. Most victims need several operations, each of
which take four to five hours. The prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, told me she has just ordered a new 50-bed burn unit to be built within a year. But even then, doctors at the hospital say there isn?t enough money in the budget to purchase all the necessary equipment. For now, the only way seriously
burned patients can get the surgery they need is if someone pays to send them abroad.
Recently, a philanthropist who saw a report about acid violence donated funds to send six burned victims to
Spain for surgery. When I met one of those girls, 12-year-old Monira, I realized the difference that proper
medical care can make in the lives of these victims. After Monira was attacked, her face looked as if it had literally melted away.
When she returned from Spain after eight months of surgery, she was transformed. With a new glass eye, a
prosthetic ear and skin grafts on her neck and nose, she looked like a little girl again!
,b> Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, one of only eight plastic surgeons in this country of 127 million people, told me that?s not the answer.
"We cannot send all the girls to Spain, America, Australia or Italy. We must do the treatment here in Bangladesh," says Lal Sen. "And we have got the skill. If we get the facilities, we will be able to do this surgery here. We must stand on our own feet."
Bina?s Crusade
In 1997, Bina was invited to a workshop for acid survivors held by a women?s organization called Naripokkho. Soon she was working at Naripokkho, tracking cases of acid violence across the country. This teenager who was once too ashamed to show her face began counseling other victims, speaking at rallies and marching in protests.
Yet inside, Bina was still a frightened teenager. Her alleged attacker, a local thug called Dano, had never been caught. She told me she has seen him walking around openly, and that he continues to threaten her and her family with more violence if they don?t withdraw the case.
Activists say that?s not uncommon. They also say attackers often try to bribe police. The end result is that convictions are few and far between. The Acid Survivors? Foundation estimates that only one in 10 attackers goes to trial.
Overall Impressions
From the beginning, I wanted to confront these men who throw acid. I wanted to ask them how they could commit such a vicious crime. I was given that chance when I was offered a rare glimpse inside Dhaka Central Jail. My interview with three prisoners sentenced to life in prison for throwing acid was one of the most fascinating parts of my trip.
This was one of those stories I will never forget. The faces of the victims I met, the desperate conditions at the hospital, and the overwhelming poverty in Bangladesh are all images that will stay with me always. But what really made this story so memorable was Bina?s courage. She is only 17, yet she is an indomitable force.
As we got on the plane to come to America, she was grinning ear-to-ear. She knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance ? her only hope for a normal life. She would be treated by the best surgeons in America. Could they give her back what she had lost?
But even as she embarked on her journey, Bina was thinking about the other girls she was leaving behind.
"There are thousands of acid burn victims in Bangladesh. They have no money, and what they have they?ve already spent on treatments," Bina says. "I wish they get the opportunities I have. With proper care many of them could be restored to their normal life. I hope America will help."
We will continue to follow Bina and her medical progress as she undergoes surgery sometime next year.
ABCNEWS? Teri Whitcraft contributed to this report. |
