Afghan Family Attacked With Acid After Daughter's Refusal Of Marriage

Apparently it's not just women who are targets of acid attacks, men are also victimized, though not to the same extent. In the case of  an 18-year-old Afghan woman, Mumtaz, whose whole family including her father were burned by acid, she was the catalyst for the savage attack, and for the usual reason: rejection
Some local goon had his eyes set on Mumtaz, but her parents trying to protect their daughter from marrying someone they believed was irresponsible.

With her parents support, she turned him down and instead got engaged to a relative.


A few weeks later, six or seven armed men burst into their home in the Bulk Awal area of the northern Kunduz city − the largest in the region − in the middle of the night.


“First they beat her father and then they attacked with acid,” said Mumtaz’s mother, who asked not to be identified.


All five are now receiving medical treatment, said Abdul Shokor Rahimi, head of the Kunduz regional hospital.


“The father and oldest daughter are in critical condition as they have been attacked all over the body,” Rahimi said.


“Their mother and two daughters who are 14 and 13 have some wounds only in hands and faces.”

“..started an investigation and those who have attacked them will be prosecuted."

Acid is the weapon of choice in Afghanistan, especially in regions where the Taliban still has a strong influence, as a punishment for women who refuse marriage proposals and as a means of frightening young school girls into staying at home in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  But it's not just Afghanistan where spurned lovers and others have used acid to get back at women, it also happens in Iran, Cambodia, in fact, all over the world.

Although the predominance of attacks are against women,  like Mumtaz's father, they're not the only ones who have been horribly disfigured by acid.

In January, veteran Afghan journalist Abdul Razaq Mamon, a presenter, commentator and author, was left with burns to his hands and face after acid was thrown at him in Kabul.  Officials said that attack may have been politically motivated.

Only a savage would throw acid on another human being, knowing that the victim will remain disfigured and in excruciating  pain for the rest of their lives.