Proceedings of the 19th International Academic Conference, Florence

ACID ATTACKS ON RISE IN PAKISTAN: SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT AND CONSEQUENCES

SONIA OMER

Abstract:

Women all over the world have been striving hard for their rights since long. In today’s modern world, the status of women doesn't yet depict a very positive picture, specifically in under-developed countries like Pakistan. Here gender discrimination is a serious concern and unfortunately with each passing day, despite of some efforts from government and non-governmental organizations, women in Pakistan are still deprived of their basic human rights. The incidents of acid throwing’s in the name of honor, not only bringing depraved and bad name for a country globally but it shows the existence of barbarism in a country where weak social values and poor legal system has added troubles for women. The current study has been conducted on one of the very serious issue that is acid throwing on women in Pakistan. The study has highlighted the issue in terms of knowing the actual causes behind these brutal acts specifically it has focused on social and psychological impacts on the respondent after this incident. Eight in-depth interviews have been conducted by using case study method with the help of purposive sampling method in this qualitative study. The study found poverty, drug addiction, gender discrimination, illiteracy and old traditions and values that are harmful to society as one of the common factor behind all the cases. The attempt of acid throwing were made by the near relatives of the respondents, mostly in the state of drug addiction .Honor killing was one of the prime finding of the study where women had been dragged to near death. The misinterpretation of the Islamic religious teachings related to women was also found in most of the cases. Serious depression and post incident trauma was reported as an outcome of the attacks by husband and families.

Keywords: acid attacks,gender discrimination,socio-psychological impacts.

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.019.102

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