Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus commits suicide
After undergoing 39 times surgery for over 10 years to repair her face damaged by acid sprayed by her own husband, Fakhra Younus eventually committed suicide on March 17. Pakistan 33-year-old woman was jumped from the 6th floor of a building in Rome, Italy, where she underwent treatment.
Fakhra still working as a dancer in a prostitution area in Karachi, Pakistan, when met Bilal Khar, her husband is the son of former governor of Punjab province. Although they come from different backgrounds, Bilal Fakhra married. However, their marriage only lasted three years, because Fakhra not stand by her husband who often perform physical and verbal acts of domestic violence.
In May 2000, when Fakhra was sleeping in his mother’s house, suddenly Bilal came and poured acid to all over her body. Fakhra son aged 5 years (from her relationship with other man), witnessed the incident. The attack burning Fakhra hair, her lips glue because of melt, blinding one eye, damaging her left ear, and melted her breasts.
When rushed to the hospital, Fakhra said, “My face became a prison for me.” While a young son said, “This is not my mother!”
Acid attack attracted international attention. Fakhra then moved to Rome, Italy, to undergo intensive treatment. Italy bear the costs of care and Fakhra daily living expenses, even the children. Tehmina Durrani, the former wife of Ghulam Mustafa Khar (Bilal’s father), are the the person seek all these things. She later became a lawyer for Fakhra.
According to Durrani, injuries suffered by her step daughter is the worst she had ever seen of the many victims of the acid attacks.
“Sometimes we thought she would die at night, because her nose melted, causing it unable to breathe,” said Durrani, who wrote a book about her relationship with Bilal’s father who is also full of violence. “Usually we give a straw in her mouth that was left, because the others had melted and fused.”
Before the assault took place, life is always difficult for Fakhra. She became a mainstay of family income. On the other hand, Bilal grew up in a much different environment because of inherited wealth and power of the feudal elite in Pakistan.
But Bilal denies any such attacks. In a television interview following the Fakhra suicide, he said that there was another man with the same name, who have committed crimes. Bilal also said that Fakhra suicide because they do not have the money, not because of injury severity. Bilal then criticized the media for bothering with this issue.
“You should be more considerate of my situation. I have three daughters, and people mock them when they go to school,” he said.
Male dominance
Fakhra death comes less than a month after Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a Pakistani film maker, won an Oscar for the documentary film category with the theme victims of the acid attack. But according to Durrani, Fakhra worried she would be forgotten, because she didn’t appear in the film.
Fakhra case should be a reminder that the government of Pakistan needs to do more to prevent attacks hard water or any form of violence against women happening again.
“I think this country should be ashamed of, that a foreign country (Italy) took over responsibility for a citizen of Pakistan for 13 years, because we can not give him anything. No justice, nor security,” said Durrani.
Before the assault took place, life is always difficult for Fakhra. She became a mainstay of family income. On the other hand, Bilal grew up in a much different environment because of inherited wealth and power of the feudal elite in Pakistan.
But Bilal denies any such attacks. In a television interview following the Fakhra suicide, he said that there was another man with the same name, who have committed crimes. Bilal also said that Fakhra suicide because they do not have the money, not because of injury severity. Bilal then criticized the media for bothering with this issue.
“You should be more considerate of my situation. I have three daughters, and people mock them when they go to school,” he said.
Fakhra stories also highlight the persecution suffered by many women in the conservative country, and embrace a culture that dominated by men. In addition, as a reminder that people with wealth and power in Pakistan often frees people from the punishment. Evidently, Bilal Khar was eventually released, though many people believe that he used his connections with the ruling parties to break free from the law.
During the year 2011, reported cases of forced marriages, more than 8,500 cases of attacks with acid, and other forms of violence against women in Pakistan, according to The Aurat Foundation, an organization of women’s rights.
Fakhra decided to end her life feeling hopeless, the Pakistan government just remain silent regarding various cases of persecution.
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